Filter Minder Install

That sounds an awful lot like baseless rhetoric. I get that you don't agree with the "idea" of it, but why are you shitting on it? What is your personal vendetta towards this $15 product?

 

It's still two clips to pull it out and look at it.

 

Calm down buddy. No one asked you to be an apologist for anything. You're stating your opinions, I'm stating mine.

Like I said, if this helps you do the proper amount of maintenance on your truck, so be it. I've just seen enough trucks with so many gauges and widgets on their dash it looks like a damn 747 cockpit, and unless you have a preflight checklist for all those gauges, it's probably not as useful as people think it is (like oil lab tests).

Sometimes simpler is better.

 

I'm not stating any opinions, but you are stating yours.

Change your oil at 3k miles and change your air filter every 10k. It makes no difference to me. Just don't bash something different just because you simply "don't like it." Comparing a single vacuum measurement tool with a 747 cockpit is not even something worth acknowledging.

 

That's not at all what I was comparing. I was saying that I've seen people with a whole bunch of these types of gauges and it becomes distracting, and any usefulness of the individual components become diminished - information overload.

Yes, I am of the *opinion* that these things have a limited usefulness aren't aren't a magic bullet for "perfect" maintenance. (not) sorry you take offense to that.

I'm not going to apologize for, or stop stating my opinions because I happen to disagree with your *opinion* on the usefulness of the device. I'm sure you've never stated an opposing opinion.

 

I'm not taking offense to anything, I am merely confused as to why everyone wants to vilify a simple vacuum measuring device.

Not sure how many times I need to reiterate that I have not stated any opinions in this thread. Being "sure" that I've never stated an opinion has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.
The problem with YOUR opinion is just that; it contains no facts or basis for argument, you haven't done any outside research to reinforce your claims because you know that any semblance of scientific testing on air filter particulate filtering and silicate levels in engine oil will refute them. You and many others on this thread have done nothing but blow a bunch of hot air to shit talk something for literally no reason or for reasons easily refutable. It's truly baffling.

If information overload is how you feel (which again, not sure how adding ONE component creates this sort of logical connection as a basis for your argument), then why aren't you trolling every thread that involves a scan gauge? Do you simply pick and choose what you dislike without any principled consistency?

 

An opinion does not require peer reviewed scientific studies to be valid. My opinion is based on personal experience (the basis of my argument). I've never claimed it to be anything else.

 

Thread revival time! I actually took a photo of another naturally aspirated engine that came factory with one of these filter minders. It was a Chevy Silverado for Pete’s sake. Anyway I chose not to stir the pot then because this thread had gotten into some weird shit slinging fest located in some distant worm hole of our galaxy, and decided to stay out of it.
The point is, after doing some more research, this filter minder works on anything that has an air filter, dammit! Atmospheric pressure pushes air through your air filter, no matter what type of engine you have, N/A, supercharged, or turbocharged. It doesn’t matter at the air filter. If your air filter is restricted enough, this gauge will show you the difference between atmospheric pressure and the pressure just behind the air filter.

Ok, with all of that out of my system, I’ll get to why I chose to stir the pot once more today.

Yesterday I finally finished up my supercharger install on my truck. I added this filter minder during the install. After a good test drive, I popped the hood and noticed right away that my filter minder was in the red.... New supercharger, new NAPA Gold air filter. I reset it and went for another test drive, no wot on this one, just normal driving, it read half way. Went for another test drive at full boost, and sure enough, this filter minder is telling me that my brand new filter is restricted. With that in mind, I walked to my dad’s truck and borrowed his filter minder, (99 Ford F-250 7.3L), same results with a different filter minder. I’m honestly in shock right now and I immediately started thinking of why this would be. I’ve not come to a conclusion as of right now. I do have a snorkel on my truck and everything, and I’m going to check for any other restrictions today. I’m really suspicious of the NAPA gold filter though, I’ve always ran these filters in this truck. It’s not a paper media filter, it looks more like a paper/fiber combination of some sort. Anyway, I’ll keep you guys posted on what I find out.

 

Update, I did a quick test to see if it was the filter causing my restriction, or the snorkel. The quickest thing that I could think of was to open the air box lid, leave the filter in, and test drive it. I did, and the filter minder didn’t budge. So, this leads me to believe that my restriction is in the snorkel, which seems moronic, especially if there is nothing physically stopping it up. I did read on the NAPA website that the gold filter uses 30 percent more filtering media than their other filters. It maybe a combination of both actually.

Op- did you ever get your snorkel installed, and test it?

