Nice looking old Yoter

Ya. My first pick up was a 1993 3.0 pickup 4x4 which received the toyota dealers free head gasket repair.

I will now lecture you all about the pickup vs tacoma robustness truths & myths. What made the pickup so "strong" vs the taco really boils down to a few things, none of them engine, transmission, T-case, or rear axle related at all. Tacomas are better in that area (at least gen 1 tacos for some things). 3.4l and 4.0l engines beat the 3.0 reliability and power. the old pick ups 22re is not as powerful or even that much more reliable vs the tacos 22rz and the 2.7l . Ok why the p/u was so sweet:

-Front spindle and hubs. Beefy ass spindle. Had fully floated hollow hubs with manual locking tops. Not like a shit unit bearing found on all tacos. Big wheel bearings with a wide spread and manual locking hubs which eliminates the electric/ vacuum front axle engagement. Also in the even axles broke, you could unlock the wheel from the axle using your finger tips and turning a knob.

-Steering systems was pitman arm/idler arm ,swing set style, which could be made very strong with minimal modification. As opposed to frail rack an pinion tacoma steering setups.

Everything else was not much better than a taco. taco engines were better. taco came with a manual T case, taco has bigger better rear axles (with factory lockers). Torsion bars are also retarded and the frame mounts were prone to rip off (coil over setup is better). Both trucks have shitty thin wall steel frames prone to rust and folding when the going got tough.

 

One thing i forgot to add. Whats the point of this atkinson cycle garbage if it doesnt get any better mpgs and you lose power. They really didnt put much thought into it. Ov tune made the engine more powerful with the same or better fuel economy.

 

It does help with some efficiency....even if the average driver doesn't notice.

 

Nope. What you do notice though is loss of power at low rpms. What is the point if you lose power and dont even notice better mpgs? I drove my truck for 2 years on stock tune so im not just saying things. I can really compare it now and see the difference.

I flashed the tune just before the weather got cold. I have been driving it quite hard 6.5k rpm pulls, because its just so much fun now. You can really feel the extra power throughout the rpm range.

I filled up yesterday and hand calculated 13.1L per 100 km(18 mpgs) 60% city 40% hwy, thats on winter blend gas and colder temps. Exactly what i was getting all summer.

For the longest time i thought ov tune wasnt gonna make much difference and that yota engineers calibrated this ECU the best they could and boy was i wrong. I only have about 300 miles on the tune so its still settling in.

 

Doesn't matter what the ol' butt-o-meter says. On paper is all that matters to the EPA. Anything to increase CAFE.

 

Yeah you might be right there. But is it definetily quicker, no question about it

 

Had the exact same thing and sold it in 2000. 20 years later I still miss it.

<eta>. Same paint scheme too