Antnie2418

I saw this browsing this morning, does anyone think this could be a valuable product for the IS community? I've seen a lot of people saying that the aftermarket intake are useless for the reason the cold air intake turns into a hot air intake because the lack of a heat shield. If I messaged them would there be any people to purchase such a product?

UncleSpud

With or without the heat shield, you're not going to get much of a performance bump (if any) with an aftermarket intake. What you will get though, is more noise from under the hood and a sexier looking engine bay.

In the Mustang aftermarket community, a good intake with a accompanying tune might net you 10/HP 10/TQ at the rear wheels. An aftermarket Mustang intake without a corresponding tune will give you more noise and marginal gains (probably not enough to feel).

I'd rather spend money on something that would actually make my 3IS faster. Other than long tube headers, the only thing that will work on the Toyota 3.5 V6 at present is prayer.

If the Toyota aftermarket ever comes out with an aftermarket programmer, such as the ones sold by SCT for Mustangs, and Cobb for Subaru (and each of which can safely give you 20HP at the wheels), I'll be first in line.

pheonix72

iTrader: (6)

That is a really nice and huge bandaid! Save your money; it is not going to do much for the inlet temperature.

Antnie2418

I am just itchy... The Lexus community can't really do much of anything when it come to upgrades and I feel as though it's Lexus biggest flaw when it comes to these cars.

pheonix72

iTrader: (6)

I have different take on this. Actually these cars are very well designed and efficient. Lexus is pretty much at the limitations of their designs (especially for N/A cars). Any aftermarket parts will be purely cosmetic, improvement on handlings with suspension upgrades. Performance upgrades will not gain you anything noticeable (except the noise factor and butt dyno feeling).

corradoMR2

For 199$, that's steep. I have the Takeda intake, and for about that price, it also comes with a heat shield.

Contrary to most folks on this forum who will state otherwise, my experience is I immediately noticed a slight (not huge, but slight) bump in power from 3500 rpm onwards. Now if it's 2 hp or 5 hp, who knows, I never dynoed it. This is on the 2.5L V6.

pheonix72

iTrader: (6)

Yes, we called that the butt dyno affect! Just because it makes the car louder doesn’t mean it added any power. Wow, you should go work for a F1 Team if you could noticed an increase of "2hp or 5hp"

corradoMR2

^^ hehe, on 204 hp, 5 hp makes a HUGE difference.

HIDPH

iTrader: (5)

Heat shields do make a difference, when it comes to stop and go traffic and you have alot of heatsoak happening in the engine bay. =)

UncleSpud

I think that most car makers, including Toyota, tune their engines conservatively and leave quite a bit on the table. This is how companies like American Muscle (Mustang), Cobb Tuning (Subaru), and Dinan (BMW) thrive--they exploit the margins, and for the most part they do it safely. If and when the "code" to Toyota's 3.5 V6 is cracked by a reputable tuner, we'll have an option. Until then, we're relegated to cosmetic accessories like intakes and exhausts.

pheonix72

iTrader: (6)

The 2GR series, 3.5 V6 Toyota and Lexus bread&butter engine have been around since 2005. There isn't much for any aftermarket companies/tuners to squeeze out. There is no secret "CODE" to crack! The only way to gain any real power is with some big blower (turbo) and that is not cheap (or even reliable). Those companies you mentioned offer products with most gain for Turbo equiped cars (or add one on). I have the Z4M Coupe with the world famous S54 engine and it is in the similar situations (no real power gained without the blower).