yeah there are lots of pieces to a puzzle when gaining hp heck some mods can acutally lose hp or torque on a car. i.e. an exhaust

 

Your very misinformed then as there exist several dynos even on this website of proven performance increases with just a cold air intake. PROVEN! Not for the GX but over at the 4runner forums there exist a few as well for the V8 (same motor) of what you asked for-dynos that prove the performance is there and very measurable.
Do a search. Some cars do very well with a cold air intake with minimal loss down below, others do not react so well.
The KNN for the GS400 does not perform well but the SRT (with ecu) and another (forgot which brand) have proven increases (dynos posted here a while back)
Again, every car is different. Some do well with exhaust, others do not. Headers really wake up this engine and that is not disputable. Only problem is the dip stick is moved to the opposite side vs the Tundra on the GX and the space is a little less but still doable. That would easily net an easy 20+ hp for this truck as it did in my Tundra.
Put another way my Tundra had 235hp and with the exhaust, headers, intake, and underdrive pulley I was always quicker than my friends Tundra with the 265hp(?) motor whereas before he got me each time. Put a great many miles on that thing as well and it never let me down.

 

of course the more mods with pulleys headers software downloads and such will gain hp that is what they are designed to do especially when u get them all working together and tuned with each other and software changes. all i was saying is i find it hard to believe that just a CAI was gonna gain 13-17hp in these cars but if it does then great!!!!!!! remember i own one and i love hp so if it gains hp or heck even if it was to gain MPG then i say HOOOOOOOORAY.

i have a bmw and it has many many many mods so i am fully aware of what mods can do for a cars performance.

congrats to all who have one and get whatever gains come from this kit.

 

They certainly are two different beasts.

Closest thing I can compare the RX and the GX to where I live is the 4Runner. I knew a guy who would run lows 17s in the 1/4 mile at this elevation, 7,411 feet at my track and eventually a local Toyota dealer let me run a current gen. 4Runner that I basically took out the tires, etc, everything short of full tuning and modification that could be done and propelled it to a 16.9. I usually run low 18s with a best of 17.9

V8s definitely are less prone to the change in elevation than a V6 at this altitude.

 

Need to polish up on my geography, was not aware Mexico had such heights. I am at 3200 and feel like I live in the clouds.

I wish I had the time to dyno this one as I have one with my SC but I really did not intend to mod it much (though still hunting for a blower kit). I drove it again today and it feels pretty good with certainly more oooomph. If not for the MPG increase I would probably have removed the intake as the noise increase is very evident. It took some time for the wife to get accustomed to it but she seldom drive like I do.

 

I probably installed K&N filters on my first 5-10 cars (not sure, I'm up to ~26 now). That was, up until I started looking into the actual filtration performance of these filters. My current opinion after lots of years of paying attention on various forums:
1) yes, a K&N or similar filter might buy you a couple hp
2) factory intakes have come a *long* way over the years, and most draw true cold-air these days (even ours pulls air from the fender, I believe)
3) good old pleated paper filters are the best in terms of thorough filtration, and the degree of difference between good and bad filtration matters -- especially if you happen to drive on dusty roads.

See a few links I just googled:
http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Upgrade/Air_filter.htm
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest3.htm

My personal opinion is that the GX is a big pig of a truck, and the negligible HP gains aren't worth the potentially increased engine wear and warranty issues that would arise w/the aftermarket intake. That, and if I went ahead w/one of these, I'd keep my oil change intervals nice & short.

 

Well, anyone can Google an item and argue back and forth. I am a bit past Googling for arguments, been on the Internet too many years I suppose.

Now as far as any downsides, yes there are a few out there -some legit and others come from those that have no experience on the matter. The common one is that oil buildup can result on the mass air hot wire which is true but is remedied with a simple cleaning. But that occurs after over saturating the filter with oil and I rarely encounter that.

There are those that claim that the oil can cause other damage. Nothing has never been substantiated on that myth. Google all you want. I could Google aliens took a Lexus for the technology. Care to believe that one too?

Funny how my stores have sold well over 11,000 KNN filters over the last several years (CAI and panel) and not one single complaint or claim on any of them from a customer. It may be closer to 20,000 units sold. The return rate on the KNN panel filters are very very low though the exact number is not in front of me since the figure has never stood out. So again, there is always a difference between Google opinion and real life experience.

Also, if you knew something about intakes you would know that it is not about the cold air though they are sometimes called Cold Air Intake. It is about the air flow. Go pop your hood on any of your cars and look at the intake. In fact look at the filter shield in the air filter housing in the GX that restricts the air flow even further. Were you aware that was in there? Cars have always for the past 20 years pulled air from the fender/hood area.
The proven is the MPG increase which I really did not care too much before and the noticeable performance increase which is there and again there are dynos on the 4runner forums to prove that.
Beyond the above everything has already been posted. You can either take the word of someone that has actually done this or go and Google what your looking for.

