Best Bang For Your Buck 4 Cylinder Mods

I'm just a shameless corporate shill...

 

lol well thanks for you advice and help tooter! I am sure I will have more questions later lol

 

Ok, well I guess this is an ok question. That I am sure has been answered. But seems to get covered by haters who dont explain, they just hate. Why is a lift spacer bad just to level out the truck an inch or 2?

 

I currently have a spacer that I'm getting rid of because they simply just aren't good sure you get lift but you get the extra preload on the shocks which makes it ride worse and puts your steering in a bind so I would just spend the money and get some 5100's

 

I have heard people say the 5100's are the way to go, but I don't understand what to do. Do you replace two front shocks only? Do you need new coils? Are there any other components that need to be switched to run the 5100's? And thanks for the help!

 

Stock coils can be used

Yes just the front two unles you're lifting the rear as well. AAL and 5100 rear shocks

 

Sweet! Well that sounds like another thing I need to do! I think the truck looks good but will look way better at a level stance.

 

I have 5100 set at 1.75 and airbags on the back. The airbags with some air in them raise the back up about an inch and seems to level the truck off with the lift up front. The ride is far superior to how it was stock.

 

Sweet!

Does anyone have any other tips, ideas, or things they have done to their truck?!

 

I put 4.88 gears and front and rear lockers on mine.

I want my truck to be capable of taking me anywhere I want to on this island.

 

supercharger coming soon also

 

That sounds awesome! How do you like the regearing? The supercharger should be fun when you get that!

 

The regear is awesome, doesn't feel like the truck is dragging a damn anchor now

 

I will probably get a urd supercharger for my 4cyl also. Sounds like a good bang for my buck.

 

Here are some ideas. I'm running a 2011 Reg cab 4wd. There's not a lot to be done with the engine; but on the plus side I'm getting a solid 21+ MPG. I do not offroad so some of my upgrades are aimed for comfort and handling.

Bilstein 5100s will make the ride quality excellent. Easy upgrade (if you're comfortable replacing shocks and struts) and <$500 all around. Fronts can be adjusted to increase ride height - I left my setup stock height.

Add-a-leafs are a cheap way to raise height and reinforce the rear leaf springs. In my truck it caused a drive shaft noise when on the highway. I didn't want a lift anyway (I bought my truck pre-owned and the lift was already there) so I took them out.

Stainless brake lines - fairly easy install but didn't do a lot for me. I picked up a custom set on eBay for $70. I think it's probably more for bragging rights on this truck than for performance. Maybe others have different opinions.

The Hellwig

Hellwig 7671 Solid, Heat Treated Chromoly, 3/4" Rear Sway Bar

rear sway bar by itself didn't do a whole lot for me. However, installing the

$497 Hellwig 7719 Solid, Heat Treated Chromoly, 1-3/8" Front Sway Bar

front Hellwig sway bar really increased the handling of the truck on the road. Both together give the truck a neutral steering balance. Easy to install and modest cost (about $280 for the front on Amazon, 220 for the rear).

Better tires will go a long way to better ride quality, comfort and traction. I stick with Michelins but there are others that are good quality. I do not recommend increasing tire size - it will lug down your truck, wear on the drivetrain and make it feel even more under powered. Stick with the two stock sizes. (Side note, on my 1998 2.4 litre 2wd tacoma I ran passenger car tires because they were cheaper - smaller diameter meant I could spin them all I wanted and it didn't look too bad. Got better than 27 MPG average over the lifetime of the truck and I have records to prove it).

Wet Okole seat covers (expensive, but easy to install) are really high quality. If you want heated seats, this is a way to do it without too much effort. The seat covers are very high quality material and can be had with lots of pockets and storage.

If you want more secure storage, a cheap

$406 Lund Genesis Tri-Fold Soft Folding Truck Bed Tonneau Cover | 95085 | Fits 2005 - 2015 Toyota Tacoma 6' 2" Bed (73.5")

bed cover and a Pop & Lock

Pop & Lock (PL5300 Tailgate Lock

PL5300 tailgate lock makes the whole rear pretty safe. Sure, someone can cut the vinyl but it's going to be obvious if you're parked in a halfway decent area.

Some cheap ammo cans can be mounted on the bed rail for dry storage. An easy modification is to add an eye bolt and a padlock if you want to secure it. Look around on the forums here for ammo can ideas. I mounted my cans such that I can still put the cover over them.

Inside the cab, I went ahead and sound-deadened the doors, floor and rear wall of the cab to reduce road noise. The noise is better but not perfect. I spent around $120 and went with butyl rubber (I think it was fatmat). Removing the seat and carpet was pretty easy and a razer, a roller and heat gun are the tools you'll need to install.

If you want to get into audio, the sky is the limit. I am running Infinity Kappas with an amp under the passenger seat - with excellent bass response for a 6.5" door speaker. The Inifinity Reference are better if you're not running an amplifier. My head unit is an older Kenwood but you have sufficient of room in the dash for a double-din receiver. Crutchfield has an excellent fit guide.

Good floormats will save the carpet.

LED dash lights (behind the environmental controls DO NOT WORK. Don't waste money on it, stick with incandescent bulbs. Toyota already used LEDs in the places they will work (odometer, speedometer, etc).

Other upgrades I've done - intermittent wipers (took an hour or two, wasn't too bad but had to disassemble part of the steering wheel to install.

Cruise control (not pre-wired on the 2011 reg cab!! - took all day to wire the darn thing. FINALLY got it installed. Not recommended for the faint of heart.

Tinted windows - get a local pro to do it. It's reasonable cost and they will do a better job.

Backup camera - at least some of the wiring is there on the 2011 reg cab but the factory camera is 6 volts, not 12. You'll have to do some circuit building if you want to patch it into an aftermarket stereo. I haven't completed my install yet.

I'm considering rear leaf spring air bags but probably won't do it. You have to take care when jacking up your vehicle with air bags or you'll tear the rubber. You guys who have them - do you ride around with an air tank all the time, or do you have onboard air, or just don't worry about squatting when loaded?

 

I forgot, in-channel vent visors ($40 on Amazon for regular cab) are an excellent upgrade. Trivial to install and you can leave your windows cracked without worrying about rain.

Final note - most of the upgrades I mention can be reversed easily when I sell the vehicle. The spare parts can be resold and recoup part of my money. I certainly understand, many, many people prefer factory-spec over customized, so you'll do better financially if you keep the old parts and re-install them before selling the vehicle.

 

its just as you said, haters being haters. And them "haters" will probably disagree here, but If you think about it if you have a coil spacer that goes in between the coil and top plate putting more preload on the springs to get the lift it is doing 100% the exact same thing that the adjustable bilsteins do. By moving the clip up on the bilstein to increase lift all your doing is increasing preload on the spring just like a coil spacer does, the only difference is a better shock with the bilsteins. A top plate spacer that goes between the top plate of the strut and the mounting point on the vehicle does not add preload to the springs, it simply moves everything down so the ride should stay the same as stock. With all three methods you will run into the exact same issues with alignment and ball joint angles which is where aftermarket upper control arms come into play.

 

I don't think 1-2" is that bad.
The 3" spacers fuck shit up.

The shock ends up bottoming before the bump stops hit = snapped shocks. Lots of pics around here of that happening

 

This is what happens.

Won't happen with aftermarket c/o's
Less likely to happen with 5100's

 

I could see that with a top plate spacer where it moves the whole shock down, the shock could bottom out before the bumpstop. It shouldn't happen with a coil spacer though because everything is still in the same location with the same travel/range of motion as stock just with more preload on the spring.