I am in the market to buy my first upgrade to my truck. I have been looking at all the different ones out there and the Volant intake with the airbox included sounds pretty good as far as the idea of isolating the hot engine air from the intake. I know the K+N seems to be the most popular in California but most of the stores out here just sell what's a hot item. I know the K+N works good because I had one on my toyota. But it's time to put one on my ranger. I would also like to do the Mass Air flow Sensor by JET. Any recomendations? Does anyone know of a aftermarket throttlebody for a 2002 3.0?

 

I'll try to help you out at least alittle here. Don't get the aftermarket throttle body, I'm pretty sure it does nothing for our trucks. If yous search this you'll probably find out what you get from one. As far as intakes go, I would search for that as well or wait for someone to give you advice on that. I'm going to replace my air filter with a high flow and hope that works almost as good as a complete intake. I would start with a catback exhaust before you do any one of these mods though. If you get the right stuff you'll gain some top end power.

 

Is it a general rule of thumb to do the exhaust system first?

 

not necesarilly, but exhaust along with intake would sound nice and deep.

 

It dosent much metter which order you do your mods. As for what intake to get... any one of the major brands will do the exact same thing for the 3.0... Just as long as you dont go out and buy the 49.99 ebay piece of crap "intake system"

K&N, MAC, etc etc are all good companies to start looking around for

 

Cool! Money is an issue right now. So I can afford to do 1 mod a month. I was curious if anyone had gone with the Volant intake. I would be open to suggestions too on exhaust systems and where to dump it out at. I want the least amount of cab sound resonance. I don't want to hear it all if I could. It seems like if you put a tip on thhem it makes it louder. Does that make a difference or if you do a side outlet or rear outlet or downward facing outlet. Thanks so much for the advice. Vinny.

 

I have a Magna Flow muffler on mine. I didn't go cat back because the pipe diameter is already 2 1/4. The truck sounds great. Very deep sounding on acceleration and cannot be heard at cruising speed. I have a 3" black tip on it. I took the "snorkel" out of my airbox and put a K&N drop in filter. Truck runs and sounds really good.

 

How does your drop-in filter work? Did it give you any noticeable power?

 

I did the filter and the muffler at the same time. I noticed more roll on power...like from 45 to 60 in 4th and it goes up the AZ mountain grade roads in 5th no problem. The "drop in" filter is just a stock replacement. I am getting really good mpg. My worst is 21 and my best is 25 and mostly 22-23 mpg combined city/highway on a motor with less than 2000 miles. I really haven't had the truck long enough to make a fair before /after comparison but acceleration is for sure improved. The sweet spot seems to be between 2500 and 3000 rpm.
Having people ask me if it has a V-8 ,makes it worth it. The sound is great.

 

Oh my bad, didn't realize it was a drop-in and not a high flow air filter. My exhuast alone gave my truck a little more push as well. Hopefully I will feel the air filter when I put it in.