RC60F Transmission swap including 4th Gen Taco

I’d honestly like to attempt to DIY the timing gasket. It seems like a lot of labor and very little parts wise. New PS pump. The rest is turning bolts. Pictures and bags and labels and torque specs. With a friend it seems doable.

 

The hardest part will be finding somewhere to take waste coolant if you have to remove the radiator

 

Is it a no-no to drain and re-fill?

 

Coolant is a consumable and really isnt that expensive in the scheme of things, id change it.

 

Yeah mine was because to install the TRD skid, you remove 4 bolts that secure the pieces of front to rear tracks to the frame. When I went back to stock skid (tired of working through the TRD), I forgot to put those bolts back. So the tracks were there, but they weren’t fully fastened. The stock skids fasten to those tracks, so the whole mess rattled around for months. What a pain.

 

It is. Now that I’m back on stock gears, I’m tempted to delete the ADD again and maybe eventually do a manual t case. If I’m keeping it, why not. I dunno.

 

..................boost?

 

Those fantom leaks are always fun, but glad to hear it hasn't come back, particularly because it appeared to be from a mating surface that should have been sealed from the manufacturer.

Skid plate rattling is definitely a common complaint, though I have mostly only heard of it being an issue with aftermarket skid plates, not the stock ones. But what you described makes perfect sense. Noises can definitely ruin enjoying your truck. I have quite a few noises including that damn throwout bearing chirp! Other noises are mostly minor and I know what they all are, just haven't gotten around to dealing with them. I'm actually glad to hear you're leaning towards keeping it, you should after doing that transmission swap!

The 4th gens are hideous, don't do it! Lol. The boxy design is just too much of a departure from the signature Tacoma style, makes it look like a Ford or Chevy. I will give Toyota props for finally going to coils in the rear and offering a sway bar disconnect, those are solid improvements, in addition to putting the RC60F in it, and by extension, making it much easier for us to get ahold of one now (in the US that is).

Ah ok, sounds like either way your transmission is spoken for. No worries, was just curious.

 

If you get a 4th gen…. You’ll probably swap the 3rd gen trans in

 

Eh…would be fun but I’m not sold on the price and I’ve heard too many underwhelming reviews from people saying it didn’t make enough difference. Also a bit skeptical on the longevity.

 

I did say it was coming from the case half mating surface, but I think that was an incorrect assumption on my part, because technically that was downstream from where the drop of oil was. I dunno, but after not seeing it return, it’s pretty much fallen off my radar.

No more skid plate rattling now that I fixed the issue. The only reason I made that dumb mistake is because of other tasks distracting me. I was messing around with the front diff and had to drop the TRD skid. I hate dealing with reinstalling that thing, and so when it came time to put the skid back on (we had snow and salt coming), I threw on the stock one quickly because I didn’t feel dealing with the TRD. Well in the moment, I quickly threw on the stocker, not expecting to keep it on there for long. Then the laziness continued and I never put the TRD back on. Then I noticed the noise and wanted to sell the truck, and so to prep for selling the truck, I sold the TRD. Part of cleaning out the truck was me finding those 4 bolts I initially removed to install the TRD, and the light bulb went off. Reinstalled those and back to 100% good. Kind of ironic how removing the TRD and putting it back to stock made me want to sell the truck, leading me to sell the TRD and keep it stock. lol.

As for the 4G, the appearance is a not so important factor for me, though I actually do like how they look. Mainly I want the turbo motor. I pretty much despise the V6 in every way imaginable. But, the truck is now behaving well enough that I’m a lot more inclined to keep it than I was.

