New Engine

I watched a review comparing the Frontier, Tacoma, and Colorado not long ago and they said the Tacoma felt like it had the best low end torque out of the three. Run it on 91 octane and it supposedly makes more torque lower than the Colorado does.

 

Not surprising. The Tacoma 4.0l makes peak torque at about 3400 rpm, the new Colorado 3.6l peak torque at about 4300 rpm.

Motor Trend or whomever can talk about the new Chevy 305 HP being a better tower, but that 305 HP comes at 6800 rpm. You run the motor at high rpm's that supposed 20 mpg combined goes way down, and your motor also doesn't last long. I'm sceptical about this GM 3.6l being so great. The initial love of it doesn't seem to be holding up since Edmunds longterm test after 7500 miles shows 17.5 mpg overall.

I bet that nice towing power the testers talk about with the 3.6l motor is running at high rpm's. I see the tow/haul mode on the twins is actually meant to keep the motor at high rpm's.

We'll see how Toyota attacks this with the 3.5l. I'd like to see lower HP say 280 and more torque, say 305-310. I don't know if that is possible, but that's what I'd like to see.

 

My friend's 1964 Rambler with a flathead (I believe) V6 has the oil filter on top. I agree it is great, but a Toyota engineer did not come up with the idea. See image partway down the page at http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2008/05/19/ramblers-preserved-and-preposterous/

 

I also find it odd that they have a truck engine that needs to rev to 7k. Daily driving mine, I almost never go above 2500, and I only actually hit that if I take off a little quicker than usual or I'm on steep hills. It just doesn't need to.

I watched the Colorado towing videos TFL did and they criticized the Frontier and Tacoma for not having tow/haul mode. I don't think they don't really need it. The transmission knows what to do and the engine doesn't have to rev high for power. I towed a little over a cord of freshly cut oak and maple firewood with mine this winter and it did fantastically. I'm not sure on weight, but between the wood and a 900 lb trailer I was probably very close to or maybe slightly above above the 6500 lb limit. We have some steep inclines around here and it never once struggled. Sure, I knew the load was behind me but it definitely had the guts to handle it. I always had throttle to spare even on the steepest of inclines.

 

Why are any of these 3rd gen threads still active? We have not been given any more info since the Detroit Auto Show!

 

From Chevrolet:
3.6L powertrain produces: 305 hp @ 6800 rpm and 269 lb-ft of torque @ 4000 rpm

From Toyota:
4.0-liter DOHC 24-Valve V6 with VVT-i; 236 hp @ 5200 rpm; 266 lb.-ft. @ 4000 rpm

Same RPM, 3 more ft lbs

Those numbers you posted are a good wish, similar to the 4.3 in the Silverado. Ideally i'd like to see similar #'s with peak HP around 5900 and peak TQ around 3200-3400 realistically in a V6 midsize truck. Doubt we will see that with the 3.5 Tacoma, probably have very similar #'s to the Colorado. Have heard it isn't bad at all, little lacking down low but nothing crazy and plenty of go once moving.

I am not familiar with the Atkins cycle, does it do anything more for torque or HP?

This was a fairly good review of power and towing near the limits for a canyon, figure the taco will be some what similar in the power department with the 3.5.

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/03/2015-gmc-canyon-long-term-review-max-towing-test.html

HP is wanted just as much as TQ. Give me an equal balance of both. Watching all those ike gauntlet tests, none of the competitors are idling up at their peak torque, all are singing away at peak HP (even the big bad diesels, they aren't going up at 1800 RPM but pushing 3k rpm). HP is important. If I had to make a choice, I would rather have more HP than TQ so I can keep speed on the highway going up hills or safely make it on an on ramp to highway speeds. I can go a little easier around town down a little bit on TQ (just push the pedal down a little further makes up for it) but I can't make up for HP which can be a safety hazzard in some instances.

I have owned a few of the low HP high TQ 4.3 towing a 5500 lb boat. Did great pulling from a stop sign and driving stop light to stop light, sucked horribly trying to keep highway speeds at any sign of a hill or even accelerate to highway speeds. 200 hp but 250ish ft lbs way down low at 2800 RPM. Check out the 3.0 Eco Diesel towing 6k up the ike gauntlet. It struggled, 240 hp wasn't enough to keep speeds, finished way behind the 3.6 Canyon towing a similar weight.

Tow haul mode is supposed to help keep it a little higher (closer to peak HP and TQ) but also a big thing is keep it from constantly shifting back and forth. It holds gears much longer until for sure it can shift and stay there, it does a good job on grades. Eager to downshift and hold until cresting the hill and aids in engine braking going down. Still manual shifting helps like always.

Tyler

 

You nailed it with the description of the 4.3. I've had a 4.3 in a 2000 blazer and it felt great and torquey but was a complete dog at highway speeds carrying any weight. The same was true for the 5.3 and 5.7 V8s that we had in 1500s. They just didn't have the power to overtake or get up to speed in any reasonable fashion. It felt like you were killing it trying to hit 65 with a jeep or boat on the back.

 

I don't think it can be done easily. The engine bay is entirely different. The transmission is a six speed with gears calibrated to it as well......you would need to include that. Heck, you might as well drop in a diesel from the cruise ship Allure of the seas.
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