Guys,

Did any of you see the HorsePower TV episode where they are beefing up a 2000 Tacoma? They added a Turbo run off the exhaust for a 50% HP gain, and they ditched the original air box replacing it with a cold air filter cone that they relocated into the diamond plate tool box in the bed of the pickup. After looking at my old air filter and the screwy location of our air boxes, it made me think about redoing my air feed line in a similar fashion to what they did.

I did spray some degreaser all around in front of the trumpet and try to get everything in that area as clean as possible.

But I was seriously pondering some revision to that air box. Anybody tried anything with theirs. I'd like a snorkel but don't want to spend hundrdeds of dollars on it. There has to be some fairly simple way to improve that air intake.

 

PVC pipe is MUCH cheaper than a ready made snorkel kit.

 

Others have gone to AutoZone and bought the code filter kit for $20, but seriously, it wont help much if at all.

 

Hmm, 273 ponies off a turbo.......that must be like 10psi boost. Turbos suck on 4X4's, too much lag when you need the boost like now besides making tin foil out of pistons......

 

I had no interest in their turbo addition, but they did do an interesting mod by removing the existing air box and relocating the air inlet to the tool box in the pickup bed. I guess seeing it made it a lot of difference.

I have seen other shows where they relocated in the air intake, even did one from inside the cab. I just do not think much of that air box we have. Oh well.

EDIT: They also did a "free" mod if you have a Tacoma, the rear diff locks electrically but is designed to only engage in "LOW" range. They showed which wire to cut to allow it to engage in "HIGH" as well, then when they completed the mods they demostrated by doing a rear wheel burnout smoking both back tires across the parking lot to show off the added HP from the exhaust driven turbo.

 

Put an intake on the roof and run the tubing down the passenger A-pillar and into the engine compartment.

I'm only half kidding.

 

But then run it where? Behind the rad or between the intake plenum and firewall? Danny you're better off fashioning a snorkel down the drivers a pillar. There's no safe possible way to run it towards the back as there is no open bed in our rovers.

But you could mount it to the rear of the roof but disguise it with a rotating police light. That would freak more than a few out. But then you'd be soliciting bail money from us.

 

I like those big high rises you used to see on some of the mopar engines.

You could probably do something that would route in that area right in front of the windshield and come down inside the engine bay.

 

home depot motorsports


for another fun version, you could hog a hole into the passenger compartment for colder air!
this is how i have the turbo inlet plumbed for my race car.


old build photo, but you can see it in the upper left near the passenger side strut tower...

though... with the turbo tearing all that air apart it does require the use of ear plugs whenever its driven


also... those STS rear mounted turbo setups are a joke (IMO, of course...)

 

You can buy intake tubing in various sizes by the foot as well as all of the bends and connectors you could possibly want from pretty much any race supplier like Jegs or Summit. Other than a snorkel which lengthens the intake tube like crazy and is counter productive unless you do water crossings on a regular basis, I'm not sure how one would achieve anything better location wise. Just to clarify by counter productive I mean its pointless as far as gaining any amount of power, cold air is great but when it has to come from 3x as far away its useless. The shorter the distance the air has to travel through the tubing, the better. If you just want a little more power you can change your flexable intake tubing to a nice smooth version and open up the air box a bit to allow more air in. Routing the intake inside the cab is a possibility but that method is really noisy in most applications.

As far as those remote mounted turbo kits, those are for lazy people who cant fabricate. Small displacement turbo engines have enough problems spooling fast enough, one can only imagine what adding 30 feet of tubing to the equation does.