I see that some of the aftermarket intake tubes for the GS400 have an accommodation for the MAF meter. It makes sense that a re-calibration is needed for the adjustment in the air volume. But Could be gains had with just a change of the tube? As in, keep the stock air box and the MAF meter in its stock location but just change the air tube.

In my head it seems like it would be able to make gains by not disrupting the air flow like the stock tube plus it shouldnt need a re-calibration because all the air is still flowing through the stock MAF meter. Seems win win if it would work.

 

probably very minimal if any gains at all

 

My thought comes from being a Mustang guy. They make intake set ups from companies like JLT that are 4" tubing that make really descent power. Granted they run a bigger filter but it keeps the stock MAF so a tune isnt needed to see gains.

 

No one has any idea?

I also thought about cutting a hole in the bottom of the air box and cutting the metal under the air box so that the filter can get more air instead of having to pull from that odd little snorkel.

 

this is why I have been very hesitant on doing an intake for the 430. the stock ram air set up seems to be the perfect cai already. scoops air right from the grill. all of the aftermarket intake just seems to suck air from behind the headlight, however there is no real source of cold air from that area without some cutting and modification.

I thought about cutting the airbox, but then it will once again just suck hot air from the engine bay, and what ever cold air that gets rammed in from the oem scoop will just be flowed out instead of being forced into the filter.

 

Well the idea of "cold" air is a bit deceptive. The idea behind cutting a hole in the bottom of the box and through the sheet metal is to grab air from the fender area in front of the tire. It wouldnt be sucking in any hot engine air. Id leave the stock scoop on to make it to where the filter wouldnt start feeding on the hot air. There wouldnt be any ram air effect but that wasnt on the table anyway.

 

Intake tube without the stock airbox (w/ cone filter) will create check engine light unless u get APEXI NEO and get it tuned.

 

Right. Im talking about keeping the stock air box, install a pipe section that is larger than stock and smoother so the air can flow better. The MAF is going to move the air at a rate in accordance with stock parameters so there shouldnt be an issue. Just gains from a smoother and larger intake tube.

 

This is incorrect information. A few of us are running the RMM or Injen intakes with no CEL. I will say that there has been instances where the Weapon-R does pop a light though.

 

Keep the intake stock. The genius, Japanese tech that Toyota paid millions of dollars to design this car had way more knowledge of how it should be set up. There is a reason it's set up the way it is.

 

I will have to disagree. The peopl who work on designing the engine and its components have to keep several things in mind. Cost, durability, and the target buyer. Keep in mind that the GS series is a sporty luxury car. So the target buyer wants comfort and a bit of spirited performance. They could have made it perform better with horsepower but it may have either cut into the comfort or it would have cost too much to make it perform better and still be comfortable. Our car is a balance of several different things.

But for some like me id be willing to give up some comfort to gain some performance. So while the team of engineers that designed specific areas of our cars did a good job, the market and finance guys were giving them an ear-full about profits.

So can gains be made? there should be some. Good grief, look at our stock GS400 exhaust manifolds. Thats horsepower left on the table if ive ever seen it.

 

I agree that the exhaust manifolds can be improved upon but the way the intake is set up is ideal. The fact that their is a "ram air" type design is sufficient proof already. Getting rid of the setup and just sticking a filter in there allows for hot air to be sucked in rather than the cold from the front of the car. Now if there was a shield made to block the hot air coming from the engine and manifolds on a custom design then I can MAYBE see a gain. However, as most people note you rarely see any gains from just doing an intake on a dyno....just noise.

If anything I would run the stock setup in the summer and run a set up like the ones mentioned above in winter.

To each his own though, just my opinion.

 

Well, if it helps this thread I extended the intake piping a long time ago on my K&N FIPK intake and routed the filter down Ito the wheel well so that the filter was directly behind the pass side fog light hole. I took out the little piece by the fog light so that it would be true cold air but also subject to a lot of road debris. The result, the car felt a bit laggy then kicked in very hard...almost like a small turbo lag like a slingshot effect. Unfortunately, I got a CEL lean code, possibly from extending the piping too long. Search my old threads and you'll find more info. GL

 

Well to keep things on track if you look at post 8 what my idea was is to keep the stock air box and the integrated MAF but to replace the intake tubing with the crinkle bends. A large pipe there with a 90 degree bend is all it would take.
Im guessing no one has done an intake this way thus far.

 

^^ thats because its pretty hard to do, if you looked at the oem intake pipe its actually not just a 90 degree bend, it actually curves back towards the engine, also you won't be able to get a bigger than oem pipe because space is quite tight if you decide to keep the oem scoop.