03 Supercharged engine rebuild

Good evening TacomaWorld,

Sad Tacoma: 2003 3.4l Xtra cab, manual, supercharged, URD 7th injector, 17X,XXX miles

I am in pretty desperate need of some advice on what to do here.

The situation is as follows:
I originally took my truck into a shop to troubleshoot an issue it was having on start-up where it would have a weird idle where it will bounce between 200 and 1500 rpm for about 20 seconds and then it will die. If I hold the RPMs at 2k or above it will eventually catch itself and run normally. Its started doing this on nearly every start-up and will occasionally do it while driving. That shop had little very little experience with supercharged engines and suspected it either be the URD 7th injector kit or the ECU itself. I ended up taking it to a performance shop where they threw it on a dyno at which it immediately showed a pressure issue on my number two-cylinder and they basically told me the engine was due for a rebuild. So I have it at an engine shop right now where the gentleman (incredibly knowledgable individual) has quoted me a nine thousand and some change rebuild and pretty much promised it better than stock and nearly bulletproof. That is where I find myself now.

My options:
Pay for the rebuild. I paid 9k for the truck, to begin with, so it seems silly to spend that same price on just an engine rebuild?

Sell the truck as is. I still currently owe just over six thousand on the loan and am not sure how close selling as is would get me to pay off.

Roll my current loan over into a new car. Not sure my credit or current employment agrees with this option.

The big caveat here is that I'm currently on military training orders and am slated to leave September 6th to my new station. So time is a huge factor. If I do decide to rebuild, the gentleman said he would need to start this weekend to be able to promise it done by the 6th. And if I decide to go with another option it would also have to be completed by then. So TacomaWorld, I am open to any and all suggestions here and appreciate it immensely!

I'm located in Petaluma California by the way! I have some maybe helpful pictures attached as well!

 

Good Lord! $9,000 for a rebuild!? Run away!

You can buy a low mileage JDM engine for $1,000.

 

^this. When places quote you super high like that, they don’t want to take on the work. Buy a used engine and sell the good parts from your engine to reduce overall cost.

 

$9,000 is ridiculous for an engine rebuild. That’s just highway robbery.

Pay $1,000 for a used engine, and another $1,000 for install. Hell, while you’re at it you can send the supercharger to High Speed Labs or Magnuson to get rebuilt for another $1,000-$1,500.

You’d still be under the $9k quote.

 

Wait until you get to your permanent station and take some leave to do it then. I wouldn’t risk the time it takes for the shop to do the engine rebuild. They’ll say anything to get your money. It’s just too risky and stressful to wonder if the truck will be ready in time too.

 

What makes his rebuild worth $9k in the first place? When I first read it I thought maybe you’ll go into detail as to why because I couldn’t believe it would cost $9k.

Reminds me of someone trying to sell a Prerunner Tacoma for $15k just because it’s a Tacoma.

I would listen to what others have said. Buy another engine for a $1k, worst case $2k even. Have someone install it for you for a $1k, worst case 2k even. You’ll still be way ahead once you’re done. Then you can take that $5k or more in savings and put it towards paying off the truck.

 

I wouldn't trust anyone that isn't a Toyota or import specialist with half that much of my money, but it still wouldn't be bulletproof in the way normal people want an engine to be bulletproof - ie not blowing a headgasket. Bulletproof as it woudln't have a rod or bearing fail from all 230 horsepower that the supercharged 3.4 puts out. Getting a replacement engine from a nearby engine supplier with the best feedback on google and social media and paying them or a good independent mechanic (recommended) would be between $2-3k.

 

At least he got forged internals on the rebuild? Still not sure that would make up for how high of a bill that was because holy cow that's as much as the truck probably! I wonder if they charging you so much because you're desperate to be getting the work done ASAP and they think they got you by the balls.

Not too familiar with rebuilds on this engine but would doing a rebuild with beefier forged components allow for higher performance/tuning with the supercharger as opposed to an OEM rebuild? Not sure if these components exist out there for the 3.4L but it would take you some more time to figure that out and procure those components.

I would agree with the others that for that hefty of a bill you should reevaluate and be patient if possible because for that price you could DO A LOT OF OTHER SWEET STUFF.

 

There’s nothing in the stock motor that breaks under load of the supercharger - I know anything I’d rebuild my engine with beyond a stock set of pistons and rods would probably be ported heads and lighter valves however at the end of the day the supercharger will never make enough power to make it a speed demon or breaking engine components unless you get a pulley small enough to make 30 lbs of boost lol.

 

$9K is cheap for a rebuild with forged parts !!!

there's a race engine shop near me that charges $7k just in machine work alone and a streetable 600 hp pump gas sbc averages $14k

 

Key word 600 hp haha - 3.4 needs more boost than a supercharger can reasonably produce to get nearly that much power. An actual race engine would be pricey since it’s got specific tolerances built in that allow it better performance at peak power range.

In a street machine tolerances like that wouldn’t be necessary (not that all all that power is even necessary lol). I looked up sbc crate motors and for less that $10k you could have a nice platform to make 600 plus with - assuming a we’re talking about a long block.

