What's the best aftermarket air Intake?

Jack1947

Tj newbie
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Hey fellas I'm hoping to upgrade my air intake as my tj is still running the stock intake.

Any recommendations on best ones on the market?
 
Most everyone here will tell you that just running a quality filter in your stock air cleaner housing is the best you can do. There really isn't any advantage to running a Cold Air Intake as they really don't bring in any colder air and many time raise the intake air temps,
 
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Most everyone here will tell you that just running a quality filter in your stock air cleaner housing is the best you can do. There really isn't any advantage to running a Cold Air Intake as they really don't bring in any colder air and many time raise the intake air temps,
That's really good to know. Thanks bud K&N or do you recommend another?

I see they do a performance air intake system. Is that the same as the cold intake systems I see around?
 
That's really good to know. Thanks bud K&N or do you recommend another?

I see they do a performance air intake system. Is that the same as the cold intake systems I see around?

Everyone will tell you NOT to run a K&N filter. They allow too much dirt into your engine. Read thru these two threads and see if they answer your questions.

I have a V-8 in my TJ so I haven't had a stock air box in years.


What is the best air intake for a TJ? | Jeep Wrangler TJ Forum

Cold Air Intake FAQ | Jeep Wrangler TJ Forum
 
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Thanks heaps man. They were both interesting reads. Happy I joined up here with you fellas now. 🤙🏼

Also I would love to put a V8 in Tj but it's. Around 30 to 35k to do that here. 😳

Mine was a SE model with the 4 cyl and I was planning on towing a trailer so I needed more power. But I have gone thru a lot of ups and downs with my Jeep since I did the engine swap. I in the middle of rebuilding my whole Jeep again right now.
I don't even want to think how much I've spent on my Jeep since I started this whole thing.

There is a link to my build thread in my signature at the bottom of each of my posts.
 
Hey fellas I'm hoping to upgrade my air intake as my tj is still running the stock intake.

Any recommendations on best ones on the market?
The best upgrade to your air intake is to remove the stock one, then put it back on with a clean filter in it. 5 HP increase guaranteed.;)

p.s. The extra work you did from needlessly removing it will make you feel like you upgraded something.
 
The intake and filter is not the restriction to breathing on this engine as it is on other designs. The limiting factor to the intake, as well as exhaust is the stock head. The only thing you gain with an aftermarket filter is greater ingestion of fine dust and grit into the combustion chambers that eat up rings and valves.
 
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I implore you to read this thread I put together: Cold Air Intake FAQ

There is NO good aftermarket intake because the stock intake is the best.

Now if you run into issues where the factory airbox won't fit anymore, you can go with a cowl intake such as the Windstar setup or similar (@Lou has a good photo of his).

The bottom line is that you DO NOT want en exposed cone filter on your TJ, you want an airbox.

You also will gain no power whatsoever by switching to a cone style filter and CAI setup. This isn't an opinion, it's fact.

Like I said, read that thread I linked to above.
 
Here's a good simple reason why the K&N air filters get such grief from us offroaders. Note the text at the very bottom that sums it up. This slide is from a long test performed by an ISO 5011 certified lab and the comments are the bottom were made by the test lab.

K&N Chart with Text.JPG
 
I think I answered a lot of his questions at 2 AM and pointed him to the threads about CAI and why not to use one. And told him that the K&N filter was not a good idea. But I haven't had a stock air box in 18 years so I couldn't tell him which filters everyone liked better. Which again was why I'd linked the discussions for him.
 
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A stock 4.0 doesn't flow enough air to take advantage of most bolt on modifications. Even when they have an effect, it's going to be at higher rpms where you aren't spending much if any time in a TJ. Now if you a dumb and spend serious time and money on major internal modifications like a cam, head work, ported intake, stroker motor, etc., then yes, they can help. But anything other then a paper filter on a vehicle that sees frequent dusty off road excursions is not good for the motor.
 
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Even in particular applications (older classics) where K&N has dyno’ed as adding one or two hp, the day-to-day reality is that not many people will clean and re-oil their filters on the recommended schedule. Maintaining a K&N is a pita compared to drop-in standard disposable filters.
 
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Even in particular applications (older classics) where K&N has dyno’ed as adding one or two hp, the day-to-day reality is that not many people will clean and re-oil their filters on the recommended schedule. Maintaining a K&N is a pita compared to drop-in standard disposable filters.
The K&N actually filters WORSE when kept clean and oiled. It goes from bad to worse after be cleaned and oiled.
 
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The K&N actually filters WORSE when kept clean and oiled. It goes from bad to worse after be cleaned and oiled.

I never knew this. I put in a K&N last year and I just cleaned it a week ago. Now my brain I thought since I spend most of my weekends out in the Florida Everglades or at the beach areas it would be better.
 
I never knew this. I put in a K&N last year and I just cleaned it a week ago. Now my brain I thought since I spend most of my weekends out in the Florida Everglades or at the beach areas it would be better.
Check out the chart in post #11 above and see if you still want to run that K&N. 😊