What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Can't say I've heard my odds explained like that before haha.

Gotta love living in California where everything is illegal. I would've done the deck plate mod but I would've failed the SMOG visual inspection. I went ahead and bought a K&N CAI simply because it comes with that small CA CARB approved sticker that exempts it. I probably would've gotten better results with the deck plate mod too.

 

Buy a stock air box - I'm thinking about it. It would be a good compliment to the headers I'm ordering and the port and polish job I'm going to do on my intake plenum and eventually some new heads. Plus there's no such thing for the 5vz as a carb legal intake...

 

Did K&N not make one for the 5VZ? Huh. I had the documentation for their legal certified intakes and the list was a couple pages long.

I still have my stock air box in case I need to swap it out. I gotta say the K&N gives me tons of problems with the stupid P0171 code but I'll be damned if it doesn't like nice and sounds amazing.

I was accelerating on the freeway on ramp with by buddy and he actually said "I like the sound, but not the speed."

Like I was going probably 40-50 pedal on the floor, but the intake made it sound like I was accelerating at 70.

 

4cyl sounds good with a nice open exhaust with a chambered muffler, a straight through glass pack or glass packed chamber like Magnaflow tends to make it sound like a pissy Honda D series. But intake side is already pretty good from the factory, just replacing the rubber elbows and metal tubes with plain aluminum intake tubing and silicone couplings would be enough to get the sound without having a hot air exposed (easy to get wet) intake like the K&N.

 

I was thinking of changing out the headers - would that help sound wise? I think it was LCE who made them.

Exhaust wise, any recommendations? I was looking at the Magnaflow but I'm not about to have this truck sound like a Honda Civic. Lol.

Really the limiting factor for me here is CARB certification and passing SMOG. Cali is a real bitch sometimes.

 

I have the LCE headers, they are a quality piece. Very nice grumble added to the exhaust. I like my Flowmaster, not for any performance reasons... Tuner guys love to get in a panty bunching competition about Flowmaster vs anything with a laminar design. Honestly these trucks like a little restriction for torque (ever seen the inside of the stock muffler) and the Flowmaster is still much less restrictive than stock. Mine added a nice grumble and is plenty loud but it can drone at times too. I'm sure I've posted this before but here it is again...

https://youtu.be/xlvJGunwQe4

And just for grins, here it is with just the headers and nothing else...

https://youtu.be/prRKD4Fdu1w

 

Wow that sounds great. How much do you have invested into that setup?

 

$80 for the muffler (Flowmaster 40 Series Delta Flow), whatever the headers cost ~$350?, And $60 to have the muffler welded in and the new side exit bent.

The idle is so tame and deep sounding in person, I love it. Actually really missing it right now, the cruiser just sounds, well... Quiet haha

 

That's not bad at all. How bad is the header job?

*cough* turbo the land cruiser *cough*

 

bout 45 mins, 50 if you decide you wanna finish your beer

 

Not that I've seen that's carb legal. This is what I'll put in my stock air box instead:

$93 aFe POWER Magnum FLOW OE Replacement Air Filter w/Pro DRY S Media for Toyota Tacoma 95-04 V6-3.4L #31-10013

https://www.amazon.com/aFe-Power-31-10013-Air-Filter/dp/B001ABORFW

Still on the fence about adding on the $40 expert installation

lol so that's what I'll sound like driving the two and a half miles down a major 6 lane street when I am headed to the exhaust shop. Hopefully I don't come up next to a LEO at a red light. I'll be like "I think someone did something with my exhaust - gotta go get it checked out right now!"

That sounds pretty ballsy with the headers - got that old school throaty sound. I like it.

 

Yeah I Got lucky with the box, he just put it on the curb on trash day. It is probably 35-40 pounds empty so its stout, yeah and being step side there isnt a box thatll fit between the rails like normal, and if there is- cost wouldnt be worth it. good luck on the search, maybe even look into old ammo boxes? might find something in that area for size

 

Bought some schat, painted some schat, got my pipes cleaned:

 

So I have a 1996 4Runner front differential. I'm guessing it's vacuum actuated based on the fact that it does not have an electronic plug in for an actuator. I'm trying to use it in my PreRunner 4x4 Conversion. I am going to be running manual hubs.

Is there a way to lock it permanently, essentially making it a manual tube? Or should I buy the jackshaft/axle tube off a Tacoma with manual hubs? I don't know if there will be an adverse affect if I locked the ADD permanently, or if it will be better to just use a fully manual jackshaft,

 

Yes - that's how my add to manual swap was done by the po. @Blackdawg, @DJB1, or someone like them can explain it in more detail. I haven't got into it yet.

 

Would it be better if I used a manual tube? I don't know if there will be any adverse affect on the wear of the differential or the axles or anything if I kept it locked permanently. I'm pretty sure I have a vacuum actuated ADD.

 

Honestly I don't know. I've only had the truck since Jan and it's been driven two hundred miles home from buying it and around the block twice a week lol. Those guys should chime in at some point today. I think the manual tube would be good for simplicity's sake. I'm going to have to swap out my diff because I don't want the Aussie locker that's in there. I will learn a lot more about it when I do I'm sure.

 

I gotcha. I just don't want to spend money on a new axle tube if I don't have to. But if locking the vacuum ADD tube will cause premature wear or damage I'll just swap the tube for a manual jackshaft.

 

It won't cause damage, you just have to manually lock it that first time, and then never unlock it. I will have a spare manual tube soon though.

 

Oh yeah I'll PM you.