TRD Supercharger?

Can anyone who has purchased / installed a TRD supercharger provide some feedback on how it works, gas mileage before / after etc.? Does the power increase come on linearly off idle or is there a discrete boost at some higher rpm? I need to do something about the power for towing and trying to weigh the options of getting a supercharger vs. just taking the hit to trade the truck off to get a 3/4 ton diesel truck. A supercharger costs over $4000 with install and re-map plus have to go to super-unlead which costs the same or more than diesel. If the fuel mileage is hit pretty hard then it becomes a lot more economical to just get a diesel. Plus I can make my own biodiesel as well.

I love my taco and it is running like a dream. It is just seriously underpowered for anything other than regular driving around (works great for that) and installing a SC approaches the break point as far as return on investment goes since I don't think the cost can be recouped on resale. I checked on trade-in value for my '09 access cab and it is between 18000 tradein to 22000 for a private sale. So even for a private sale I am immediately losing 6000 plus the almost 3000 I spent fixing what was wrong with the truck new (and Weathertech mats also + rubber mat for the bed). I really get slammed if trading the truck in...way more than the usual 4 to 6000 dollar hit on top of the expense of the new truck.

So the addition of a SC is a pretty serious expenditure and represents a break point in deciding to keep the truck or not. I would rather keep it but the truck will not tow like I need it to and that is my fault for not doing my research and making an impulse buy to start with.

Any feedback on how the supercharger works and the resultant gas mileage after the install would be greatly appreciated.

 

I have supercharger and I am going to try, to answer some of your questions.

I have the supercharger for the last 15000 miles and this is my second Toyota with a supercharger.
The supercharger is an air pump driven by a belt by a secondary pulley installed on the crank shaft. This, combine with bigger injector sends a lot more air/fuel mixture and as expected ,, produce a little bit more horse power.
The supercharger gives the power of the line.
When I installed mine,, I lost aprox 10% in fuel mileage. I got this back the moment I installed the snorkel. I guess the cold air from outside and not from under the fender, helps a little.

Now, I have no idea how much of towing you are planing on. But I can tell you that if I have to chose again ??? and I know that I am towing a lot ???= I would consider something else. I tow once a month a camper, aprox 3000 lbs. I can barely get 10 mpg. Aerodynamics is the enemy here. The camper is equivalent of a house . The transmission (auto) on this truck is set to give you a good mileage on the highway but at the slightest incline will downshift and you will see your engine at over 3000 rpm in no time.
With the new injector been all most twice as big as the original,,, don't be surprise if you see that tank empty before you pass 150 miles.
Tacoma is a nice truck and I love it the way it is but it has its limits. The supercharger is a nice addition that I wished that it was installed from the manufacture. But in no way, it can keep up with a v8 , even with the supercharger, if you have to tow something thats more then 2500 lbs.

If towing is really important for you ??? then take the losses and look at something made for this. This is based on my experience with my truck.

Good luck with your decision.

 

I just got back from vacation to Chesapeake. On the way down I towed a 5x8 utility trailer with my motorcycle on it along with a cab full of various tools and luggage, and a bed full of more tools and other crap, including the TRD S/C and fit kit. I got 13.5 mpg running premium fuel.

I had to floor it in 2nd and 3rd when leaving rest stops and even then I'd barely be going fast enough to merge at the end of the accel lane. Unless I had a lot of room, there was no speeding up to pass someone. At 65 if I downshifted to 3rd and hammered it I'd get a lot of noise as the truck lazily gathered some speed.

I installed the S/C while I was down there and it was a very different drive on the way back! Towing the same stuff, hauling a little less in the cab and bed. I could easily get up to 80 leaving rest areas, passing was no problem.

I have the PLX DM-100 OBD II gauge and one of my parameters is engine load. It was running at 60-70% on the way down when naturally aspirated. On the way back it would stay at around 50% so it seems like the motor isn't working as hard.

