Weapon R Short Ram Dragon Intake

I'm looking at an ad for an item called the Weapon R Short Ram Dragon
Intake for Toyota Pickup. The ad claims that it will increase horsepower
(but it doesn't say how much) and torque and it costs under $150.
My driving is almost all on the freeway in the mountainous part of
Washington state. My truck, an '85 SR5 Extra Cab 2wheel drive, 5speed
manual tranny and 22RE engine has to be shifted down to 4th when I get to
a freeway hill of more than 5 degrees and I believe that if I just had one
or two more horsepower that I would be able to maintain 70-75Mph and stay
in 5th gear.
Anyone used or know of anyone who has used the abovementioned intake? Is
there any noticible increase in performance? What is the downside to
using such a device?
Any advice?
Jerry

Truthfully I don't think those things really work, well not by
themselves. Except for sounding a little more intimidating, I don't
think it gives more over the stock setup. It may give you 1 or 2 more
horsepower, but a clean filter or a good tuneup will do the same. If
you're going to go that route of adding an intake, go with the ricer
setup of i/h/e...intake/ headers/ exhaust. It's going to cost some, if
I recall right LCEngineering has a setup for about $950 or so, maybe
cheaper with different products, but at least it'll work better than
just having an intake itself. With the i/h/e setup, put in a new cam,
retime the engine, adjust the valves, and your 22re will be breathing
new life. I would go that route in my opinion.

You say, "Truthfully I don't think those things really work." Upon what
do you base your opinion?
I know as the old adage goes, "ifit sounds too good to be true etc..." so
you are probably right in your opinion; but I'd like to know how you came
to that conclusion.

If it's going to cost me $1000 or more I guess I'll just have to keep on
living with shifting to 4th when I come to those hills; besides, there are
only 7 hills between here (Yakima) and Seattle that I have to shift down
for so I guess I can live with that and if I hit them at 85 I don't have
any problem whatsoever except that one of these times I'll probably get
caught for speeding and that will cost....
Thanks for your opinion, I'll keep it in mind.



In article <1146236118.549761.222420@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
[email]yip.sun@gmail.com[/email] says...[color=blue]
>
>
>Truthfully I don't think those things really work, well not by
>themselves. Except for sounding a little more intimidating, I don't
>think it gives more over the stock setup. It may give you 1 or 2 more
>horsepower, but a clean filter or a good tuneup will do the same. If
>you're going to go that route of adding an intake, go with the ricer
>setup of i/h/e...intake/ headers/ exhaust. It's going to cost some, if
>I recall right LCEngineering has a setup for about $950 or so, maybe
>cheaper with different products, but at least it'll work better than
>just having an intake itself. With the i/h/e setup, put in a new cam,
>retime the engine, adjust the valves, and your 22re will be breathing
>new life. I would go that route in my opinion.
>[/color]

Jerry wrote:
[color=blue]
> You say, "Truthfully I don't think those things really work." Upon what
> do you base your opinion?
> I know as the old adage goes, "ifit sounds too good to be true etc..." so
> you are probably right in your opinion; but I'd like to know how you came
> to that conclusion.
>
> If it's going to cost me $1000 or more I guess I'll just have to keep on
> living with shifting to 4th when I come to those hills; besides, there are
> only 7 hills between here (Yakima) and Seattle that I have to shift down
> for so I guess I can live with that and if I hit them at 85 I don't have
> any problem whatsoever except that one of these times I'll probably get
> caught for speeding and that will cost....
> Thanks for your opinion, I'll keep it in mind.
>
>
>
> In article <1146236118.549761.222420@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
> [email]yip.sun@gmail.com[/email] says...
>[color=green]
>>
>>Truthfully I don't think those things really work, well not by
>>themselves. Except for sounding a little more intimidating, I don't
>>think it gives more over the stock setup. It may give you 1 or 2 more
>>horsepower, but a clean filter or a good tuneup will do the same. If
>>you're going to go that route of adding an intake, go with the ricer
>>setup of i/h/e...intake/ headers/ exhaust. It's going to cost some, if
>>I recall right LCEngineering has a setup for about $950 or so, maybe
>>cheaper with different products, but at least it'll work better than
>>just having an intake itself. With the i/h/e setup, put in a new cam,
>>retime the engine, adjust the valves, and your 22re will be breathing
>>new life. I would go that route in my opinion.[/color][/color]

