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Engine & DrivetrainDiscussions about the engine and drivetrain of your vehicle.
This is a discussion thread titled "TACOMA:Cold air intake & throttle body spacer - WOW!", within the Engine & Drivetrain forum, part of the Technical & Vehicle Assistance Forums category.
Is it just me or does the original poster not sound like a salesman? What's the deal rocktaco, you trying to peddle some snake oil?
My experience with an FIPK kit was pretty horrible. If anyone claims they gained power with one of these kits on a newer generation vehicle is smoking more than they should. Any dyno test done I've ever seen with one equipped has shown a loss of power at any useable rpm's and a TB spacer on our trucks is about as useful as a paper weight. If power was this easy to make don't you guys think Toyota would incorporate some of them, I mean how hard would it be for them to add a spacer to the TB if it really gained power?
manufacturers point isn't to make excessive amounts of horsepower. I mean, manufacturers could easily add aftermarket parts and call it OEM and make more power, but that isn't their goal.
I mistook this forum as a place where one could post new ideas, ask questions & announce new things.
I distinctly don't remember making any specific claims or telling anyone they have to buy anything I talk about.
I do, however, remember making the statement "let's wait on the dyno results" before making any rock solid claims.
It seems as if most of you just want to slam others & tell everyone in the forum that "x" doesn't work, sucks, is a waste of money, etc. It's very obvious to me that better than half of the responses are from people who don't have a clue what they are talking about anyway.
So once again I will make the statement - When I have DYNO results, both with the factory setup & the new - I will post them. Then you can make up your own mind.
unfortunately, this isnt a new idea, and it isn't a new topic on ts.com...it's five years late, and a lot of disappointed/annoyed buyers' dollars short from when this exact same company made the exact same product for the tundra, and plenty of us bought them.
...then we realized all they did was make the engine whistle and move the intake tube extremely close to front of the engine compartment, and we ditched them. they do not have the same effect on toyota's modern engines as they have had in the past on some older domestic models (and even some newer models).
yeah, it might have worked on carbed engines with terrible design characteristics, but toyota's engines are already finely tuned and fuel injected. spinning the air between the tb and the intake plenum does nothing, it doesnt mix a thing except maybe the vapor coming thru the positive crankcase ventilation valve (the reason you need to clean the throttle body once in a while, it's like engine snot), which has nothing to do with air and gasoline in the chambers. if youre serious about a "tuner kit" and think it will add gobs of power to the helix or air filter, consider a kit like the unichip runs about a grand and requires dyno time, and will probably get you an honest 10-20 pounds of torque just from the chip. however, if you look at the dyno charts from the 4.7L unichip benchmarking, the gains from adding a chip to a hardware mod are *very small*--10-20 from the chip, maybe one additional from the hardware mod...headers added about 15, chip added about 15, but headers plus a chip added a total of something like 16 or 18, *not* 30#.
while i admire their persistence, i and others are posting like this because we dont want to see anyone ripped off *again*. if youre going to dyno test this stuff, make sure you dyno the "power tower" SEPARATE from the air filter, and the air filter SEPARATE from the "power tower", and then try them together. you may find yourself unpleasantly surprised.
of course, you may also find that toyota needs to put whirly air thingies in all their throttle bodies, but i doubt it.
i really, seriously, honestly suggest you all poke around in the engine and drivetrain forum, use the search tool, look for the technical mod threads starting about two to three years ago--yeah, when the 05 taco was still a prototype. it may be a new truck with a different size engine and a couple handy features, but the tech still applies. your new taco was born yesterday, but you werent...save an unnecessary hit on your wallet and read some history.
I mistook this forum as a place where one could post new ideas, ask questions & announce new things.
I distinctly don't remember making any specific claims or telling anyone they have to buy anything I talk about.
I do, however, remember making the statement "let's wait on the dyno results" before making any rock solid claims.
