I had been kind of on the wall about what intake I wanted for the Tundra. I did not want an oil filter because of maintenance and MAF problems caused by oil from the filters. I was kinda inbetween the AFE and the Volant. I read about the PowerCore filters in the Volant and knew that was what I wanted. But I had also read about some problems in the past from the Volant quality and fit. Seemed to be plenty of people happy with it though. Another member posted up a great price on the Volant that I really couldn't pass up so I went for it.
It was delivered yesterday and I knew I should get some pre-install sound clips to be sure of the sound difference after the install. So I did a couple of vids of the truck getting on the interstate. The truck had the stock intake with the carbon filter removed and a Flowmaster 50 SUV exhaust with it dumped before the axle. I'll post the clips with the post-Volant videos I'll take next week.
The instructions for the Volant were pretty good. Easy to follow and really some of the best install instructions I have seen from a company. I took some pictures during the install, but if you get the CAI yourself, just follow their instructions and you should be fine. I'll keep my instructions simple and just show one or two things I did different.
This is your stock CAI box.
Pull the engine cover off.
Disconnect the plug for the MAF sensor and the two hoses circled.
Remove the clamp for the hose leading into the Throttle Body. And unlatch the top of the CAI and lift it all out.
Carefully remove the Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor and keep it for later.
Now remove the two bolts holding the bottom of the stock CAI to the Tundra. Lift up and away from the fender. There is a tube that extends into the fender.
Picture of the tube:
Picture of the intake hole left in the fender:
Here's my filter after 10K miles. Not too bad.
Like some have reported, the Quality Control at Volant is questionable. The product is fine, it's what comes in the product that is the concern. I looked inside the tube and there were plastic carvings in the tube. You really don't want those being sucked into the engine. They were all loose in there and I knocked at least half of them out before this picture.
I blew the rest out with an air gun and my compressor and then wiped down the inside to be sure I got it all.
They also use screws that are supposed to hold the MAF to the tube. Some said they were self tapping screws, I would call them wood screws. I'm not taking the risk of it messing up later and stripping out or introducing plastic to the intake. So I got a 5/32" drill bit, marked and predrilled the holes for the screws later. Easy enough to do.
Next attach the intake tube to the filter housing. Seems simple enough but that screw on the right didn't line up right. Had to remove all the other screws, put that one in first (with a little finagling), and then put the rest in.
There is an unused bolt hole in the truck. Maybe they used it for the 4.7 intake. Anyway, that hole is used for the Volant. Mine had a thin layer of paint closing the hole. Just push something like a drill bit through and it opened up easily.
Then I loosely installed the line reducer and put in the intake.
Bolted in the intake to that hole mentioned above. I'm not wild about this bolt. The plastic was kinda bowed up a little at that hole. I pushed the intake toward the fender to try and get a better seal while I tightened the bolt. It kept tightening down and started to dig the washer into the plastic. I figured that was enough even though it still shakes a little. I'd rather have seen two bolts holding the intake in place. The fit to the fender wasn't great either. I'm not sure where they came up with this design but the original fabricator was smoking crack when he made it. The intake hole does not line straight up with the fender hole. This creates a small gap on one side. The gap could easily be fixed with some weather stripping, but I guess it doesn't have to be. There is a stock hole in the fender right next to the intake so it could possibly get a little warm air from the engine anyway. I don't think it will matter too much. But I would still rather see it line up with the hole properly. Maybe this intake was designed for another truck and they just use it for the Tundra as well since it works. It has bolt holes on the intake hole I guess for another intake line or to bolt the intake to the fender.
Installed the MAF sensor. I removed the stock gasket and used the new larger one provided by Volant. The pre-drilled holes I made helped to install it easily.
Ran the plug under the intake hose, used a zip tie to hold it and plugged it in.
Extended the part that holds the engine cover in place. This allows the new intake to fit under the cover. It doesn't look too bad afterwards.
Put the filter in the box and clamped it in. I thought the Donaldson sticker would face up, but apparently not.
Used the hose extension they provided and reattached the hoses to the intake tube.
Put the cover on and I was done. When installing the cover, do the middle screw first and then work your way around. It helps the cover to seal up properly. I would have preferred a smaller name on the cover since I am not big on advertising for free. But I guess it's under the hood so it doesn't matter. I might make a new cover in the future, we'll see.
Truck started up fine and I gave it a few revs. Sounds pretty good, a little different. Gas mileage may suffer a little for the rest of this tank.
