MPG improvement with cold air intake?

Okay, for as long as I've been here, all I've heard was that there was no benefit to getting an aftermarket CAI. But everyone that has one seems to recommend it and report an increase in MPG's. I don't really care too much about actual MPG's, or cost of fuel, it's more about the range of a full tank. With my lift and bigger wheels, I seem to be getting about 13 mpg's. With essentially 20 useable gallons of fuel, that's only giving me a range of 260 miles. That doesn't get me very far in the desert. An increase of 2 or 3 mpgs would get me another hour of driving. So I'd like to hear from the guys who have one.

 

There's a little human nature at play there. If you spend $3-400, on something its easy to convince yourself that it was an effective purchase. I've heard more stories about loss of torque than I have about more power or better MPG. From a logical standpoint, the primary advantage of a CAI is that it pulls colder air from outside of the engine bay. Ours already does that. An aftermarket unit may allow for more potential airflow, but that presumes the factory unit is overly restrictive, which I do not believe it is.

At the risk of starting a flame war, I lump such claims in the same category as those who claim premium fuel on the factory tune gives more power. Ummm...no it doesn't.

Edit: I should note, I had one for a short period of time and my butt-dyno noticed no difference, I saw 0 increase in MPG, and I found the additional noise annoying.

 

I'm interested in this. I have a 2014 stock truck with 26 gal. tank and in the winter I get like 11mpg. on 20inch wheels with 275/55/20 tires. Not too sure this is cost effective for 1 or 2 mile per gallon increase...Prove me wrong!

 

welcome to the club..I carry extra jugs in the bed

 

I'm not so interested in saving money, because I don't put a bunch of miles on my truck. But for the average driver, 2 mpg equals about $200 a year. It would pay for itself in a couple of years. Another added benefit.

 

save your money and hit that fresh pow in Tahoe instead should pay for couple lift tickets.

 

I'm going to Tahoe on Saturday and going to put my kids in ski school for the first time. $750 for the both of them!! WTF? There's 2 CAI's right there.

 

CAI=

 

haha..yep..I just got back from the snow..and put all 3 kids to ski lessons...my wallet felt a lot lighter ..there goes my KINGs...

 

I'd feel ripped off. I learned to ski by riding the lift to the top and had to get to the bottom of the mountain somehow. Riding the lift back down wasn't an option. Just tell them "Pizza" and "French Fries"

 

Yeah, it's killing me to pay that much. But I just don't have the energy to take them both up the mountain. I just hope they learn enough for me to take them out next time... I'm not paying for ski school ever again.

 

So I was looking into Exhaust and a CAI to re-coup some power and MPG loss after my lift and bigger tires. I am guessing the answer is CAI = waste? I do not know anything about the factory air intake, so it is hard to compare. I also find it strange Toyota makes a TRD CAI, so they are saying that is worth $400 yet has 0 impact to the truck?

 

Yeah, so it looks like 10 out of 10 people said little to no change in MPG. Guess I need to look into some big gas cans.

 

I cannot answer that either, it's a mind thing I guess?. It's in there and I do not really notice the 'extra noise' but there again for me, it's not about mpg - it's a 5.7L Tundra right? Mind you at WOT the TRD Dual Exhaust lets me know I am booting the throttle.
90% of the time around town etc, I am driving with the nannies off, so I am sure that messes up the mpg too.
Last week I did a 300 miles round trip at 75mph on the Interstate and 84mph on the Turnpike with a little bit of city driving (Tulsa) and came away with 17.6mpg for the trip, kinda surprised me as nothing was allowed to overtake me (especially on the Turnpike) , hahahahah

 

My 2 cents. I have the TRD CAI and I see an mpg improvement at higher speeds. i think the stock filter was designed for the rpms at average speed limit on the highway. When you rev it high I think is where you see the improvements because the engine is trying to suck in more air through a constant opening, I have noticed more power when I 'get on it' but I haven't seen much of an mpg increase.

 

Looks like quite of few people said CAI is a waste of money. I bought a K&N CAI and installed myself. I love the extra sound coming from the engine bay. Almost like a little turbo spooling. Now, as far as my opinion of the CAI I have to agree with @Nor7 . That about sums it up.

Was it worth the purchase, I believe it was, and that's what counts.

 

I have the TRD intake and i don't think there's any improvement in efficiency - or at least if there is, it's too small to measure using real world measurements. Sure, looks nice & sounds cool if you like that kinda thing but it ain't gonna pay for itself by magically yielding any significant mpg increase. Given how amazingly inefficient these trucks are, if the CAI did impact it, even in lab conditions, i'm sure Toyota would slap them on in the factory to boost the EPA rating where Tundras are pretty much dead last in efficiency.

 

Don't mind me, I'm just here for the results.....

 

No dyno but my 0-60 is better.

 

If transferflow tanks were legal in CA, I'd already have one. 46 gallons would be freaking awesome. I just need to find out definitively if installing one would affect passing smog. I can't really imagine how that would affect it. And if it turns out it won't, I will drive to Nevada, if I have to, to have one installed. In the meantime, I think I need a couple 10 gallon jerry cans. Do they have some that don't expand in the heat and doesn't leak vapors to make my bed smell like a gas station?

 

Both say they can't ship to my location. Lol.

And I think I can get past a visual inspection. As long as it doesn't physically fail a test. I just don't think they'll be able to detect that the gas tank is larger.