Supercharger at altitude?

power aside, I wonder what the fuel cost is.
Yes you gain an mpg or something.
But forced induction typically requires you to switch from cheaper 87 octane to higher 91 octane, resulting in paying noticeably more per gallon at the pump.

as this guy said
not all superchargers are created equal
some are an advanced high quality design
some are not

 

If you’re concerned about miles per gallon you should not do a supercharger

 

am not concerned with MPG
am just given the impression that something mechanically may be significantly wrong with the design of the Tacoma such as the engine (not sure exactly what about it) that would potentially cause it to get garbage gas mileage in a truck that otherwise is relatively small, light, and weak
and probably should not, especially when compared with similar trucks of its class (light pickup)

typically lower MPG is a result of high power
and sometimes a vehicle getting poor MPG at average power hints at it having a drivetrain malfunction

for example it is somewhat odd that a small light truck would yield the same or worse gas mileage as a powerful vehicle burning fuel like the
-Dodge Hellcat 700hp+, uses the fuel to create power
-Ford Raptor (bigger truck, powerful engine, bigger tires, extra luxury equipment)

the last time vehicles managed to yield poor gas mileage and performance at the same time were American cars around the 1980's
large cubic size V8's guzzling cheap gas making 200hp or less
and the cause of that was due to Garbage Engine Design that was primitive and cheap

 

I towed my boat 140 miles today starting at 5700', going over a 9500' pass and ending up at 8600' and averaged 14.6mpg. The truck is still quite underpowered at low rpm, if you aren't above about 2800 rpm you'll need to downshift for any kind of measurable acceleration. Below 50mph most hills need 3rd and sometimes 2nd gear to stay in the power band and maintain speed. Around 60mph you start to be able to get away with 4th and sometimes 3rd. Once you downshift you have plenty of power to accelerate easily up the hill and exceed the speed limit but the next gear up drops you out of the power band.

My boat/trailer is 3000lbs and has a big flat front window which I'm sure doesn't help aerodynamics at all when towing.

 

@hack4875 and @crazysccrmd - Do either of you have a boost gauge installed? I finally searched the right key words and found the Maggy mega thread. I saw one of the SLC guys mentioned they can't get more than 6psi of boost at elevation of 4500 ft or more. Is this true in your experience?

 

I do not have one.

 

Had the TRD/Magnuson installed on my 2013 when I lived on the east coast. Moved to CO in 2015 and works great. No gauges or boost info. Just love blazing past people whenever I want.

 

I do not have a gauge. My butt dyno tells me it is considerably faster at lower altitudes. But since I regularly drive/camp at/above 10k feet, I don't really care. When I want to drive fast, I choose a different vehicle.

 

Get the supercharger.

Drive it for a few months. Enjoy it.

Then get the urge to start tuning and getting more power.

Buy smaller pulleys (increase boost). Drive faster.

That's the summary.

My experiences with the 2nd gen supercharger driving my truck from sea level across the NW back to Colorado was slightly noticeable with the loss at elevation, but is easily solved by putting on a smaller pulley at elevation to have the end result the same.

Edit: Sidenote - it's sure as hell better (and safer) than my 1st gen stuck in 2nd gear at redline going up to the tunnel struggling to keep 50mph, so I get where you're at.

 

How does the small pulley act at sea level? Too much boost an issue?

 

@snowsk8air2

lives up at some elevation and has the TRD super.

 

It sure could be... My plans for sea level including loading a different tune and swapping to a slightly larger pulley...
The downside to running too small a pulley is not enough fuel in the tune and/or ruining the transmission valve body.

 

I like the idea and performance of a SC on my 2015 4.0 6 speed. However, I really like the performance of my turbocharged vehicles here in CO. Does anybody make a turbo set up for our Tacomas?

 

I haven't seen one for the 2nd gen 1GR-FE, but there is one for the 3rd gen, which the OP has... The Orange Virus has been banned from here though.

 

Agreed, the big question right now is tuning. Magnuson uses the stock shift mapping (which sucks on 3rd gen) for their S/C tune and has refused help from TW members on how to reprogram it. So, basically if we upgrade to the S/C right now we get more power but have to revert back to shitty shifting.

OVT is working on releasing a FI tuning guide in the future, so hopefully once some TW members get ahold of that we'll be able to add the S/C and share some tuning secrets.

 

Regarding alternative tune options:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...l-diy-dyno-video.693562/page-67#post-26514666

 

So @Kerbouchard! ... what's the update? Still holding out for higher hp AND better shifting?

 

Ha, most definitely.

By the end of July I was so frustrated with the doggedness of the taco that I made up my mind to sell it and either get a late model Tundra, or hold out for the new Tundra Pro. The progress on the S/C tune seemed pretty bleak. In preparation I sold my GoFast camper since the market is still pretty hot. Well, that camper was the problem the whole time. I won't go on a rant here about the pros and cons of the GFC, but what was certainly true for my truck is that it took 10 mph off the top end. In ideal conditions it rode fine, but at altitude or with a moderate headwind it made the taco miserable to drive.

I have since put on an rsi smartcap. The taco drives great now, though, it still needs some help pulling the boat at anything over 7k feet. The cost differential and gas savings don't really make sense to upgrade to the new Tundra, so I'll most likely look into the S/C and the new tune this spring once all the kinks are worked out. Nice work, guys!

 

We've made great progress but I'm sure we can deliver more, so that's what we'll be trying to do