 

Ok, I’m at the point where I say screw everything and go to the liquor store! I work on heavy equipment, road tractors, anything under the sun, and they all have this device mounted somewhere. It is a cool little inexpensive device that could be a conversion starter, but I’m not too proud to say that I was wrong.
In my case, on my truck, I’m dead wrong about this device. I’ve (just today) changed my opinion on this device. If it was manufactured with it in place, and tested, that’s one thing. Otherwise you’re just throwing a monkey wrench into a perfectly fine rotating transmission.
Ok, for those of you who have been following my weekend battle with this filter minder, I’ll reveal my results. I went to NAPA this morning and swapped out the Napa gold filter for a pro select filter. Drove the truck one mile, with one hard acceleration, and ended up with the same results. Filter minder in the red. I then ordered a K&n filter and left NAPA, waiting on the filter to arrive tomorrow. The wheels kept turning in my head thinking about when I drove the truck with the air box open and the filter in place, with no movement to the filter minder. I then decided to fuck it all, and remove the air filter all together and close the box back up and do one hard acceleration and see what happens....(after making sure everything was clean in the intake tract).
Guess what, the filter minder was in the red...without a filter in the system at all. The restriction is in the factory air box or safari snorkel set up. I’ve noticed people saying something about the deck plate mod, and I’ve never paid any attention to it because I’ve never really been interested in performance out of my truck, I view it as a piece of equipment, not a race car. Anyway I emailed arb about what I found, and see what they say. I’ve not decided on keeping the filter minder on my truck for now or just removing it. I could still develop a test to check filter restriction, at a lower wot rpm, and then check the filter minder. I’ve already proven that with a supercharger, snorkel, and no filter, the filter minder is going to read in the red at the engine redline. Period.

 

Total waste of time, money and drilling a hole in perfectly working truck. Heavy machinery (same as aircraft engines) work 90% of time at constant load/throttle setting. So it is possible to get sorta accurate measurements on intake pressure. Tune the simple vacuum measure device in it and you have very nice instrument.

For normal road cars (no racetrack cars) the vacuum in the intake depends on the type of driving you do. Towing will be different from rolling. With my driving style where the engine hardly ever sees anything above 3k rpm and never had pedal to the metal, that device would not show me anything even if I replaced a filter with a cardboard (over exaggerating here). That is the same usefulness as tachometer on auto transmission - cool to look at, but nothing really you can use it for.

 

Hmm, I am not sure they make filter minders that will read higher levels of inch/h2o... I know the K&N brand has a lower threshold so I went with the original Filter Minder version that reads higher. I am not sure but I would guess that having forced induction may be playing a part, though most big rigs are set up with them, and they are also forced induction.
I am not sure why on earth your snorkel would be causing a restriction like that. It seems odd... maybe you got a defective minder? Have you tried swapping with a new part?

I have had mine for whenever I originally posted, and it reads at about 11 in/h2o already, I know I have done several WOT since resetting. It used to read 8 in/h2o after WOT on a brand new filter. So it's obviously working. But I am NA with zero mods to my airbox... so it could make a huge difference in its ability to read correctly.

I would start my visually checking for obstructions though, maybe some punk kid stuffed something in your snorkel?

 

BTW, my buddy @Dave41079 has a filter minder on his OEM TRD intake on his brand new T4R. It looks exactly like mine, but it says "TRD" on it.

It's the yellow thing:
Toyota part number

$571 PTR03-89100 Toyota Genuine Parts - TRD 4R Fj Air Intake (PTR03-89100)

PTR03-89100/PTR03-35090




https://****************/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/TRD_Cold_Air_Intake_5th_Gen_4Runner.jpg

https://****************/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/TRD_Cold_Air_Intake_5th_Gen_4Runner_Service_Filter.jpg

 

I know some folks would choose to do the "elbow mod" on their factory intake for butt-dyno gains, and it actually had a better effect than the deck plate mod, and that's just by removing a piece of 10" plastic tube from the inside of your fender well. My guess is that you remove the "bend" associated with intake flow and that helps increase the flow. Even just speaking scientifically, any extra length or extra bends involved to get air into the engine are going to reduce air flow, so it is quite possible that your snorkel is having an adverse effect. I would hope that something would simply be blocking your airflow somewhere inside the snorkel. I would remove the snorkel and re-test, or at the very least, check it for obstructions.

 

Thanks for the replies. I plan to remove the snorkel and check into it closer, but not today. I’ve screwed with it enough that I’m obviously kinda pissed, and I need a break from it for a day or so. I have played with it enough to see that at partial boost, it will move slightly, not even halfway. At 5500 rpm, it pulls the minder all the way in every time, no matter what. Truck actually runs great! To answer someone else’s question, yes I borrowed another filter minder off of my dad’s F-250 with the same results. I did blow shop air back through my air box intake, and could clearly feel the air coming out of my snorkel pointing to the front of the truck

 

A few pics will maybe make my frustrations more clear. I’m fairly peculiar when it comes to working on my truck. Just past 250k, what better way to celebrate than to add boost?? Haha

 

well yours is oriented differently than me and OP's install, but I really don't think that should make any difference...

 

I don’t think that will make any difference. In a given chamber, pressure is equal in all directions. If that’s a lie, you can blame my hydraulics instructor from college. Haha.