OP, get a real mechanic quote on a replacement engine - these guys don’t know what is in your best interest - they just want to take your money and laugh all the way to the bank. Anyone with a conscience would have told you it’s way overkill for the application you’re working with.

Perhaps soon someone will come out with a LS conversion kit otherwise we’ll keep having to dedicate money time and effort into building our fabrication shops and skills if we want the big hp’s haha

 

You guys have no idea how much I appreciate all of the feedback! I am admittedly very naive when it comes to any of this stuff but 9k definitely didnt sound right to me at all. It sounds like a new engine is the way to go here. Shes just a daily driver for me so I dont have any desires to go overboard but I definitely want something I can be confident will get me to my destination.

The gentleman's justification for 9k (again, pretty naive so I'm not 100% on what I'm talking about) is that he was going to do some form of custom fabrication (8 1/2 9-1 compression and custom pistons) allowing normal pressure in the cylinders to be around 150psi so that I can get more boost out of the supercharger (10-15lbs) the words forged parts was used alot too. Also upgrading the head gasket to multilayer shim?

Again, I cannot thank you all enough!

 

Stock head gaskets would be more than adequate - this guy put 450k miles on his original engine and has over 150k on his newer replacement engine (out of a totaled truck) with more power than most guys on here are making:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...on-reg-cab-600-000-miles-build-thread.478395/

 

Forged parts are lighter, stronger, and can reduce strain on the engine for a longer life; however, as others have said, the stock internals are PLENTY strong enough for even the super charged engine. The stock block also has specification limitations on how “over-bored” it can be. First rebuild is typically 20 thousandths over and then 40 thousandths over on a second rebuild if necessary. The amount of power gained, if any, from a larger piston that would fit that space is basically negligible (on our motors). Power gains from “built” engines mostly come from porting heads, swapping cams to ones with more lift, better valves, etc. In combination with this, a crankshaft in the block with more throw (stroke) for the piston to pull in more air, for a bigger “bang”, is what will maker larger horsepower gains. BUT, even if he did all that to the engine, you would then be creating yet another expense he left out... fuel upgrades. Introducing the capacity for more air means you’d need to introduce more fuel or you’ll just run lean all the time and it wouldn’t run all that well. And I haven’t even included tuning. Don’t get in too deep on your daily. Hell, you could LS swap for less than 9k I think. And that would get you more power than a “built” supercharged 3.4.

 

In that guys defense and like others mentioned if it's a rebuild to handle insane power it's not necessarily bad- but like others said this is not the use case for such a build. I like what was mentioned- jdm motor, S/C rebuild, get a good place to do it all, come in well under 9k.

I'd suspect the current tune as well. The 5vz is already bullet proof with low boost. To pop a motor I bet the tune is dicey, so budget for a good tuner or S upgrade.

 

Update on everything!

Found a guy willing to do an engine swap with a JDM engine with the engine coming in at 1500 after taxes and the rebuild quoted at 2000. I am so thankful for the advice and knowledge on this forum. You guys saved me right around 6 grand. I think I am also going to take the advice of a supercharger rebuild as I was not the original installer. Magnuson will be local to me once I move, with that knowledge, should I hold off on the install of the supercharger until I rebuild it or can I just drop my truck off at Magnuson when I eventually move down there?

As far as tunes go the only thing I have on it right now is the URD 7th injector kit which I'm not 100% of its function but I have been told multiple times I'd benefit from a chipset. Are there any good recommendations for that?

As always, Thank you!

 

The urd 7th works fine. If you really wanted to delve into tuning boomslang makes a plug and play harness for the aem fic6. But I’d put that up into the advanced user category

 

I’d give both Magnuson and High Speed Labs a call and see what’s cheaper. High Speed Labs does a lot of supercharger work for folks on here.

 

There’s really NO reason to pay for high performance parts to be put into the block of the 3.4 if your running a supercharger. The stock motor can easily handle the TRD boost. The supercharger can only spin so fast and can only produce so much boost. It’s actually a low boost item compared to a turbo.
Supercharger can create 10-12 pounds about max depending your altitude while a turbo can make 20 to 30 pounds. If your going turbo with 15 pounds or higher than you would need all the new forged parts.

The stock 3.4 motor can handle all the boost a TRD motor can produce.
Fuel delivery and tuning is what needs to be upgraded.

For whatever reason your engine failed it was not caused from the supercharger!

If your going to keep the truck long term, find a low mileage engine from a crashed truck 125,000 or less that you can actually get a carfax and possibly hear running. That will cost you 1500 or so.

It will cost 1500 or so for a swap, so make sure 100 percent you have a good motor.
JDM motors are a gamble with NO history and are cheap. But even if under warranty and if you get a bad motor the installation will cost you twice as much and twice the time.
I found a used motor for 1500.00 that had 90,000 miles on it and was able to hear it running and did a carfax for its maintenance history. My motor popped a head gasket at 480,000 and was supercharged it’s whole life.

There was a rolled truck on Craigslist I think in Seattle that was in the truck that had 67,000 miles for
2500.00 last month that another member posted here on TW.

That’s the route I would go.

 

Well that’s a good idea!!!!!