 

Nice patronizing tone. Interesting -- it sounds like you have a financial interest in this discusison?

The links I posted weren't random or arbitrary, they were from two sources that I trust. I've been following the K&N "thing" for a while -- My interest started back in '98/99 when a BMW tuner (conforti) did a deep study of K&N cone vs ITG cones for an intake he was building. Data provided by conforti was pretty educational. As you said, it's "not just about cold air". In fact:
1) the length of the intake "snorkel" matters in terms of power delivery
2) (in the case of many MAFs) it's important that the funnel be engineered with a specific "flute" on the end in order to effectively direct and accelerate the airflow over the MAF (Just as one tiny example, I've never seen the correct "flute" on the end of a K&N cone system -- like ITG provides (and like most OEM systems implement).)
3) Of course the "pipe" (minus the resistance of the filter) needs to be big enough to feed the engine what it needs.
4) Oh yeah, and there's the Heimholz Resonator that most modern OEM intakes employ to enhance torque. Most of the K&Ns sytems I've seen do without these resonators ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbox for a reference )

^^that said, back to the temperature of the intake air, many K&N intake kits I've seen actually pull in hotter air than the OEM system. My guess is the Lexus intake in this thread does -- it doesn't look like it's very well sealed from underhood air.

Now back to filtration:
I've seen several independent tests (like the ones I posted) that show the K&Ns don't filter as well as a good OEM paper filter. So, you're letting more dirt into your Lexus w/the K&N kit than you would with the OEM intake.

Is the amount of additional dirt significant in terms of engine wear? I'm not sure.

No offense, but I think the fact that you haven't had a customer come back and complain about a K&N is irrelevant.

Why would they return a filter?
1) if it fell apart -- I bet this never happens w/the K&Ns; they're nice & sturdy
2) if it was obviously causing damage.

My guess is 95% of the buyers throw them on and forget about them. Do they ever clean them? My guess is most don't before they sell the car to the next person. I've purchased a couple cars turned out to have K&Ns in them had had clearly not been cleaned in years.

Cheers.

 

And of course you are entitled to you opinion on the matter. There are proven dynos that dispute your couple of hp notion. Every car reacts differently to mods. If you conduct a search with my user in the SC430 forum you will see some things I tried with various intakes on the SC430. Some worked well, some did not. You would also see that if a mod did not meet my liking then I would simply replace it with another. I put up 3 different coilovers on my GS400, 2 different ones on my SC. If this intake was not up to my satisfaction then it would simply go away or replaced with another which it still may as the other brand has dyno proven higher numbers than the KNN-albeit a small gain.

You are probably correct that most KNN purchasers most likely toss it in there and forget about it. What is the percentage? It would be silly for me to even come up with with a number as I would have no idea.

But...customers are a real PITA these days and they complain about everything and blame everyone for their own actions. KNN are pretty solid and filter very well. How well depends on how much oil is used. Fram does not filter as well as other brands. Lexus filters do not filter as well as other brands. Will the motor explode if you installed a Bosch oil filter on the GX even if it not filter as well as the Toyota brand? Doubtful. Now did Toyota motors prematurely break years back because of oil filters that filtered too well that slowed start up filtration-yes.

Almost every mod on every car has a pro and a con. It is as simple as that. It is up to the purchaser to balance those out and decide for him/herself what works for them.

I never stated it was for everyone just the same as a supercharger is not for everyone (my next mod,I look forward to your discussion there) . I merely posted the mod and the results I received. When you do the same, by all means I look forward to it.

Regards

 

All good points. Enjoy the intake and thanks for the review!

 

I have thought of both issues (KNN filtering less than paper and CAI setup), before I continue I need to indicate that I AM an Amsoil dealer.

Here goes, how about a K&N CAI kit with a Amsoil Ea nanofiber Universal Cone air filter? That way the potential of CAI plumbing is met with high quality filtration and air flow without an oiled filter?

http://www.amsoil.com/StoreFront/eaau.aspx

Here's a video plug about the Ea air filters
http://www.amsoil.com/video/company/...ers/index.aspx

P.S. the K&N cone filter can then be sold on Ebay :P

 

Sometimes mismatching is not the best. I once took an SRT intake with ECU and used the Injen intake with the SRT ECU on my SC. Car ran horribly. Stalled, rough idle,etc.. The setup you mentioned may work great, may not. Perhaps someone here is willing to try.
I generally am not a huge fan of KNN (hard to believe, huh) so I never ran it on my car which I have dynod several times with other intakes and mods.

But again, this mod is loud and most likely too loud for most. I wish Injen made a intake for this model.

 

point noted, thanks!

 

hey i really would like to see the pics and i think you have them up but for sum reason they dont show up when i load the page is there some other way you can post the pics and maybe a video =)

 

Your correct, my site was hacked by someone in the middle east a while back and erased everything. I still have my copies, it is just a matter of putting them back up.