Short Ram Intake

it looks nice

 

At least turn your phone to landscape when taking a screen grab. Even better: post the actual picture.

As to it's function, no clue. Maybe just a different sound? It's one of those filters you wash and re-oil?

 

Here's mine that has been installed since 2017.

The space freed up by removing the OEM filter housing is ideal for mounting the oil catch can.

 

Nice work... And I'm certain it will sound way cooler when you floor it and computer eventually decides to agree with your accelerator pedal position, but I'm skeptical about MPG benefits on a 1st year Gen3 which was already over-tweaked to max MPG.

 

Atkinsons cycle engine still is what it is. Wonder how the computer will adjust.

 

No issues ar all. The intake works perfectly.

 

Except for the louder intake roar and the less filtration from a K&N.
Did you ever hold a flat one up to the sun and see pinpoints of light shining through? How is that explained?

 

Certainly, the air never has a chance to fully straighten out prior to entering the TB. Would look even cooler with a straight velocity stack mounted on the throttle body. Or even a nice hood scoop where a tall velocity stack sticks through the hood? Seal the hood plane with a rubber sheet with a correctly sized hole aligned with the stack so it stretches around the stack and seals when you close the hood. Now we have not only true cold air, but Ram Air too!! Maybe even good for +50hp!! I've found my next project for the 350k mile 2008! I'll have to hunt down a killer hood scoop for this.

or is it just trying to put lipstick on a pig..idk..I just need to get the ABS module swapped on the low mile 2008 and get the high mile one back in the shop for this project........

 

5th gen intake has throttle body on left (NA driver’s) side, judging from pics.

 

Ar least. it won't be a mousetrap, like the OEM intake and filter.

The best filter will be a fully blocked intake with mouse nesting materials.

All filters are a tradeoff between blocking and letting detritus pass into the engine.

Particles large enough to pass through the filter will do little to affect the engine. It's the small micro particles that work their way into the oil. Frequent oil and oil filter changes will remedy the issue.

The light passage through the K&N filter is not much more than through the OEM filter.

Are you comments made from actual experience with the use of K&N filter or just you conjecture, intuition and conventional wisdom? K&N's claim's are backed by engineering tests.

 

K&N filters are just one more example of a product that has roots in the racing community but got expanded to non-racing applications because it looks cool and makes K&N a ton of cash. Like window stickers.....how do you know a rice burner has a K&N filter or any aftermarket part? Because it has a sticker on the window to make sure everyone else knows, right next to the Competition Cams, Accel, NGK, TRD, and NOS stickers.

It's marginal performance improvement lies in the fact that many race engines are air flow limited at higher rpm while drawing multiple hundreds if not 1000+ cfm. Performance improvement in a stock OEM application is about equal to the increase in sea level the last time I took a leak in the Atlantic, but "tests" can be massaged anyway desired. The average person that purchases it, is NOT going to keep up with the cleaning and oiling requirements to keep it at peak function and once it clogs, it's even worse than a dirty OEM. So, I have an OEM filter that passes 200 cfm relatively unrestricted on a 1.5 liter engine and replace it with a filter that flows 400 cfm. What good does it do if the engine only draws 150 cfm at full throttle? Negligible in 99.9% of all situations....except for wallet lightening and "cool factor". It kind of falls in the same category as the latest and greatest plasma fire, 72 point adamantium tipped spark plug that shows a 2 hp improvement @6000rpm over a set of stock spark plugs that had 100k miles on them, when in reality a set of new OEM plugs would pretty much do the same.

In the big scheme of things, to each their own. The world would be a boring place if we all thought the same way.

 

No decals on the window for me. My purpose is totally opposite of what you conject. My filter is examined and cleaned and oiled evey 6 months with the oil change and the emptying of the oil catch can.

I also like the convenience of visually inspecting the filter without removing anything with every time I check the oil dipstick and all the important fluid levels.

 

Fix for that:

 

Actual experience!
But it was short and sweet: I bought a used VW TDI.
I found an oily, sticky K&N air filter installed. I took it out and held it up to the sun.
I saw lots of spots of light shining through.
I tossed it in the trash and bought a normal air filter that had no light shining through.

Plus, cleaning and 'lubing' an air filter must be horrible... How do you do it? In the kitchen sink?

To each, his own.
It looks like you 'Tried' when you pop the hood!! But it's still a Prius, only noisier now.

I am using 'conjecture' to imagine what that intake roar must be like....

I hate how loud the cabin is in a stock Prius. I don't have SPL numbers, but I can get them.
8 hrs on the highway and my tinnitus is acting up for days.
I now use foam ear plugs and turn the music/pod up. It's not so bad that way.
ANC headphones are the best, but some places that can get you stopped.

 

I would think that the test to run here before and after the filter change is a vacuum gauge on the intake pipe as close to the throttle as possible.

If the stock system shows no vacuum at WOT then it's flowing enough air for the engine.

 

Huh?
You know, I bought a used Chevy car. The day after I bought it, it blew up, created a black hole, and destroyed the whole Universe!
Therefore, every Chevy, ever made, will create a black hole, and destroyed the whole Universe!


To summarize, you bought a common ricer car.
It had a used K&N filter, that was clearly cleaned and then oiled, likely by the former (ricer) owner.
Therefore, you now know all about K&N filters?
Sigh......


For anyone that looked into using K&N filters, and not just talking from their rear, it should be very obvious that cleaning and re-oiling the filters is not something that some newbie simpleton can easily do. Imho, that's as ignorant as saying that "anyone" can easily hand wash an expensive fine-silk blouse, even if they have zero experience doing any hand washing. (As I've read, and been told. Yea, what ever... It's no-iron shirts and pants for me. )
Not everything in life is as simple as pour milk into the big glass, while doing in a sink, and with multiple full rolls of paper towels nearby.

Fwiw, the use, the good, and the bad, with K&N filters is involved.
For cars that run on a track, when used 100% correctly, K&N filters make sense
When I tracked my sports car ("when I wore a younger man's clothes"), I used to use K&N filters.

 

The stock intake already a "cold air" intake? The stock intake draws air from the bottom. The intake you installed draws air from the inverter, wont that be warmer air?

 

No, the stock intake on a Gen 3 Prius does not draw air in from the cold air. It draws air from the area space near the washer bottle behind the radiator support. It;s the same place that my HPS short are intake uses.