Any truth to this article?

Ive def done that before. My biggest problem with Toyota (and I don't have many), is they are known to hold back on certain tech and upgrades while other companies are pushing things out like fancy navigation and driver aids. Their reasoning is because they want to perfect it and make sure its "ready" to go into the vehicles. Thats all great and stuff, but they why is it that when they finally release that stuff, it still has issues...................

 

Cause they're lazy and the "we want to perfect it" line is just an excuse. How else do you explain the fact that the Tacoma engine is pretty much dropped in right from the Camry with barely any changes to make it more appropriate for a truck?

 

No way the guy's a troll. We're only 347 posts in...........

 

along of cunning work, quick thinking, oh and a light speed engine. I simply jumped back in time, told former me that future me had already crossed this channel and the resulting ripple through time and space caused chaos.

 

A. The guy's obviously taking some liberties and embellishing things to make him out to be the victim.
B. Toyota is making money hand-over fist by capitalizing on novice 4x4 drivers and then leaving them hanging.

The two ideas/facts/situations are not mutually exclusive. Both parties can be equally culpable, depending on how you wanna look at it. My blood would be boiling if I bought a vehicle whose entire marketing model for the last three years had been as a backcountry, do-it-all, offroad machine and it then lost pressure and smoked on inclines I can do in 2WD. At the same time, that marketing does not grant the buyer carte blanche to do whatever arbitrary levels of off-roading they deem appropriate within the safety net of the vehicle's warranty.

IF the author had truly just been driving through a shallow puddle and then climbed a basic couple of hills, I'd say he's 100% entitled to having this covered. But his conflicting accounts over on ExPort and whatnot make that seem less and less likely. And if he decided to push through with the low pressure indicator knowing the risks, when he could've had someone pull out some winch line or explored other options, it seems as though he's gotta take some of that medicine. I dunno.

 

I didn't read all 18 pages of this, but damn, I'd be livid if I was that guy too... I'm no expert, but I have seen a couple of hydrolocked trucks and I doubt he could have driven it at all after that. Unless he's flat out lying, but it sounds like there is a documented dealership visit in there proving it was at least running after the water crossing. The hydrolocks I've seen, the truck was done instantly, there was no driving 1 mile down the highway let alone 100+. So that sounds like a major cop out from Toyota.

I have a 2nd gen, and every time I see a thread about the smoking on inclines issue with the new Tacomas it blows my mind. Most west coast cities have hills too steep for those trucks. My girlfriend's driveway is too steep for those trucks. Nearly every river launch that I launch my drift boat at would blow the motor on a 3rd gen. I literally could not drive that truck for those reasons. I'm amazed that Toyota did this to the Tacoma line. Not trying to be a jerk or disparage you 3rd gen owners, but honestly that's ridiculous...

 

They did make changes to the engine... they made it suck

 

The 4 L 1GR-FE was designed from the ground up to be a truck motor. Tacoma, 4Runner, FJ cruser, Land Cruser, Hilux, and Tundra. The original 3.5 L 2GR-FE was not ever put in any truck. The highlander is not a truck folks. I'm not sure what they've done to it to make it a truck motor but I sure as hell don't want it in my truck.

 

This forum is full of idiotic tropes, but the number one “full retard” thing repeated, ad nausea, is the idea that “car engines” and “truck engines” are a thing.

Let me explain it to you. "Car engines" get revved to 5000 rpm just to get going, like all the V6 automatic Toyota vehicles. "Truck engines" develop more torque at lower rpm's so they don't need to rev to 5k rpm and sound like a wheezing asthmatic while doing so. Funny how Subaru, VW, Audi, Honda, pretty much every other carmaker out there understands that people want peak torque at 2.5k rpm, not 10k. But hey, Toyota and their engineers must know better, right?

 

Ughhh.

 

I’m just happy a couple more people get it.

 

Gotta

agree with him there. When they design engines, they do the math for compression and stroke and all that other stuff based on what vehicle it’s going into, and how much it weighs and what it’s designed for. That 3.5 is definitely not matched with the Tacoma properly. The worst company to do that generalized engine thing is Chrysler with that 3.6 pentastar. And look how bad it’s been. That’s very well possibly the worst engine on the market today

Edit: but it saves the company money!

 

Good. You found the Wikipedia page on the Toyota GR series of engines. Noting that, you should be able to infer that the basic architecture of the engines will be the same. It's the bore and stroke that will be different. Not likely the oil drain back holes.

 

BTW, both the Small Block Chevrolet and the Big Block Chevrolet were car motors.

 

Just the camshaft profile , cyl heads , compression and intake manifold changed

Would have been nice to have L88 BBC in a p/up though !!!

 

From what I read on his website, and can see from his photos, he took a BRAND new truck off-roading and towed a trailer, the issue I see is that he didn't break in his engine. it probably had only 200 miles on it. When I bought mine they said no towing till after the first oil change and to take it easy for the first 1000 miles. I think they also gave me a paper about it too. His pictures still had the paper plates from the dealer.

 

A brand new engine of any vehicle put through those rough challenges, towing and hard off roading up hills, running high RPMs going through mud and water, will have problems guaranteed.

 

To be fair, they were overpowered for those cars, which is why they work well in trucks. Maybe!

 

There's practically no break in required on newer motors of today . My new 406sbc the break in consists of starting the engine up listen for unusual noises , check oil pressure , coolant temps then check for leaks

Take it track proceed with 5krpm burnout then pull up to the starting line and wait for the green light . After a couple of 6800 rpm shifts the engine is properly broken in !!!!