It seems as if most of you just want to slam others & tell everyone in the forum that "x" doesn't work, sucks, is a waste of money, etc. It's very obvious to me that better than half of the responses are from people who don't have a clue what they are talking about anyway.
So once again I will make the statement - When I have DYNO results, both with the factory setup & the new - I will post them. Then you can make up your own mind.
I'm just giving you a hard time rock, sorry if I sounded like a jerk, but i've never heard anything good about these sort of add ons. We shall see.
Thanks CHUFF & DEVINSIXTYSEVEN for the post - I realize that we're not talking anything new here - it might work & it might not. But I got to try the things for free & I will post honest results from the dyno with all the possible combos when we throw it up there next week.
Yeah, this is a great forum where ideas can be expressed, but, like D67 said, this idea has run its course through the Tundra. I know it sounds like the older members here are giving you a hard time, but we're not. We've just been through this before... no hard feelings.
Toyota engineers are a lot smarter than 99% of the poeple on this forum, and probably smarter than all of these aftermarket (horsepower in a can) designers. If any of these things improved gas mileage or performance without harming the engine... they'd be on from the factory.
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The beatings will continue until morale improves.
I have just installed the prototype "Helix Power Tower" throttle body spacer & the "Airmax" cold air intake on my taco & WOW what difference!
The company that makes these is about a mile from my house & I dropped in to see what was new. In the course of conversation I discovered that they had not done a new 05' taco - so mine is the "test pig".
We installed the spacer first & my initial impressions were that I had greatly improved throttle response and that there is noticeably more torque in the 1000-1800 rpm range. The next day (yesterday) we installed the cold air intake & WOW!. Huge power down low & great improvement over the whole rpm range - Not to mention it sounds really cool as well. And the gas mileage seems to be better, I haven't checked yet. (my taco gets 18 - 19 around town & 20-22 freeway)
Anyway, I am gathering data (gas mileage, power, etc) over the next couple of weeks to see if anything can be tweaked before it goes to market. They are going to put the truck on the dyno & get some exact numbers & I'll post them when I have them. I do know this - they took the stock intake set up & put it on their flow machine - the new intake pulls in 32%+ more air than stock!
Helix Power Tower Plus throttle body spacer
Airmax spiral-flow intake system
TRD Sport, 4dr, 4x4
Do you have any new info on the TBS? I was looking into getting one for my Tacoma 4.0 and have gotten so-so reactions from people about them. Not much in increased gas mileage and can be noisy. Am looking at the Helix Power Tower Plus. Thanks!
Re: TACOMA:Cold air intake & throttle body spacer - WOW!
This thread is over a year old. I think the original author received the numbers, but didn't want to post them due to poor performance. It's just a thought, but I would recommend saving your money for some serious modifications such as a bottom end rebuild, a port and polish job on your heads, and running some form of forced induction.
Re: TACOMA:Cold air intake & throttle body spacer - WOW!
What a shame. The person never came through with the numbers. It would have been nice to see... either way.
Although, I don't really blame him because it sure seemed like he was being slammed for expressing his new found enthusiasm. Right or wrong he was excited about his involvement in the process and was pretty well pissed on. Many years ago I too wasted lots of money on supposed improvements and in the beginning I was very excited and I thought my truck felt more responsive... and I was paying for the mods. In the end I created a Jezebel and learned the hard way as so many of us do.
My only point is that it is great to have knowledge, wisdom, and experience, those are truly golden. But for those of us who don't have those yet, is it really necessary to judge or condemn or better to just ask simple questions and help share that info for the "less informed"?
Just a silly observation.
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Rob K.
2003 Access Cab, SR5, 4.7 EFI, 4-Speed ECT Auto, 4WD, TRD, Tow Package, Silver Sky Metallic, Key-less Entry w/Alarm. Leer cab high shell. Rackit lumber rack with 2 ratchet tie downs, Rear Airlift system with onboard compressor.