With the 4.30 gears and stock tires, it is not as fun as it was, but I think it’s more practical than it was with the 5.29s. The 5.29s made things a bit awkward. 3rd maxed out at redline pretty early. 4th was good and went to high speed, but not as good as the 3rd I have now, which doesn’t go quite as high in speed (95 mph) but is a lot zippier than 4th with 5.29s. And then while 6th is a bit slow, it is absolutely regularly achieving better mpg, so overall the stock gearing makes some sense with this transmission and while it took away some fun factor, it made the truck make a bit more sense to drive. Now, if redline weren’t an issue and I could rev this thing to 8K, 5.29 all day and do lightning fast passes in 3rd gear lol. So while the engine is still anemic and lame, the current gearing set I think makes it useful enough that I can use it in a way that I don’t hate it. It still bogs down in 2nd and pisses me off, it still sometimes needs a kick in the taint in the form of a 6th to 3rd downshift so I can pass someone quickly on a 2-lane. But overall it’s manageable, and I’m probably better off than I was on the 5.29s even.

Yes, transmission probably has a home if I don’t keep the truck. We’ll see, but don’t sit around waiting on me to let mine go….may end up disappointed on that deal because it’s very much up in the air for me. Black Friday will be here before you know it, I’d highly recommend that route if you have a dealer near you that participates and makes sense buy from.

 

Hah, I have actually thought about that as an interesting swap. I’d never do that one because it makes too little sense for that engine, and also you wouldn’t have the spot for the rev match sensor (the location for the sensor is there in the casing but it’s not opened up for the sensor to poke through)…..so nah I wouldn’t do that one. But it would be fun to see it just to see the different experience.

I still think the perfect mix for me would be taking 5th and 6th of the stock trans and using them on this one. Or maybe 5th from stock and 6th from the new one and everything else from the new one. I dunno, I would tweak it a bit for sure if I could, but I can’t so it is what it is.

The idea of doing the almighty RC62F swap on a 4th gen is comical though.

 

My 17 has a weep/seep, I run 5W30 and since it doesn't make a puddle on the ground, I pretend it doesn't have an issues

All the ones we did in the shop involved the engine coming out and most of the front end coming apart. Fun.

Local auto parts store? Or local dealer if they're friendly.

Bingo

 

It's doable, but that will be a bear of a job. Lots of parts removal, including lower and upper oil pan, and to get those out you need to drop the front diff and I forget but maybe also the steering rack? Which is ultimately why some dealers pull the engine instead, because while the engine is out you can really work on it more easily than trying to work over the grille in the engine bay.

Since I'm in texas, if I spring a timing cover leak, I'm going to throw in diesel 15W-40 oil and hope it slows it down enough to not annoy me lol.

If you're interested in doing it yourself, definitely watch the 3 hour video series that a guy posted on youtube a couple years ago. It puts into perspective the idea of doing that job so you can see if it's something you really want to tackle or not.

 

Hello hope all is well. I may have lead on a RC60F locally but before i make an attempt i wood like pick your brain a little. I would expect with the RC60F there will be more shifting in the lower speeds or city driving. Is this what you ment by fun factor?

 

Nice, hopefully you can get one.

No, what I meant by fun factor is just that in general, the 5.29s offer a lot more acceleration across the board compared to 4.30s, so with the low ratios of this transmission, 5.29s made for a lot of "fun." Being back to 4.30s but with the improved gearing makes for a very stock feeling truck, but is a lot better than the actual stock that this truck comes as.

I don't really find myself shifting more or less based on one setup or another. I may shift a bit earlier or later depending on how quickly or slowly the rpm rises, but that's not really a critical difference among different setups.

Comparing RC62F with 4.30s vs RC60F with 4.30s, I prefer the RC60F for sure. You could shift them at the exact same vehicle speeds, but get a lot better acceleration out of the RC60F due to the lower 1-3 ratios. I was simply stating prior that I lost some zip and pep by going from RC60F 5.29 to RC60F 4.30.

 

To add to what I said before, really there is no more shifting than in anything else. You're still probably going to cruise in either 4th or 5th at 40-50 mph on city streets, and that experience is about the same as the stock transmission. Your shift timing through the first three gears may change slightly depending on how you like to use the rpm, but for the most part you can drive it similarly to how you did before and experience better acceleration.

 

Excallent. Thanks so much, putting cals through asap. Be looking forward to running 4:30s on 32s.