Tacomas are not underpowered

That is by far the worst part. The rest of how it drives is not bad to me. My brother was buying a few months back and we went to check out a 3.6L Jeep, 6 speed manual. You could cruise around the parking lots in 2nd and if you stomp the pedal, it immediately starts to go. The Tacoma just seems to hesitate and bog down and then slowly starts pulling itself out of the slump. 2nd gear should have been around 2.4-2.5, but I'm not 100% sure it's a gearing issue, as mine still does it regeared. Though lower 2nd would certainly help a lot.

 

Something else I notice is that mine seems to bog down much more when I floor it vs just using the pedal around 50%. I get better performance out of it by not slamming the pedal to the floor, and that is with the stock tune now but also all the tunes I tried.

 

Yep, I noticed the same. Did you try premium SFOB tune? It eliminates useless “Atkinson cycle”

 

I haven't tried it, though I have heard of it many times. I did try YW, which everyone says is a better feeling version of the SFOB....but YW does not have SFOB, it still has Atkinson, so I am still tempted to try SFOB although I really don't want to put another dime into tuning.

 

This. Pulled a 19 1/2 boat with my 23 Taco and it did ok. Pulling the boat out of the water was interesting due to lack of low rpm torque. I'll put it in 4lo next time and that should fix the issue. To be fair, when towing the same boat with my 98TJ with a 4.0, I drop it into 2lo when pulling the boat out of the water. My F150 with the 3.5 ecoboost doesn't care. I've thought about selling the Ford but will probably just keep it for boat and heavy truck duties.

My first Toyota was a 75 Hilux with a 20R. I drove that thing from Ca to Mi and back fully loaded. My second Toyota was an 85 xtracab with the 22re and it had plenty of power. My 23 Tacoma smokes em both, though I wish I never sold the 85.

 

Curious if you utilize the ALSD in 2WD when pulling the boat out of the water (non 4WD situations)?

 

I had those same engines in my 78 wolverine, 79 4x4 toyota pickup, and the 22re in my 86 4x4 pickup. They were real bow wows when you compare them to this 2020 3.5. If fact my 3.5 performs not that far off of the 2001 4.7 tundra I had when it comes to low end. I have no problem pulling my 2k+lb. boat up the loading ramp with this tacoma, except I need to use 4wd hi in order not to smoke the tires....ramp gets too greasy.

 

According to OV tune guy Mat, this tune adds ~15 hp/tq. Nothing to sneeze at. It also smoothed out the surge at 3500 RPMs.

I was blown away when I drove it tuned for the first time. My exhaust and Intake even sounded different.

 

Nuff said?

 

Only time I've ever seen 4-4.5k rpm is when I'm behind a slow poke doing 45 mph on a secondary highway, and kick it down to pass them. Truck is a rocket. In a matter of a few seconds you're doing nearly 80 mph. My 01 4.7 tundra would take longer.

 

But sir, you’ve got a torque monster 1GR…

Unlike us, minivan/car/Camry/wimpy engine owners

 

Yep, it really shines in the second half of RPM range. I’ve surprised a lot of drivers haha.

 

My towing capability is derived from my skewp not the 4.0

 

Seems these gen3 trucks vary quite a bit performance wise. My buddy had a slow one vs the one I now have. This post sounds like my buddies.

 

Aaaaah the magnificent skewp. Trust me, I know aaal about it…

 

They do rapidly wake up after 3500rpm for sure.

 

I DISAGREE WITH SOME OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS THREAD!

 

What does ECT stand for?

 

I guess it’s just a Toyota thing. This is what hate about my first gen. It just never gives you what you are asking for. I’ve wondered if it’s some sort of Toyota signature torque management.

 

I do think the Tacoma is just a little under torqued and under-geared. Having pulled a 12' trailer from New Jersey to California in a 1993 Toyota truck with a 4cylinder manual with 115hp (and 140lb.ft. torque @ 2,800rpm), I can attest that you simply want more eagerness at lower rpms. It's just a slight mismatch...it's not terrible...it's just that it's 2023 now and you expect a little more after 30 years. I just bought a 2023 manual OR and it's just fine with a manual. But my 2020 automatic even in 2WD was a slight disappointment. I was thinking of re-gearing it, then decided to try the manual and now things are a bit better.

Toyota sells so many automatics that it needs to gear them for CAFE standards. But at a 1% take, the manuals are geared as they should be. My Tacoma manual does 60mph at 2000rpm. The auto did 80mph at 2000rpm. Also, this 3.5 V6 makes more hp (278) than Torque (265)...I think it should be the other way around.

One of my favorite truck engines was Ford's 300ci inline 6 in the 70s-90s F-150s. In 1993 this engine made 145hp but 265lb.ft. torque...the torque number is identical to the current Tacoma's 3.5 V6...but the Ford 6 made that torque by 2000rpms...where the Tacoma needs all of 4600rpms. I'm sure my Tacoma would leave the old Ford in the dust. But as a work truck, the F-150 easily got out of it's own way around town.

No one here thinks the Tacoma 3.5 is a bad engine...it was just not planned from the start as a truck engine...and it's 2023.