Why doesn't my 2014 have any guts?

what do you think alternator is for? It’s not there just to recharge battery.

 

Agreed but a bad battery has adverse affects on the alternator just as a bad alternator can be bad for the battery. I’d recommend getting it checked as well before it prematurely ages a new battery. There’s a range to operating parameters so given the importance of the spark it doesn’t seem impossible that a new battery could change where you are within that range.

 

Neither did the 30 year old forklift I accidently got running in reverse

 

If the old battery is exceptionally weak or failing, the alternator is trying harder to charge it creating extra power required to spin it's pulley. I have a load tester, when I put a load on the battery with the engine running you can hear and see the alternator maxing out, rpm's drop. So the engine isn't making more power, it's more like there's less of a restriction from the alternator dragging on the engine.

 

Something I had recently happen. I needed to make a longer than usual drive. Topped off with premium and a can of Jectron. Drove it hard and fast, floored it hard towards the end of the trip back. Now it's like I replaced the engine, throttle response much better, partial throttle creates much more power, and I'm pretty sure mileage has improved. Perhaps this is what yours needs.

If it hasn't been done yet, cleaning the mass air flow sensor and throttle body, disconnecting the battery all wouldn't hurt. Disconnecting the battery or using an obd code reader to "erase" any check engine light codes does something to make it relearn. Even if there are no codes stored, hitting the erase function will do it.

I had one last week that was running bad. Checked throttle position sensor, fuel system, plugs, then I got to the maf sensor, cleaned it, which solved the problem.

A supercharger is a big power adder. It won't be cheap, and worse if you gotta pay someone to do it.

 

Interesting notes on the battery, never considered that line of thinking. RE: bagelboy- The can opener came in the form of an idiot (maybe drunk, maybe texting, who knows?) who nailed the truck while it was parked on the street in front of my house. Neighbors saw it, called the cops, cops came, dogs lit up, woke the house, and my 76 yo mother came downstairs in a t shirt and underpants- wielding a baseball bat. (wish I had a picture of the look on the face of the cop...) Cops pulled the guy over a mile away, and since he knocked his own mirror off, and the car that got pulled over was missing a mirror..... I'll find out this week if he was insured. It's like 5K worth of damage. Glad I hadn't put the suspension lift on yet.

 

Any chance the last one was tuned? HP tuners or something similar? That’s the only way I can imagine a Tacoma being called anything close to fast. I have a pedal commander on mine, without it the thing is agonizingly slow.

 

Nope, it wasn't tuned and it wasn't supercharged. And enough people have asked that I double checked with my mechanic who said "Darlin' I would NOT have let you sell it."
When I bought it I took it Larry Kitahara at Yodaman (because I lived in Sonoma County at the time and he saved my ass more than once with my older trucks) and he took it for a ride, came back said, "That truck likes to SCOOT."