Supercharged?

Hey yall, I have a 2003 tacoma with a 2.4l inline 4. Im doing a prerunner build and ive been buying and fabricating parts for the past couple months. However im worried I wont have enough power to really move the thing. Even when the truck was stock it was pertty gutless. I thought about an engine swap, but toyota is pretty bad with that and id probobly end up replacing a lot of work ive allready done. I know of people who have turbocharged theirs, and I know toyota makes a bolt on supercharger for my engine, but I just dont know if it will give me what im looking for for the high price. What are your thoughts?

 

No one can really answer your question except for yourself. You won't know until you get everthing done, including the supercharger. Everyone have a different perspective of performance. From a "can I do it" standpoint, it will be 10x easier to run a SC vs Turbo. Than there's the State's opinion, do you smog where you're at and if they care if you're turbo. At least the TRD SC is legal.

 

@BartMaster1234 can shed some light on a supercharged 4 cyl.

 

To get more out of the trd supercharger you can get a smaller pulley, a piggyback computer, and a 5th injector

 

The four cylinder superchargers on these truck are very undersized for what they are. To get the most utilization of them, you’ll have to spend hundreds or thousands in supporting mods like mentioned above. Piggyback computer, fifth injector, methanol injection, etc etc etc.

Subjectively, it’s much cheaper to run a turbo setup that capable of creating a more discernible and noticeable difference in terms of power.

The one and only reason I keep my supercharger is because it’s the only legal boost I can have in California, as it is CARB approved. Otherwise I’d do a turbo all day long.

 

Yeah thats what I was worried about, just wanted to see if anyone had dont it and what they thought. I have the truck registered in montana, so smog is not an issue

 

Ive been wanting to do a turbo for a while, and smog or legality is not an issue for me, so im totally able to. The main limiting factor is mo knowledge on it. Im confident I could turbo my truck, but i still have lots of questions and im not willing to grenade my motor in the learning process. My biggest concern right now is making low end power, and most people ive seen that do a SC install, say it helps with top end and doesn't do much to your 0-60. Not to mention the computer figures it out for you, so theres not going to be much in the realm of tunability which is going to stop from reaching the SC full potential.

 

Thanks.

 

As someone with an SC I would not recommend it to anyone else. I can’t speak for low end power or other power results since it begins to reach the end of my scope of knowledge.

They make turbo kits for these trucks, either way you’ll need to do aftermarket computer control. Look at CXRacing. @boostedka is a great resource for turbo’d first gens.

 

SNPSPEED knows more about turbos and ECU tuning for the toyota 4 bangers , 3.4 and superchargers than anyone. He specializes in this area.
He has turbo kits, does custom ecu wire harnesses, and ECU programming just for these toyota trucks.
I gain 62 Lbs torque and 35hp on my supercharger just from adding a stand alone in the lower rpms over the stock ECU. . His toyota 4 banger puts out 1000hp.
He's got the knowledge and can remote tune via internet .
He tuned my truck and the results were amazing ,
Unless you go with a stand-alone you WILL NEVER get the full power available or a good tune because the stock ECU will not let that happen.
Haltech is your answer.
Give him a call if your serious,
He's got 4 banger turbos doing 10s in the /4 mile if that's your thing.
His Facebook page below has lots of great setups!
Gabe Salazar
https://snpspeed.com/

 

Thanks a lot man, this is a big help. Especially because the computer was my biggest worry.

 

Thank you thank you thank you my man. I'll definitely look into him.

 

I’ve ran both s/c and turbo'd 2.7L and the turbo hands down was way more powerful. No comparison. Like not even close.

With the turbo I ran 8psi on pink top injectors on the stock ECU with no problems for over a year. I eventually went to a Megasquirt 3 and 550 injectors for more boost, but really anything 8psi and under on a turbo runs great on pink tops. And with the 2.4, you'll be less likely to "grenade" your motor as they have shorter rods than the 2.7 and way less likely to throw one through the block. The fail point on the 2.4 is the head gasket at around 13-15psi. Some dudes have ran 18-19 psi on stock 2RZ's with standalone's and good tuning.

When I had a s/c 2.7L, that thing ping'd like fuck on the same pink top injector setup. I had to run the same megasquirt set up on it just to get the pinging under control and give it the low end back. For some reason, the Toyota ECU's pull timing like crazy with S/C's making them feel very powerless in the low end. But not with a turbo. Must have something to do with the lag of the turbo.

If you're 1/4 ways decent with a welder or have a friend who is, you can fab a turbo kit for around the same or less than a s/c and net more power out of it. I have my build for my old turbo truck still up you can check out https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/boostedkas-turbo-3rz-tacoma.435280/ . Ask me whatever questions you have about it while deciding or while doing it if you decide to go that route.

I know that if/when I get another 1st gen, I would prefer to get a 4cyl and build a turbo set up for it.

 

Tempted to just bolt a turbo kit on and take it off every two years. I’m about at wits end with this supercharger. How bad would you think it would be to take off every two years?

 

It depends on the type of exhaust mani fold you use and also if you intercool it and how you route your piping. Also, if you're able to have your downpipe line up and bolt on the same point of your exhaust as your OEM exhaust header does.

I used a treadstone manifold that had one bolt on the bottom at the back that was a bitch to get to. Also, the bolts mounting it to the the turbo were kind of a PITA to get to as well. If you get a decent system down, you can probably take the manifold/turbo/downpipe off as one whole unit. V-band connections will also make things assemble and disassemble quickly as well.

From there you'd need to reroute some vac lines and also cap off your oil drain line at the oil pan as well as plug your oil feed line near the oil filter.

The one thing that might be a PITA is EGR system. I had deleted mine and reinstalling it and getting it to not leak was where I spent alot of time when I put my truck back to stock to sell it. You could possibly cap it off and just reconnect it when you reinstall the OEM header.

 

By the time you get done spending money you'd be better off buying a 3.4 4x4 honestly

 

Very true. But turbo 4 banger is so fun!

 

I'll definitely hit you up on that when the time comes. Right now, I need to save the money for it all.

 

What did you end up going with