1st gen Tacoma tuning help

I have a 2001 Toyota Tacoma TRD off-road (220,000mi). For mods it’s supercharged, cold air intake, and borla exhaust. It runs ok but not great. I would think an after market tune would be needed to run this stuff. I don’t know if it had one already but it’s not good. So I want to “retune” it, but I know nothing about that kind of stuff, Incase you can’t tell, I just need some guidance on what to do.

 

To start off you need to know what your AFR is and then proceed from there

 

Can't tune these trucks without running a piggyback ecu of some kind, OVtune is working on a tune for our ECUs but only for the 03-04 trucks...earlier ones can't be cracked.

What do you mean by 'it runs ok but not great'? Does it ping under heavy throttle? If so then you probably need some fuel mods, very common with supercharged 3.4l engines. Bigger injectors, Methanol injection, 7th injector, are a few popular options as well as a higher flow fuel pump.

 

A bullydog GT tuner may be a good option for you, theres a lot of options for it, and you can adjust the air/fuel ratio, tune the throttle response, and other such things like that. I havent personally had experience with this tuner, but ive heard a ton of good things about it, and its not too expensive either.
https://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Dia...r=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=bullydog+gt+tuner+tacoma

 

Thanks for replying. It starts good and runs smooth, but I don’t have great gas mileage (13mpg), and it doesn’t feel like it’s making as much power as it should. Also there is a rattle coming from the supercharger at idle I was thinking it was berrings. The motor seems well taken care of, but I don’t know how much power the 220,000 mi motor can take. Ps what does AFR stand for.

 

AFR stands for air/fuel ratio. If you get your truck tuned correctly, you can get better miles per gallon as well as increased power with your current set-up. Also if their is any local shops in your town with a dyno or something, i would stop by and pay them a visit and see how much they would charge you to tune your truck, or install a new tuner into it. As for 203k, you have a v6, and its a toyota. Theres no such thing as a high mileage toyota as long as you know how to take care of it.

 

I thought it means air to fuel ratio but I’m not sure.

 

Oh haha

 

Yeah, so i would recommend going to a local shop or talking to a local mechanic that knows his stuff if you'd like to learn more. I dont have a lot of experiance with Supercharged v6's, but i wish you the best of luck. If you ever decide to get a 4cylinder, I have a good knowledge of running a turbo on the 3RZ, so just let me know.

 

Do you know how many miles the supercharger has on it? They should be good to go for 100k at least, before needing a rebuild.

A 'rattle' noise at idle is normal, especially when the engine/supercharger is hot...but if it is really obnoxious or you can hear it over the sound of the road noise while driving, then it's probably time to look into a rebuild.

 

Is there anyway to check when it was installed?

 

Not really...unless they marked it somewhere or there's a record of it being installed by Toyota using their VIN records search. But if the previous owner did it themselves, or had another shop do it, chances are there's no real way of knowing. With the mileage your truck has, it's probably best to assume you should get it rebuilt soon.

Do you change the nose cone oil? Should be done every ~30k I think, at least that's how often I change mine. When I first got my truck, the supercharger had almost no oil in the nose.

 

Do you have to take the whole nose cone off or is there a drain plug/fill plug

 

I started reading this last night.

I started reading this last night. I just got a little into and have already learned a lot.

http://www.gadgetonline.com/U-Tune.pdf

Also, check out the stickied SuperCharger rebuild thread. You can learn a lot by reading that thread.

 

If you have the black TRD supercharger, there's a plug that you remove with a big Allen key...you have to suck the old oil out using a big syringe with a flexible, plastic tube and then pump more in the same way. Gotta use supercharger oil specifically, GM sells supercharger oil that a lot of people with the TRD blowers use.

If you have the older grey TRD supercharger, then yeah you have to take the nose cone off.

 

If you have the grey unit when you take the nose off you install a putt screw so next time it takes 5 minutes To change oil

 

AFR is important to monitor with these engines when you boost them...you can be running too lean or rich without showing any obvious signs at first (like pinging). Too rich isn't ideal but it's better than too lean...running too lean will hurt the engine over time, in fact it could cause catastrophic damage in a short amount of time if it's bad enough.

You need a wideband AFR gauge to monitor your AFR, you can monitor it via the ECU using a Scangauge or similar but it isn't as accurate as using a wideband AFR gauge. The hook up to an aftermarket O2 sensor that gets installed just before the 1st catalytic converter and reads your AFR numbers giving you the most accurate readings possible. I ran without an AFR gauge for awhile and ended up burning out my catalytic converters because I was running lean and I didn't know how bad it was without the AFR gauge.

 

If ur mpg is that bad, u may have an 02 or cat issue.
On blown second gens we typically run stupid rich from the factory "tune" that's flashed at the dealer. My oem cats shit the bed in about 15k of being force fed.

 

And I agree a wideband afr sensor is EXTREMELY important

 

AEM (30-4110) UEGO Air/Fuel Ratio Gauge

$185 AEM (30-4110) UEGO Air/Fuel Ratio Gauge

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N3VGPYS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_AQ9sCb0RZB5R4 Like this one