The mileage while towing on the way back didn't change - still 13.5mpg. But, when I was down in Chesapeake I went to visit a friend about an hour and a half away. I set the cruise and I got a suprising 18mpg. I'd been getting 16 at best before with all my mods. I was happy to find out that the claims of better mileage on the highway with the S/C are true!

The off-the line torque is the most noticeable advantage to the S/C. You can stay in higher gears without lugging the motor and you don't need to downshift as often to pick up speed. The whine isn't noticeable until you're deep on the throttle, and even then it sounds great, not intrusive at all. I did have a rattle coming from my S/C but after 700 miles it has quieted down a lot.

And the best piece of advice I can give you is to install it yourself and save the several hundred. If you have decent mechanical abilities, you should be able to follow the excellent directions that TRD provides.

 

IF you can keep your foot out of it, you will see increased MPG due to the increase in Power to Weight ratio. As for the trade in, it depends how often/important towing is to you.

 

Thanx for the feedback on this. Good to hear that the highway mileage actually increases some with the SC. I am very mechanically inclined so installing would not be a problem. Still necessary to take the truck to the dealer to get the re-map done? Does the clutch seem to hold up to the extra power OK?

This might just be a viable solution for me. One thing for sure if I trade in my truck I am going to get murdered on the trade. And I really like my taco.

 

you NEED a reflash done at the dealer after the install, its about $100, or you could by a superchip, but that would be expensive, like the APR X-1

 

+1 on the reflash...it is required!

After I installed the supercharger, I drove the truck 10 miles to the dealer for the reflash. The DM-100 showed the fuel trims were at -30%! At first I wondered why adding the S/C would cause the ECU to cut that much fuel. But my theory is that it wasn't actually cutting fuel. I think the larger injectors didn't need to work as hard to flow the same fuel as before the install, thus showing a 30% decrease in fuel trims.

Anyways, after the reflash, fuel trims were back to 0, give or take a point.

My dealer printed out the ECU reprogramming report for me to show me the before and after ECU codes. The post-reflash codes matched the one listed for my truck in the TRD instruction booklet and I was good to go!

 

Can anyone shed some light as to why this supercharger isn't listed for the '03-'09 4Runner?

 

yes reflash is really necessary or any kind of good tune.. with larger injectors, the ecu is always gonna remove some fuel because the fuel mapping/injector opening is stock and is tuned for smaller injectors.. with larger injectors, the time of injector remains same on stock tune but the volume of fuel delivered is much more so the ecu cuts fuel to try correcting the fuel ratio.. but with without reflash tune will be out of wack, plus ignition need to be tuned too for forced induction..

s/c may help a lot for power but if towing is a priority and done frequently i think it would be a better idea to upgrade to a bigger truck that is suited for your application.. true the s/c will get you the power but to unleash the power you would have run it at high loads, and for frequent prolonged periods it will equate to increased wear on you v6 and poor fuel economy and even more stress on your drivetrain. just my .02 cent

 

The s/c will fit, but toyota decided to not make a reflash for the computer. I also think its because they have a v8 option.

Also there are a few 4runners that have installed the s/c, and used the unichip or the urd FTC to tune it. Look on YouTube for videos of it. One of them is a gold 4r.

 

I agree with you about the reflash but disagree regarding towing, engine loads and drivetrain stress.

You're not going full throttle all the time when towing. If you need a certain amount of force to tow something down the highway, the drivetrain doesn't care if you have a N/A V6 working at 70% load or a S/C V6 working at 50% load. The same work is being done by the motor and this same work is transferred to the drivetrain, so you shouldn't see any additional wear just going down the road.

I haven't towed much with the S/C yet but I got the same mileage towing the same stuff down the same road while N/A as I did with the S/C on the way back - 13.5mpg. No better, no worse. Highway mileage when unloaded is better than it was N/A.

Going back to engine loads, my OBD II scanner showed engine load to be about 10-15% less to maintain a given speed with the S/C compared to without.

