TRD/ Magnuson 4.0 Supercharger Tips, Tricks, and Mods

I'm seeing AFRs in the mid to low 10s with this cooler weather in the 40s-60s.

 

I have heard the theory about sensor damage resulting from richness. However I don't know if there's a ton of truth to it. The worst thing about richness (aside from damaging cats, which I don't have any more) is that more gasoline is pushed into the crank case, which necessitates changing oil more often.

 

I had a P0136 code last month (bad circuit on the rear O2 sensor) and when I pulled it, it was coated in black residue/soot and someone here told me it was from running rich...although I admit I wasn't sure how that could be possible because if anything I was running way too lean (prior to the 7th). Anyhow, take it for it's worth...I replaced the sensor with a new one and the code went away immediately. But it might just be that the soot on the sensor was normal, I dunno. Seemed weird to have had to replace it though when it only had about 50k miles on it.

I did have a bad cat about a year ago (this prompted me to get the 7th injector) and it might be that the sensor got compromised when I was running with a failing cat for a little while

 

Interesting. Well I certainly don't want to pretend to be an expert here. Regardless it's not ideal to have too rich or too lean, and it's best to just be properly tuned, but as you say, too lean is worse.

 

one thing the supercharged/boosted life has taught me, is that there's no end to what I need to or can do to make things operate more optimally, lol. Which of course means it's a bottomless money pit

 

I put a 100k+ miles on my 1st gen w/ TRD SC and stock cats and never had a problem from a rich TRD tune.

There's a lot of people running the TRD tune and I bet most have rich AFRs without burning up the cats prematurely. Granted it probably does shorten the life of the cat in the long run, but who wants stock cats for the life of their supercharger

Sounds like an excuse for LT headers!

 

Those of us that live in CA and are forced to deal with CARB and emissions crap, haha.

Fortunately when I needed new cats, 1st gen Tacomas have several CARB friendly options that are WAAAAYYYY cheaper than what Toyota wanted for OEM cats (almost $3k). I got 2 Magnaflows installed for $600 instead.

Anyhow, mine went out because of running too lean...which will kill a cat in short order compared to running rich. Along with a host of other potential long term issues. I agree I'd rather be running too rich than too lean, any day

 

Yessir, id much rather run overly rich than too lean.. why was yours running lean?

 

unfortunately it is/was a common issue for the 1st gen boosted Tacos...the 3.4l would either embrace boost with open arms or hate it. Mine was one of the latter, unfortunately. I bought the truck with the blower already installed by the PO so I wasn't all that familiar with the issues that lurked underneath, by the time I figured out I was running lean it was already time to replace the front cat. I got the URD 7th injector installed and all is well now, at least I hope.

 

Interesting. Kinda sounds like the early first gens 1995.5-1997 models iirc. The 95's would want to run lean, so you'd have to swap out the ECUs with one from a 97, or something like that.. Kinda seems like maybe my factory ecu doesn't like boost, but I have a 2013, so that doesn't make much sense.

 

The early 1st gens up to '97 couldn't run superchargers because the ECU would fight to retard the timing and couldn't be altered, the later models had an ECU that could handle it. I think the lean issue was just something they didn't anticipate with the 3.4, which I think is why TRD actually used to sell a 7th injector kit as well (I think they actually had one available before URD did). It was discontinued several years ago though. It basically did the same thing except the TRD 7th kit didn't come with an upgraded fuel pump.

 

Ahhh, yes, that's what it was I remember reading about. What kind of boost numbers is your blower making?

 

just the stock 7psi, usually a little bit under since we usually have pretty hot weather here. Another thing that kind of sucks about the 1st gen Taco superchargers is that they don't have built in intercoolers like your guys' blowers do, so they get heat soaked really easily. The 7th sort of helps with that but ideally I want a methanol setup...but CA frowns upon that

 

hmmm... I wonder if there's a market for concealed meth injection kits.

 

I'd buy one lol. Actually the URD 7th kit is illegal to have on in CA too, which is why on URD's website it says 'not for use in CA' or 'racing use only' or something to that effect. I had to get smogged after getting mine installed and was really nervous about it because it does sort of stand out in the engine bay, but luckily the tech didn't catch it. I wrapped the shiny steel braided fuel line in black electrical tape to make it stand out less, lol. The only other thing that would stand out is the piggyback controller but it's mounted up behind my glove box.

 

Which version of the SC did you run on that one?

Nice black supercharged Pro btw

 

That's pretty funny. It doesn't surprise me that techs who inspect for that stuff aren't exactly the most competent. Luckily that can work in your favor. People like me and @rjbiii who live in the wild west are lucky... I can't even count the number of things I've installed that came with a "for racing use only" warning in the box.

 

yeah I'm jealous of you guys for that. The tech was detailed too, he told me he could fail me because the TRD headers I have on my truck have a part # matched to an 03 Tacoma and mine is an 04. He decided to "let me slide" because everything else checked out with flying colors. Dumb stuff like that they pay close attention to.

 

I kind of wonder if these techs are just backyard mechanics who couldn't competently work on cars. Those who can, do; those who can't, become emissions testing tech inspectors.

 

I know this is digging up the past but I am trying to play catch up since I was gone for 9 days elk hunting.

Stupid question but ever since the Ucon was installed my truck has done this and I figured it was supposed to, but?

Is the MIL light supposed to flash twice right after start up? I did not install so I don't know if this was addressed in the install instructions.