Keep in mind that opinions are like wrist watches, everyone thinks
THEIRS is correct... :>))

This device reminds me of some of the snake oil products I used to see
at the County Fair in Indio, CA. One was a gadget you stuck in the coil
lead on the distributor. It was a coil that was supposed to boost the
spark and provide better performance along with better mileage. I asked
my Dad about it and told me a joke about a fellow who bought a set of
spark plugs that would increase his mileage by 20%, a set of plug wires
that would increase his mileage by 10%, a fuel additive that would
increase his mileage by 15%, and a couple of other, similar devices. He
was driving to work when a traffic cop pulled him over. There was
gasoline bubbling out of the filler neck of his gas tank.

It turned out that he had put so many fuel saving devices on his car it
had actually started making more gas than it used!!! :>))
--
Tom - Vista, CA

Here's some research that supports his line of thinking....

[url]http://www.gadgetonline.com/AirInduction.htm#K&N%20Fuel%20Injection%20Performance%20Kit[/url]

That's a comparison of several modifications of the intake on a 3.4L
V6 4Runner. While the Dragon thing isn't in it, the K&N filter and
intake tube are and I woudl imagine it is comparable to the Dragon
setup.

In my opinion - if horsepower gains (or mileage gains) of any size can
be gained with the easy additions of some of these types of products,
especially the more inexpensive ones like the Tornado thing, I would
think that we would see more options or standard additions by the
manufacturers. I remember the Slick50 craze and thought that if
there was any merit to it claims I woudl see someone in charge of a
large fleet of vehicles (City, large company, etc) state that they
used it to save X number of dollars.

I always remember what my dad tols me regarding the chemical gas
additives - the best I can hope for is that it WON"T damage anything.
:)



On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 17:25:59 GMT, [email]jjones_0001@yahoo.co[/email] (Jerry) wrote:
[color=blue]
>You say, "Truthfully I don't think those things really work." Upon what
>do you base your opinion?
>I know as the old adage goes, "ifit sounds too good to be true etc..." so
>you are probably right in your opinion; but I'd like to know how you came
>to that conclusion.
>
>If it's going to cost me $1000 or more I guess I'll just have to keep on
>living with shifting to 4th when I come to those hills; besides, there are
>only 7 hills between here (Yakima) and Seattle that I have to shift down
>for so I guess I can live with that and if I hit them at 85 I don't have
>any problem whatsoever except that one of these times I'll probably get
>caught for speeding and that will cost....
>Thanks for your opinion, I'll keep it in mind.[/color]

That's where I was trying to hint down in my reply to the original
post. I mean people who bolt on those fake intake things from autozone
and pepboys aren't going to make 50hp right there. Just read some Sport
Compact Car Magazines and see how much each part adds in terms of
power. In the end, most to all go for the i/h/e setup to get noteworthy
gains of hp. But if all else fails, just buy that intake system and
tell us if it works or not. ;) But I would start with a good tuneup and
maybe replace the ignition coil if it hasn't been replaced all these
years. That's in my opinion.

Robert wrote:[color=blue]
>
> In my opinion - if horsepower gains (or mileage gains) of any size can
> be gained with the easy additions of some of these types of products,
> especially the more inexpensive ones like the Tornado thing, I would
> think that we would see more options or standard additions by the
> manufacturers.[/color]

Since HP and MPG are usually advertising headlines, I totally agree with
you.

Back in the "Big 3 are the only way days", maybe some conspiracy folks
could push the Big 3 / Big Oil are in cahoots link, but nowadays, one of
the imports would be all over a cheap performance gain.