I think the S/C does induce more stress on the drivetrain and motor, but only when it causes the motor to output more than it otherwise would have stock. How much that happens is up to the driver.

 

There is some good thoughts here. You guys rock! I still don't know for sure what I am going to do. Probably eventually I will end up with a diesel mostly because I do need to be able to tow heavier than my taco will go, and also because I have always preferred diesel power. However I am thinking about building a 1994-5 ford crew cab 4wd with a cummins 12-valve 5.9 diesel. If I go that way, will likely keep the taco for my running-around / beach truck. Sure would be nice if toyota would juice up the 4 litre V6; agree that it most likely is underpowered on purpose or else they would not provide a factory option of a supercharger.

 

I just took the first road trip in the truck last week.

TRD S/C, URD Catback, DTLT, and the APR X-1 and I got 21 mpg

I was plenty happy with that

Justin

 

You got a point here but remember, in the forced induction world throttle position becomes a lesser factor compared to N/A.. Even on partial throttle as soon as you hit boost, you are already introducing a denser amount of air and fuel mixture into the cylinders at this point you are already beyond the NA form, more than NA form could flow air into the cylinder.. this would translate bigger power output but as well as more heat and pressure on the motor thus more stress. % load on NA and FI is not done the same way, load on NA is done based on the max amount air flow the motor can suck into create a mixture.. in this case it has to be WOT (true for NA) while FI is based on the amount of boost created on the intake manifold create the dense mixture, regardless of Throttle position.. Touching both FI and NA, load/stress on the motor is based on the density on Fuel & air on the cylinder.. more density= more power= more heat= more stress

Now the OP is looking to get more power while towing, that means he is going to boost with supercharger.. WOT or not he will see boost to get what he needs.. You can have a turbo or s/c all day and cruise easy and not hit boost, in situations like this your are driving on your vehicle's NA form.


An example here based on the OP concern, comparing my 4cyl forced induced scion tc, max of 251 wtq at 3500rpms at 5 psi of boost.. it yields that power at 5psi but its only at partial throttle but its on a high load. Now does it mean it can tow same amount of weight like my v6 tacoma where it makes about same tq? maybe yes, but not on its NA state. now which one is working harder.. the vehicle that requires boost to get power or the one that scavenge its own airflow naturally?
Now drivetrain, s/c tacoma to get higher output to haul a heavier load than whats its designed to or a 3/4 ton diesel truck designed to haul that kind of load.. which one has more stress?

hope i make my point clear but sometimes i over simplify and forget to touch on important points lol

 

Excellent discussion. My problem is that when I need to tow it is around 8000 lbs. Clearly this is in excess of what the taco will do. This will not happen super frequently, but on a fairly regular basis. Second big problem is I stand to lose over $13000 if I trade in my truck. That is a big hit to take on a vehicle less than a year old. My taco is running flawlessly (guess I was lucky and got a good one) and works just fine for me for all the other times I don't need to tow.

Thanx for responses has helped learn more about what the SC does and does not do.

 

hi , im from costa rica , i bought the trd supercharger for my 2006 tacoma , and im having a big problem...I went to the toyoto to do the ecu reflash and they dont know what im talking about... Do you think taht you can send me the the codes or something so that they know what to do..

Im the first in all costa rica instaling a sc to a tacoma.

Also i have a litle question. Right behind the two principal hoses, the ones of the intercooler pump, ther a little thing for another hose.Origintal it come with a cap do yi have to take it off o leave it that way?


Thanks alot with every help ypu can give me.

My email is rffe@hotmail.com

 

Congratulation. The little nipple in the back is for a boost gauge that you can install in the cabin. If you don't have a gauge ,, leave it plugged.
The re flush is done thru the internet by the dealer and I would be surprise that you will obtain any info like this from somewhere else. The dealer is connecting the car to the main frame at Toyota and there is nothing else that they are doing. Once the new program is loaded,, they get a confirmation
Ask your dealer to call toyota IT or TECH department in the US and they should be able to help him.

Good luck