My Supercharger Install Experience

My basic truck is a:
1996 Toyota Tacoma
5vz-fe
5 Speed
4wd ADD
9in lift front/10.5 lift rear
35x12.50's


Well needless to say I have been looking for some more giddy-up for a while now. I have 35" tires and they are relentless on my engine. I finally found me a used 1st Generation TRD Supercharger in Florida. I went ahead and had it shipped to the shop. At the same time I went ahead and ordered a 1997 4Runner ECU incase my 1996 Tacoma ECU didnt work. (I didnt want to be stuck with a truck that wouldn't run).

And here is where my Supercharger 1/2 Rebuild and Full Rebuild Begin(Hope yall enjoy/ learn from my mistakes):


Here is what arrived at the shop on Thursday:



I removed these parts from the passenger side of my yota. You simply need a 10mm socket and a Phillips Screwdriver.



And There She Is!



Simply swapped out the 1996 Tacoma ECU for the 1997 4Runner ECU and got everything put back together.



I took the truck for a test drive and everything worked perfect. The only thing I noticed was when I turned on my AC the truck will not idle up. Which is irrelevant to me because my AC doesnt even work. Anyways now onto the 'Down and Dirty' part of my build.

This arrived Friday at the shop:



I was unsure whether it was in perfect mechanical condition so I decided it was best to split her about and check everything out.





Everything checked out decent including the bearings; however, I went ahead and continued the tear down and clean up/ paint.

I sandblasted the inside of the manifold:



Cleaned up the rotor housing:



Everything I took apart was washed in a cleaning solvent and then washed clean, dried, and painted with Gloss Black Engine Enamel.




It was time to reassemble. I was up late and for some reason I never painted a little section on the Supercharger which was still gray.. I would later get it painted before it went on the truck:




Alright as a recap.... So far I've installed the 1997 4Runner ECU and 1/2 way rebuilt my SuperCharger. Now onto the SC Install:

This was a picture before my install:




Stock Manifold Unbolted and Ready to reinstall the new components.



Already to Go:





Boost gauge Install:





I was driving one day and noticed i wasnt getting much boost on my gauge so I popped the hood and found this:



^--- Could definitely cause a slight malfunction in my gauge......


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Update: The 1997 ECU was making my truck lope like a diesel( - or a vacuum leak). Before I found the leak I swapped back to my Stock 1996 Tacoma ECU and it actually works perfect. Even at 5PSI of boost she runs strong. I guess that means once again toyota gave me wrong info.. I am not surprised.
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Thanks for reading my thread/build/help/guide.. If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me. I will probably get to your question faster than if you just comment on here.

I also gotta give a shout out to my friends Jason and Matt for helping me with this build.

 

FYI. I'd seriously consider regearing. Will ad more pep to the truck more then the supercharger.

Interesting on the ecu swapping though...I have seen a few 96s boosted now with no issues..

 

If you dont mind me asking, how much did you get the supercharger for? Looks awesome btw.

 

I payed right around 1k for the Supercharger (Less than 20k Miles - bearings still in great shape), bolts, belt, pulley, A pillar, boost gauge, FMU and shipping. Compared to what I have seen the 1st Generation chargers go for on here it might seem high but I couldn't find any around my town. (Charlotte, North Carolina) I actually called two people closer to my house but of course they never answered their phones.

It is definitely my favorite mod I have done to my truck so far.

 

Spoke with matt monday and he mentioned you doing this. Weird how I stumbled upon it on here. I have some pullies in the for sale section that may interest you. I also have something else that may interest you as well no on here for sale. Also I am good at tuning if you need any help with that. Also local to ya. I know performance dealing with the 5vz as I had my 02 n/a, sc, then turbo before I sold it..... I will be at shop where matt works friday 9am for alignment if you want to talk or pm me for my contact info. Matt has my number too! Looking good so far.

 

Ha thats funny, Matt and Jason have helped me out a lot with everything I have done to my truck. Great guys. I will be helping pour concrete at MPHS on friday so I wont be able to make it over there. I will shoot you a text once my phone gets charged.

 

regear.....