4.88 and Eaton True trac installed... Underwhelmed

Got the gears in the truck today, Its a 2wd with the 4.0, I'm on 285x75x16 BFG AT. let's just say I was expecting more. I am being easy on it until its broken in, but still I expected some more pep in the truck. What are you guys doing for Power before FI. Can you tune a Gen 2 and stay smog legal in CA?

 

Your probably good for crawling. Tacoma will always be slow.
I installed a tru trac in a hemi ram I had , my advice in snow - ice be very careful you can be going 50 it will go posi and then your sideways in a blink.

 

If I had a 4.0 I'd be really tempted to find a set of exhaust cam gears.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cam-gears-for-v6-add-power-and-mpg.618266/

https://urdusa.com/urd-exhaust-cam-gears-4-0l-v6/

Good news!

It's on sale! 1% off! Take that inflation!

 

Desert for me, not worried about snow or ice in San Diego

 

Will Cam gears throw any codes? will they work without a tune? Smog sucks ! I hated swapping parts to pass and now with new regs if they catch a tune they wont pass you

 

I installed the cam gears 3 or 4 years ago, and no, they don’t throw codes unless you mess up the timing during the install. They work without a tune. They definitely make the trick smellier though. I installed them first and then got a tune maybe half a year later. How would the smog tech detect a tune? Don’t they just do visual and OBD check?

 

For what I've heard, they can plug in and see if the ECU has had changes to it.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a37022836/california-ecu-tune-during-smog-checks/

 

didn’t know that. But there are a lot of members on this board from CA who are tuned. You could always just flash back to stock before your biannual exam. There’s a big HPTuners thread on here or look up member JustDSM. He wrote the tune for my truck.

 

It sucks! but Ill head over to that thread and look for more info and ping Justdsm. a tune sounds like the plan.

 

They will not throw any codes (unless you install incorrectly). Should pass smog visual because they are under the valve covers (but what do I know, Im in VA).

I have 4.56s, cam gears, and 285s and even when I had 35s truck was a little peppier. If you want instant vin diesel power, you probably bought the wrong vehicle. I have had a SC before too, and I wasnt impressed.

 

if you felt underwhelmed with a nearly 30% gearing change.... you will feel very underwhelmed with cam gears even with a tune.

You cant be tuned in CA when you get a smog check done as they have a checksum generated by the ECU that gets referenced against what the OEM provided, if its different then you fail. (Its also illegal to be tuned and drive on public streets.... but you could flash your tune when you "go off road" then flash it back "on road" if you catch my drift)

 

I'm well aware the Tacoma isn't an EVO, had an evo with 320whp. I also had an X runner with all the NA bells and whistles back in 06. Lightened crank wheel, URD MAF, URD CAI, JBA headers with gutted cats, Y pipe etc... I was just expecting more out of it in terms of feel. Looks like I'm doing an HP tune and possibly Cam gears. thanks for all the replies

 

I don’t know if tunes come with dongles to switch tune.

I also don’t know how in depth the smog test scan is.
I’m sure at minimum it checks all the readiness monitors are set.
When I worked at a different brand dealer the scan tool could tell if at any point in history the ecu had been tuned even if stock now, to check if warranty is void if their engine failed

I wonder if 35’s come in load C and how different it is from load E

why not do cam gears. I felt a slight difference. They’re cheap and claim to reduce temps, slightly improve mpg

Unfortunately, the 4.0 is just very slow and basic. It’s rated at something like 230hp.
Lighter sedans literally come with more power these days.
Solution for that probably better than a supercharger is switching to a different motor entirely.

a lot of engines are well known and famous. Various diesels, LS V8, etc - 4.0 1GR isn’t one of them.
Plus the fact that 4.0 4Runner has a second additional VVT for more power while Taco only has one; and even 4Runner owners complain about how slow they are

from what I hear, Hemi Ram 1500 engine is more power and better MPG…
The Ranger, Fords answer to a Taco, at least has a turbo…

 

Right, I guess it is what it is. I did speak to someone in regards to Tune vs smog. I was told as long as the tune is OEM then they wont care. I think if it was a STAR smog then maybe they'd say something or a state ref id have an issue but for now, looks like I'm doing a tune and maybe the cam gears.

 

It helps but the 4.0 will never be quick or impressive. It’s claim to fame is good ole reliability. For anything exciting you need to swap in a different motor. Which is also a challenge and a half in CA!

 

depends on what state. CA has STAR and the. DMV is required to recommend a certain number of cars to STAR to keep them funded due to the probably $10k extra it costs a regular station to become STAR

I don’t know if the DMV selects stations to become STAR or if they volunteer for it

I may be wrong but I think the only usual requirement for a motor swap in CA is that it be operating with emissions equipment, and coming from the same model year or newer but not older

this is why if people elect to perform a motor swap they find the oldest chassis they can to satisfy that rule

for example. A 2005 2nd gen gives you much more choices in motor to swap than a post facelift 2015
which to be honest I don’t really know why people buy 12-15 in the first place.

 

As of July 2020 SMOG check started checking the CVN and cross-referencing the proper CVN for the cal id supplied. If you are tuned, you will fail.

 

https://bar.ca.gov/arsc/newsletters...l-id-and-cvn-detect-programming-modifications

crap, this is what I was curious about. I wonder if swaping back to stock tune and will save the CVN so you can swap back to stock for the smog. I love living in the " freedom" state.

 

No issues here going from my "off road" tune back to stock and having the Toyota OEM CVN - The CVN is a real time calculated checksum based on code written to the ECU. So if you write the stock code back, the checksum will be proper.