Saw this on Craigslist and thought it was cool.

S runner with a Chevy 5.3 and a ford 8.8 diff

https://knoxville.craigslist.org/cto/d/clinton-2002-toyota-tacoma-53-v8/7465998269.html


Here’s some more stuff on it:


Description
Up for sale is the truck that Toyota should’ve built… a V8 Tacoma! This truck was purchased locally by the original owner at Toyota of Knoxville and is loaded with a really interesting mix of factory installed options like the “S Runner” 16” alloy wheels, stepside bed, Radiant Red body color accents, SR5 package #2, convenience package and dealer installed Katzkin leather seats!

It is also in excellent condition for being 20 years old and has been lovingly cared for and garage kept over the years. This truck has a clean Carfax report that I can provide. I am the third owner and the original owner and his son were the first two. It currently has just over 76,000 miles. It has little bumps and scratches here and there that you'd expect from 20 years age, but is in overall awesome shape.

This Tacoma spent the first 16 years of its life as a 2.4 cylinder / 4 speed automatic combo. I fully intended to leave it that way until I found myself flooring it to get up ANY decent sized hill. To remedy this, I yanked that all out in favor of a 2001 GM LM7 5.3 V8 / L80E Automatic / Ford 8.8 Differential combo.

I documented this build on my YouTube channel and this build was also featured on Summit Racing’s website. You can see all of that and many more large photos at https://sites.google.com/view/2002-toyota-tacoma-v8

 

That is certainly interesting! Sounds like a fun truck to drive!

 

Not only is it just a 5.3, but it has a turbo.

This is the truck from the Tom's Garage series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXpEPSJjvVA

 

Seems like a odd thing to leave out of the Craigslist ad.

 

Must be "the" Tom

 

I'm honestly so tempted to buy this

 

It is clearly not turbo charged. It might have been at one time but not in the pics from the advertisement.

 

Yeah it’s not anymore apparently “As you’ll see in the videos and build pictures, the first version of this truck did have a rear mounted turbocharger. In the last year I converted the setup to naturally aspirated, just to make it simpler and less of a complete beast. While I miss the awesome turbo sounds and roasting the tires at 100mph, the NA setup is much simpler now and still runs great. I hope the videos and pictures illustrate that I did my best to create a great all-around truck that looks stock and as close to a factory-style installation as I’m capable of.”

 

True. I initially didn't really look at the ad, because first thing I noticed were the pics and remembered it looked familiar from the youtube series

 

21 grand for a 20 year old Frankenstein.

It's cool, but it's not 21 grand cool. I have enough ways in my life to blow stupid money, thanks.