2.7 vs 3.5

I've hunted off and on for years for one to use as my work truck and to teach my kid how to drive an MT on with absolutely no luck. Not at reasonable prices, pre covid even.

 

Hail no.

 

It looks to me like the smaller truck in the pic would do fine with a 2.7 4 cylinder engine, the big truck, not so much.

 

So.... my first car 25+ years ago was a 1986 Isuzu Trooper with 113 horsepower (2.3-liter, 8-valve, carbureted) engine tasked with moving 3700 lbs. It took 20 seconds (no joke) to do 0-60 and slowed down on slight hills on the highway, even with a downshift and full throttle. This thing is fiiiiine.

I've only had manual cars my entire life until I got this truck. I do like the automatic around town/in traffic quite a bit but miss the stick on the highway. I would like to be able to floor it in a gear to power up a hill without getting a high-RPM kickdown.

Our 2nd car is a 2012 Yaris hatchback with a stick. It feels like a go-kart after driving the truck (and is quite a bit quicker).

 

I bet ther Yaris is fun to drive - I’m really looking at a corolla hatch with 6MT 2.0 (as a 2nd vehicle to go with my 5 lug)

 

I love those hatches... with the new TNGA platform (wishbone rear suspension) and revvy 2.0 engine (sounds like an old Honda to me) they are fun.

You can also get the new Civic hatch with a 2.0 K-series and a stick if you want a little more room. I'd have the 2.0 K-series over the Honda 1.5T any day (1.5 is a turbo Fit engine).

I had a 2003 Civic Si (the little egg hatchback) for years and years and it was a great car.

 

I agree I’ve driven the Honda 2.0 it’s a fun revy motor- that new civic interior is best in class too. Corolla may come in a couple grand less. May have to wait for the gr corolla.

 

Anyone who lives in SoCal and drives to Las Vegas will know El Cajon Pass. Not the biggest pass, but the last two miles ramp up pretty good. That was the hill that convinced me to never buy a 4cyl 4wd again. But I guess if you stick a supercharger on that engine, it would do well.

 

I drive up the El Cajon Pass on the way to Vegas with no trouble. But then again my 2020 4cyl is not 4 wheel drive.

 

Yeah, the 2wd is fine. my dads 4x4 2004 taco was not. It had trouble getting up the pass at that 70mph speed limit. My uncle had a 2002 2wd and it felt quick. relatively.

 

Agree with the comments like this. I drove a 2017 5MT 2.7L for 190k miles. Towed a travel trailer (Aliner Expedition) through the poconos regularly without issue. Also towed it through green mts of VT, which was a little sketchy in some passes (1st gear all the way up) but it made it. The VT trip was prior to installing the 2LM mod, sure could have used it there.

I drove it at 8-11k elevation during several trips to CO, and this really is a huge loss of power up at this kind of elevation. It's a great dependable truck and can handle anything within its limitations just fine. It will get through hills and mountain passes, but just know that you will be pushing it to its limitations and you will likely be white-knuckling it up very steep grades and/or high elevation. I would buy without any hesitation, even in hilly areas ... but if you live above 5k elevation it is a big fat NOPE.

 

Has anyone here supercharged a 2.7? Would be interesting to see how that works out.

 

I’ll let it rust to the ground before I sell mine. I owned a quicksand 2017 trd off-road with a manual trans and sold it to get a white 2017 2.7L 4x4 manual. Searched 2 years before I found exactly what I was looking for. The rev hang is atrocious in the 6cyl manual.

 

Mt rev hang is for emissions reasons, but I think tunes get rid of it. The 2.7 is so inefficient that toyota probably figured it wasnt worth adding rev hang to it

 

Yeah I know it’s for emissions and a tune will fix it. Not everyone wants to mess with a tune of their new 45,000 truck. I understand your point though.

 

4½ years of ownership, with 63,000 kms of daily driving and I have not experienced this rev hang that everyone talks about...

 

Fair enough. But I think a lot of people want the tunes for the extra power they provide. I have looked at this v6 a lot and noticed that in other cars namely lexus and a version of the camry, the engine puts out over 300bhp. So i see the tune as bring the taco version to its full capabilities.

 

Consider yourself lucky. Most new manual transmission vehicles experience this. New Gti’s and Civics are a few more examples.

 

I haven't experienced anything that I can identify as rev hang. I also don't know what problem eliminating the clutch accumulator is supposed to fix.

I find the Tacoma very easy to change gears and appreciate the fact that one doesn't need to depress the clutch pedal very far when shifting.

 

Rev hang was brutal on my FJ. Was one of the reasons I didn't bother even looking for an MT Taco. I noticed it when I test drove a 17 sport MT on a dealer trip once as well.