What's wrong with stock air filter set up

i can't figure this out. This truck is completely new to me, and fellas talk in' about "cold" air intake, etc..... improve gas mileage and stuff..... I just ceased driving my 2002 Beetle diesel, so I know I'll never get 60+ mpg again.... But haven't the Toyota engineers figured exactly how to maximize fuel efficiency? 2014 4cyl 5sp manual.....

 

Nothings wrong with it. There's a belief that a company either 1. Spent millions of dollars on engineering an engine, but missed a $2 part that would have doubled its hp or 2. For some reason intentionally keeps that power from you.

Most bolt one aren't really worth much.

 

You have a cold air intake from the factory.

 

A hot air intake may help mpg in the winter, but you'd lose power...

 

You have to add at least 4 stickers to make up for the power loss.

 

There is nothing wrong with the factory setup.
Gains or other benefits of an aftermarket setup are minimal. Mostly just DIY satisfaction when people change things and believe that have done themselves a huge favor. We all do that to some extent - some just get a little more carried away with it.

 

OP for what it's worth, there was a thread where a guy unbolted part of his intake to make it a warm air intake for the winter and gained mileage... The cost for him was 5 minutes

 

I had to install stage three vinyl and street glow to make up for my power loss but my led windshield washer sprayers helped to offset any future power loss from any additional weight If I choose to go stage four vinyl. I might need to swisscheese my frame if I go with an upgraded street glow and stage five vinyl however...

Basically the bed of my truck will be lined with sealed lead batteries in order to support such an intricate street glow setup, hence the Swiss cheese frame.

 

On the V6 that's easy. Two bolts and one clamp, flex hose comes out, filter housing stays intact and engine still gets clean air. Makes a big difference in the cold.

That's hard to do with the 4 cylinder though with the filter housing on the fender instead of on the engine.

 

While there can be a marginal increase in power from certain aftermarket air filters (vs stock), this increase comes along with a serious downside: more GRIT into the engine.

If you notice the big box and large area of the stock air box, what you can understand is that it is designed to cause the air in the box to calm somewhat compared to the torrent in the air pipes. It does this to allow larger objects and water to drop to the bottom of the air box rather than plugging up the filter. Water in particular, you don't want on the filter.

 

I know the secondary air filter once removed help swith some throttle response

 

Yeah, that.

Problem is that lots of people apply their uncalibrated butt-dyno to make measurements when they change things. More often than not, the butt-dyno is wrong.

A very serious case of this problem that I recall, is from a bit more than a decade ago related to the Yamaha RX1 snowmobile. A lot of people got it in their heads that K&N air filters would boost performance. Keeping in mind that the machine has a bank of 4 CV carburetors (really fancy carbs), which have a butterfly plate and a vacuum activated slide plate. So what was happening, is they were messing up the pressure balance, causing the vacuum activated slide plate to lift prematurely, which screwed up the relationship between throttle position and power output. Instead of 50% throttle position being roughly equivalent to 50% power, it would then correspond to about 90% of power. So the uncalibrated butt-dyno explained that this meant it was making way more power.

The really hilarious part of this story, is that 100% throttle position did NOT result in the vacuum plate fully opening, which means that it would actually make *LESS* power. I think that some aftermarket company eventually made some custom springs for the slider, but while it would allow the sliders to open all the way, it still didn't actually allow the thing to make any more power than the factory air box.

Lesson: Never trust the butt dyno of anybody on the internet!

 

Nothing is wrong with the factory intake. It draws from the passenger fender well, this is a cold-air intake already. The factory design of the truck has a balance of power vs fuel economy - if you gain one, you will lose the other. I did buy an aftermarket air filter because I plan to keep this truck forever, and I didn't want to keep buying air filters. I had no expectation that the aftermarket air filter would provide any more power or better fuel economy.
And I have always kept my vehicles 98% factory stock, for many reasons:
#1, the risk of voiding warranty
#2, the risk of upsetting a balanced design that was fully researched by trained engineers (which I am not) -- see Indy's post #2 above
#3, I don't need any more attention from noisy exhaust or blingy stuff, that's the wrong kind of attention
#4, I buy a vehicle based on what I plan to use it for... I buy something that already does what I need, I don't buy something then try to make it into something different. If I wanted better fuel economy, I would have a 1st gen Tacoma, they are smaller and get significantly better fuel mileage. (Or I would have bought a Prius.) If I wanted more power, I would have the Tacoma V6, or a Tundra, F150 or Silverado.

 

Butt dyno's are always wrong, hence my tagline. People want to feel a difference in their work, pretty much the only reason they do. They hit the gas harder from a stop and 'feel' that it's pulling harder while they swear they haven't changed their driving style.

I've owned jeeps, now taco's, f250's etc, mpg isn't one of my concerns. I'd have a subcompact if it were. My mustang gt though, I drive it fairly hard and it consistently gets 21+ mpg on 85 pump mostly around town. It's an anomaly.

 

I'm willing to make that trade. I run an Injen warm air intake all year round.



The three foot long intake tube helps to increase torque. I run my truck under the absolute worst fuel economy conditions, as a fully loaded service vehicle crawling up and down steep roads in first gear, almost no freeway driving, and it still consistently averages 23 mpg in the Winter, and 24 mpg in the Summer.

The very best mileage for highway driving was an 800+ mile round trip on Interstate 5 to Sacramento... 30.6 mpg.

 

If companies think a product will sell they will market that product.

If they don`t continue to sell they slowly vanish from the market.

I have had nothing but dumb problems with every aftermarket intake on vehicles I had come through my shop.

 

That is literally and completely unbelievable.

 

I'm a little surprised you haven't fabbed up a box in order to keep the heat out.
On another note, I wish you were still making the intake spacer.

 

Back in the day, all intakes were warm air intakes. And then, they invented COLD AIR intakes, and it was the second coming. They were better in all ways. Better HP, better MPG, just better. Now almost all intakes are cold air intakes. And now people are putting in WARM AIR intakes, and they're the second coming. They're better in all ways...

Round and round we go

 

X2!
That is simply impossible.