What's the best cheap thing you did to your 1st gen.

That's the shit!!






pipe literally!!!

 

There's so many bends in there it might actually reduce airflow.

 

OK, this is roughly on the cheap things for the taco thread - spark plugs... I just changed mine and refreshed myself with an age old mystery. There are

$18 Denso K16TR11 Spark Plugs, Pack of 4

Denso K16TR11's on the left and NGK BKR5EKB's on the right. My first thought is that the NGK's have a slower wearing electrode and are put on the coil side to balance the other in taking the wire resistance value into account. I compared between sides and found after 160k, electrodes showed greater wear on the left hand Denso's. This after the maintenance interval was exceeded might support the theory that a longevity difference was being used to balance wear between right and left side banks. Could find no mention of this anywhere but makes sense. I put all Denso's back in cause that's what I bought but may put the NGK's on the right later.

 

Did anyone mention the grey wire mod yet? That's a cheapo one.

 

Supercharger.

Sorry, I had to. The problem with the 3.4 is that Toyota didn't design a 300hp motor and then de-tune it, they designed it to have 190hp. It's not like a SBC where you add headers and an intake and you've got an easy 40 extra horsepower.

 

Does that supercharger put excessive wear on the engine and driveline components. Seems like if Toyota designed them for 190hp it would. My thinking in not buying a used truck with that in it. Maybe I'd put one in but have to be sure I could take it with me to another taco easily for the several k it costs.

 

The SC has been proven to be pretty reliable with this engine. Even though it was designed for 190 hp, in true Toyota fashion everything in the engine can handle quite a bit more.
There is a guy on here with 500k miles on his supercharger and no issues.

 

gotcha, guess I'm probably foolin myself with the deckplate "poor man's turbo" but what about a red throttle body spacer? The color would at least look fast.

 

They make a cool high pitched whistling noise. Which is cool for about ten minutes, then it's really annoying.
Sorry to keep bursting your bubble man haha

 

I think something like this might be the way to go!

The plywood would dampen the whistling.

 

It's been so long since I did the grey wire mod I need to refresh myself. Don't remember ever using it much though except to get off the line quicker - no spin, gonna win - not. I was thinking of the subaru hill-holder mod for jeeps that could lock up the front brakes alone. That way when I stepped on it at a light it would just sit there and smoke the back tires.

 

I think the 01-04's are pretty notorious for the dash rattle

 

All first gens are. Oddly enough, I had it one of the first weeks I bought my truck but it went away

 

It helps if you are constantly setting food; i.e. cheesburgers, hotsauce etc... up on the dash and then driving in such a manner as to fling and spill it all over - really lubricates/gums up the friction points.

 

by the way, anyone paint their own truck? I was thinking a cheap maaco job, but then considered I might invest in a compressor and harbor freight paint gun and do it myself. The reality is all my old rigs will eventually need it.

 

I've helped my stepdad repaint an old CJ5 Jeep project of his. It's intimidating at first, but once you learn how to do it yourself, it's actually not hard, provided you have the right tools to do it. The paint quality wasn't showroom floor material, but it looked pretty damn good. Not sure what paint and paintgun he used cause this was years ago, but I wouldn't go with a harbor freight gun. I'd step it up a little bit. Some things are fine to go HF with, others... not so much.

 

I watch a fair amount of Gas Monkey Garage so think I could probably pull it off. Hear ya on the HF tools thing. I mostly just buy large metal objects without moving parts there.

 

The non-moving part is essential. I bought a small set of tools there and all the tools work great, but the actual tool box fell apart the first day. The one thing that moves and it breaks lol. I was gonna return it for another but they all have the same problem. There a pin that connects the two sides of the box and it doesn't lock in, the pin just falls right out.

 

you can paint as good as Maaco...IF you can dry your air reasonably.
It's all about prep anyway, you're not paying 1K's for the painter's 2 days work.