Ready to give up on this engine

https://shop.powertrainproducts.net/product/1999-2007/

 

I didn’t read the whole thread. Apologies. I know there are aftermarket tunes out there for these trucks that help with day-to-day drivability, so you could try one of those.

 

Although for the better part of my driving the 3.5 is OK, when the truck is loaded down and I'm downshifting 3 gears just to pass on a 2 lane slightly inclined highway at a less than eager pace I do think about spending the $10k and a weekend in the garage to install the supercharger.

 

Wow, this is the first time I've heard an issue about the power delivery on this engine, you'd think this would have been brought up at least once on this site in the past 8 years.

If I'm not trying to be an ass, I'd say cut your frustration and sell it. Go buy an F150 or something instead.

 

Depends on what you need and expect. Around town, I just dawdle all day long. Going fast and quick acceleration was something I cared about 40 years ago. On the rare occasion I need to step on it to merge into traffic, it works well enough.

I never expected it to be quick when I bought it. I would have bought a car if I needed that. Modern full size trucks are stupid big, no good for trails. A modern F150 4x4 is physically much larger than an old time F250. Why? Useless macho appeal.

My last 3 4x4 trucks, an F150, 250, and Mazda b4000 were all far slower than my Tacoma. My F150 was zero to 60mph in one week.

So “quick wise”, for me it is a step up.

My truck spends most of its time in the bush off road anyway. Works pretty well for that.

 

I have looked into all of these and the Frontier has a bad rap on the transmission.

 

I just finished putting an AES intake spacer on mine and it helped lower the rpm the peak torque is at admnf that seemed to lessen the abrupt bump at 3500 rpm and help it downshift less on the highway. I only have 1" taller tires than stock but they definitely hurt it on the highway, I almost feel as if 6th gear is pointless. I'm sure a change to numerically higher gears in the diffs would make it how it should have been but that's not cheap. Maybe when my power train warranty is up I'll do it.

 

Of course. They're hard to drive slow. My Odyssey mini van is the same so I understand. Put 6 people in it and it justs bogs around town, especially with a small trailer of canoes. Ridiculous. I'd venture to guess in trucky situations off highway a Sienna is no better now. This was even a complaint I had with my old Sienna and the 3.0. Ran good enough with your foot in it but you don't do that on unpaved roads.

 

Manuals probably different. Regeared is probably different.

try test driving a vehicle before you buy it.

 

So have we reached a verdict?
Are we ready to give up on this engine yet?

 

I will never understand all the slobbering over the 4.0. Both the 3.5 and 4.0 were mediocre options for the Tacoma back in 2015. Ideally Toyota would've had a dual injection V6 with a stroke close to that of the 4.0.

 

This exactly. I also hated the motor in my 2021 OR.

The kdmax tune was a huge improvement but the truck doesn’t start making power until 3k. It’s a chore to drive at 80mph especially into a wind and except for small loads it doesn’t tow for shit.

So, I bit the bullet and traded it in on a new F150 3.5 Ecoboost. The difference is night and day. There is nothing about the Ford I don’t like. Time will tell about its reliability.

 

A modernized version of the 4.7 V-8 they used to put in the 4Runner would have been a nice fit for the 3rd Gen Tacoma. IMO a DOHC V6 is too high revving to be a good pick for a truck.