to cold air intake or not to cold air intake that is the question

Does it really do anything to help these trucks are am i just better off using a good quality filter?

 

Replace filter more often, but if you want sound the intake is better to change out, the exhaust drones on these trucks with mufflers.

 

These V6s have the same air filter the V8 Tundra uses inside an enclosed air box that pulls cold air from the fender.

 

Factory intake is already a Cold Air Intake, it pulls air from the fender well. K&N pulls from the engine bay, i.e. hot air intake.

 

Drop-in filter that you can reuse is the absolute best bang for the buck. If you're really looking to just tinker with the intake, the TRD air accelerator replaces the "scoop" in the fender that draws in cold air. You could argue it performs better than the scoop given it's design as an air horn, but the benefits will be negligible. Just gives a reason to spend some time under the hood.

 

Well, I guess that answers your question.
Half of the members will say no and half will say yes, and of the yeses, there will probably be four or more favorite brands mentioned including the discussion of going with a wet or dry filter, open or closed box system and does it really add any horsepower.? installed the K&N open box wet filter on my 2022 Tacoma. It looks great under the hood and sounds great.
If you decide to do this mod, do your research, decide which one you like and go for it...
(Look for previous threads on this subject, there are lots on this forum)

 

Performance gain is meaningless, if any at all. I only ever install them for sound. Different brands and styles do more/less sound or at different rpm ranges. One of the newer AFE kits I put on my 4Runner only makes sound difference above 4000 rpm so it was a total waste of $$$. Older style AFE kit I had on 2015 2nd Gen taco made a nice sound even at lower rpm.
CAI can also act different depending on exhaust. My 2005 taco v6 with just exhaust or just CAI had sound I liked but when had both installed the sound changed and spread over more rpm range. Also saw small improvement on fuel mpg with both together even though either alone made no difference for mpg.

 

The AFE box was dyno tested in the 4RUNNER and shows gains