Supercharger upgrade worth the cost?

I didn’t realize that. I planned on adding a S/C to my ‘02 T4R, but never got around to it.

I’m glad I sold it and bought a ‘15 Tacoma.

 

Other extra costs to consider - filling up with 91 octane (minimum), boost and AFR gauges (some don't run AFR gauges but I think it's critical to be able to accurately monitor the overall health of your setup), supercharger oil changes, belt changes and rebuilds every ~100k or so. This is all assuming you have a healthy setup and aren't suffering from a too lean or too rich condition, which will add up extra costs very quickly if you don't take care of them.

Most find that they need fuel modifications to run optimally which can include running a 7th injector + piggyback ECU, larger fuel pump, larger injectors, methanol injection...or any combo of the above. Especially if you want to run a smaller pulley and push more boost

 

Those pancake supercharger intercoolers are failure prone and if not properly maintained can cause an engine to hydro lock

 

I love my new supercharger! I’ve put about 1500 miles on it so far. I installed it at 250k miles, with no issues. I purchased mine from urd with the 7th injector kit combined and got a pretty good discount. This option makes it a one part number purchase, and you get a complete kit with everything you need and a proper tune.
You can save some money by purchasing a used one, but remember unless you personally know the person you’re purchasing it from, you don’t know what you’re buying, or why it was removed.

 

I love my supercharger!! had 2 of them now. You need a 7th injector kit no matter what anyone says...It has the better fuel pump
(walbro worm gear pump) spark plugs. high pressure fuel line tap kit (this was the messy part no matter how you try and remove fuel pressure) But it is all in the URD kit. I would also recommend chopping the exhaust at the collector and going 3" all the way back . 1. chop at collector leaving the flange alone. 1 Catalytic converter high spun\flow ceramic cat $78.00 and mark where the 2nd rear cat was supposed to be and just drill the hole for the O2 sensor in the exact location and distance from from the factory piece you cut off that had the old cat. weld on a Bung\Nut whatever (you) call it for the rear o2 sensor. and the truck cannot tell difference with 1 cat. way better power sound and flow. also you need a cold air intake or deck plate mod if your cheap and want it to work the same (its dyno proven no difference power (10 hp) but wallet safe. If you want to go faster and not wheel offroad consider a rear sway bar kit great for auto cross w\short throw shifter stage 2 clutch ect.
Here is what i personally run.
S\C $2400.00 new* dealer kit* Wholesale re-seller only price***
7th kit $895
A.I.C additional injector controller $435
2.1 S\C pulley $129 was now $99
Crankshaft pulley $299 was now $199
dynamic tension pulley $99
Urd speed unlimited $149
glo shift boost gauge $99
exhaust $450 I have a set TRD headers in my basement there going on when i do my front solid axle swap
Competition stage 3+ segmented ceramic clutch $520 + $450 labor
Cold air intake air raid $250 Wasted-money-Looks Cool-dirty a lot.
I have a wide band O2 tuning kit also. where i refined the map from the Urd kit to my altitude and tune. Also tuned out any trouble spots in live time driving using data-logging. But the URD map is pretty damn Awesome by itself!

****$5950.00 and i have run this combo for over 6 yrs Solid performance!!
Also i run my own custom blend of fuel at About 75% 105 octane non-ethanol race fuel mixture and 25% non-ethanol 91 pump gas. make the truck haul a$$.

 

Just a heads up those are the standard 3RZ pink injectors, only the 01-04 years got them but they're standard equipment and have plenty of headroom for the SC.

 

this would be what i would do if you got the cash. https://www.urdusa.com/urdmagnuson-super-combo-5vz-3-4l-supercharger-system/

 

If I we're to do it again I'd get a methanol kit over the 7th injector...it raises the octane level of your fuel to prevent pinging and does a much better job of cooling the intake than the 7th injector kit does. And it's half the price...only thing I'd add to the meth kit would be the larger fuel pump. The cooler spark plugs should come with the supercharger kit anyhow

 

Be careful, meth is addictive. I'm gonna run it NA on the cruiser this summer

 

Not gonna boost that beast? Didn't TRD sell kits for the cruiser for a short time? I think I read somewhere (maybe it was you) where the LCs engines don't handle boost well

 

Naw, it has the torque curve of a diesel and moves itself around well already. But it is 9:1 compression so boost would be fine. But the 93-94 computer and to a lesser extent the 95-97 computer don't like boost much. They need a standalone or a really good piggyback, much like the Tacomas really. There are three SC kits and two turbo kits for them though haha.

 

1997 tacoma v6 trucks DO like the superchargers

 

I'm almost 100% sure your less dense concentration of air has everything to do with that. My truck loves it too when I get above 2500ft

 

When I was driving up to Tahoe a few weeks back from ~Bishop all the way up to Tahoe we were in high elevation and freezing temps, I couldn't make my truck ping if I wanted to...it loved those conditions. And that's unheard of when I'm here at home close to sea level, esp in summer...when I have to drive carefully in order to prevent pinging

 

1995 and 1996 had the old ECU, 1997 is when the ECU was changed and compatible for the supercharger

 

Im aware but even with the 97+ ecus for the 5vz they have horrible pinging issues and an ignition table that would make any tuner scream and run with boost applied haha. They have very little enrichment for part throttle boost and tend to run lean only amplifying the pinging issues cause by the poor spark advance mapping (your FMU brute forces this fuel issue well enough but I bet you'd see 50 or more hp just with a real computer and a proper tune).

Also the 4cyls never had this computer glitch, but they do have the same lack luster part throttle boost and low RPM boost pinging issues the 5vz is plagued with.

 

After reading this thread I am glad I never got a SC. I hate ping. I had an '86 Jimmy with a 305 v8 that no matter what I did, would ping so bad. I got rid of it based upon that ping. I remember almost buying a Thunderbird SC with a SC'd v6. It had beautiful power but pinged so bad I ran like hell from it after a test drive.
Ping is bad. It ruins engines. Guys here who've overcome ping my hat's off to ya and may you enjoy yours forever because of your efforts.

 

It's really not hard to combat if you can tune the problem areas. Theres a reason newers cars with boost do better and last longer. They can account for more variables and better monitor air fuel ratios. But these old trucks aren't tunable and slapping boost on them without a way to adjust at least the ignition and fueling does them no favors.

 

I'm looking to get a meth kit even though I've done good fuel and timing mods. I want to get that e85 feeling again without having to fill up on e85.

 

Be worth it for the cooling effect alone, especially when temps here in Socal get hot as hell in the summer