Tips/Angles/Viewpoints/Advice accepted here!

Hi,

New to the truck scene actually. I saw the Tacoma and well...I had to have it. Doesn't have 4x4, only std. 2WD vehicle. Everything is standard and I'm looking to improve performance. What are people's favorite websites out there? I have not seen any better pricing than on http://www.performanceproducts.com What do you guys think of this site. Have you checked out the 20% off a single product special they have. Damn. Anyhow, have a few questions/inquiries b/c I will most likely make a few purchases tomorrow.

1) #1 recommended Cold Air-Intake by the forum - was going to go w/K&N #77 or 63?? How about AFE? Heard TRD was good also.

2) #1 rec. Exhaust. Can't decide between Borla/Magnaflow/Flowmaster/TRD. Heard good things on all 3 but Borla states their the industry leader. I'm looking for a good sound, but nothing obnoxious and nothing too too loud in the cabin. Steady low hum maybe but nothing loud, esp in cabin.

3) Whats everyone found with Throttle body replacement?

Guess that's it for now. Thanks guys and glad to be connected!

Thx,
Matt

 

Give some other folks a chance to respond as I am sure that they have a little more first hand experience than I do, but here are my observations about two out of three of your questions.

1. Intake. As near as I can tell all of the K&N kits are NOT completely sealed, so they suck hot air from the engine bay.

If you are dead set on the look of a CAI I would go with either the TRD or the AFE (btw they are the exact same product, AFE makes them for TRD), so if you don't care about the lid of the airbox saying TRD you can save some serious money by just buying the AFE version. Check this thread http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/2816-k-n-air-filter-prerunner-v6.html#post22552 and this link http://www.afefilters.com/gendesc.php?partno=54-81162 for more information.

That said, it really doesn't seem as though the stock air box is that restrictive, so you may want to save your money and check into 007tacoma's write up of the secondary airfilter removal here http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/performance-tuning/2012-diy-secondary-air-filter-removal.html, and then just go with a high-flow drop-in which are covered in the previous thread I linked about the AFE intake.

2. As far as exhaust. I compiled a series of links to sound clips of various exhausts on the v6. They will sound somewhat different on your I4, but it will give you some kind of idea of what they sound like. You can find that here http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/performance-tuning/2268-muffler-poll-2.html#post22556. For my money, I am going to go with the TRD exhaust, I just like that sound best.

As for the throttle body, I have not researched that one, so I can't help you there, but I hope I was atleast of some help to you.

 

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like the AFE is pretty good and Iget this sense of it being dry vs. the K&N which is more wet? Oil issue? Someone told me that the oils mess up the MAF sensor? Only heard that from one person. What do you think? I didn't hear any sound from TRD Exhaust and heard it's just the sound that is the actual improvement but doesn't heed a noticeable improvement in performance, fuel economy, hp, tq. etc.

Thanks.
Matt, SD

 

Just to clarify, not all AFE filters are the pro-dry s type. AFE also makes a wet gauze (like K&N) type. 007Tacoma is running an AFE wet type, and has checked it several times and there is no oil build-up on his MAF sensor. I chose the pro-dry S type because I have personally had problems with K&Ns in the past, and wanted a dry type Amsoil filter, but they don't make one for the gen 2 Tacos so the pro-dry S type of filter seems to be as good or better from what I can find so that is what I went with.

As far as the K&Ns go, I have heard from several people that A. K&N filters do not filter as well as others (read as lets more dirt into the engine, causing possible engine damage, and B. K&N filters let some of the oil through the filter which then coats the MAF sensor and screws with the readings. I do not believe that this causes damage to the MAF sensor, and that once you clean the sensor everything will be fine again, however, for my liking that is too many "cons."

As far as the TRD exhaust goes... Some people bitch that "it is nothing more than a sport muffler, you get no better (read as bigger) tubing. I suppose that is technically correct. The stock taco pipes are 2" Mandrell bent tubing (I believe aluminized steel but don't hold me to that). The TRD pipe is 2" Mandrell bent Stainless Steel with a higher flow sport muffler. So no, you are not getting a 3" of 4" pipe with the TRD, but realistically you don't need or want something that massive on anything short of a duramax diesel. An engine needs a certain amount of back-pressure to operate correctly, so in all likely hood unless your engine is heavily modified you would be loosing power with anything larger.

As far as the TRD clip. I just checked it and it plays here, though it is recorded kinda soft so you have to turn up your speakers quite a bit.

 

I checked with performanceproducts and autoanything and they basically told me (for clarification purposes) you can't pour lubricant/cleaner on the K&Ns liberally when it is time to clean them for those reasons that you stated that it can mess up the sensor(s). But normally it works well b/c it's not a closed filter and when you're driving there is a lot of cold air rushing into the engine area, meaning you don't have to worry that much about hot air getting in despite it not being covered. The guys at the parts store said that AFE did tests recently that found that covered CAI perform not as good as non-covered ones.

Just what I found through my digging through comments/posts and calling the guys at the autoparts online stores.

Thx