Things that make you go 'Hmmmm'

[Apache]

I had a long conversation with a petrolhead friend of mine the other day. I was toying with fitting a high flow cone filter on the left of the engine bay in the pursuit of better economy (with a light foot) or better responsiveness (with a heavier foot). To this end, he's loaned me the one off his old MR2 turbo which is around 14" x 8". Should be big enough!

I reckon I can duct cold air in and have a short hose to the turbo, but the mechanics of this are outside the point of this question. He suggests that because there is more air available, the ECU will increase the amount of fuel to give the correct mixture, therefore economy will suffer. I reckon that a lighter foot will be required because the system as it is is quite restrictive. I have arrived at the conclusion that it will probably make very little real difference to fuel economy because the ECU will adjust the amount of fuel to suit the amount of air available / power demand.

I am not a believer in the '5-10bhp increase' type cr@p spouted by Max Power etc, I just figured that easing the breathing of the engine might mean less effort for same power = very slightly better fuel economy.

Made 292 miles from topped off to orange light this week after mixed A / B / town driving, so not looking too bad anyway!

[truckarms]

I have the K&N air filter kit on my 4runner V6 and I would say that there is a slight increase in performance (but it could just be the awesome noise)
But because I am getting more air in I can say that I dont get as good fuel economy, I would say 10 miles less a tank.

[mud skipper]

the easyier the air can get into the combustion chamber is not going to help at all unless you junk the standard exhaust, the middle box and xcross over are very restrictive. staight thru and no sharp bends ideally, then you can get the head ported and flowed,.
my opinion is if you want a faster vehicle then buy a faster one,
or you could do the max power thing and put a Supra lump in it, by me there is a company that tunes things like supras,subarus and mitsies, they have a twin turbo 3 litre+ supra pumping out 805 bhp, imagine that in your surf..............

[Apache]

More interested in better economy. Putting a hugely powerful engine in a Surf would be suicidal given the...erm... less than taut handling of this type of vehicle.