Cam gears for V6. Add power AND mpg

Oh, sure. What the hell.

 

Got mine on Friday when I got home from work! Installed it yesterday, briefly started it up and sounded good. Will be taking it on a 2 hour round trip later today. Thank you @mightytacoman

Also if it helps, to loosen the cam bolt, I used a 17mm wrench with a wrench extender and attached a 1/2" ratchet to it. To prevent the cam from moving, I used a wrench and rested it against the cam (alternate between the cam to stop rotation)

 

This is the red neckery I’m on TW for lol

 

I'm in for the next list that has spots (whether it's 3 or 4).

I swore I wouldn't monkey with the engine internals, but then again, before TW I didn't think I'd be taking a sawzall to my truck or welding on the frame

 

yesss that’s the spirit. Now if only you lived near me in Texas we’d venture into this together lol

 

Should be able to cut gears tomorrow and get them in the mail Thursday.

 

dumb question but maybe peps can help me out. just trying to confirm which timing marks i am lining up...the double timing marks on the intake with the yellow or the timing marks on the exhaust side?

 

Line up the crank pulley little notch with the "0" mark on the block. Mine took a few turns until that and the top double marks lined up where the gears are.

 

Finally have some mpg data to report. I always fill up until the pump stops, and calculate the mileage by writing down the mileage at fill up and mileage at half tank (10 gallons).

Here is the last few before the gears and the ones since. The first one had a bottle of Lucas injector cleaner. The last one included an easy Sunday drive on the highway to a local waterfall picnic spot loaded up with cooler, disc cooker, propane tank, two kids and wife. Not bad for the price of the gears!

 

Wow! No other changes?? That's quite a significant improvement.

Also, is 14.5-15 normal for the 4Runner? I complain about mileage sometimes, but it's at least more like 17-19 normally.

I have a spreadsheet of every gallon I've put in my Taco since I bought it in '09, so hopefully I'll be able to share some data after installing.

 

I’m not sure what the point is of recording at half tank? So that log is 2 tanks post gears? If your gas prices are like mine (~$2.50) And you paid the same $130 for the gears that I did then based on your avg. mpg improvement (which is 2.3L based on the above) then you need to drive approx. 5,650 miles until the gears will have paid for themselves. In theory.

 

I did install a manifold spacer at the same time so it's hard to say exactly. The 4R's name is The Great White Pig, she's a heavy girl. Plate bumper, hitch tire carrier, steel skids, rock sliders, 33's. With my old tires I was getting in the 13's before the bumper,skids,sliders.......

 

4 tanks post. I don't like running it to E to avoid gas pump issues, but maybe I'm just old fashioned. Gas is between $2.18-2.35 right now in my area.

 

At that price you’d roughly have to drive 1,000 miles more than my above estimate to break even on the gears. Conversely if you lived in SoCal where gas prices are $4.00 (if you’re lucky) the gears would pay for themselves after only ~3,500 miles.

My before and after numbers are almost the same as yours. Same mods also. Just Tacoma, not T4R

 

As I plan to drive it till the wheels fall off, worth it lol. Hopefully she'll see 400k like many others I've seen over on T4R.org!

 

If my wheels fall off I’ll fix that too! Only 2 things will take this truck from me.
1) Theft
2) A baaad wreck

edit: I thought the gears were worth it just for the smiles per gallon. I’m just a nerd for numbers

 

Its posts like this that keep me machining/selling the gears. If I'm reading this right- about a 2 mpg gain.
You notice a performance difference too or no?

 

I can chime in as well. My mileage, especially highway has increased 2MPG with the same driving habits. Slight increase around town as well, but its hard in Atlanta to drive conservatively.

As far as 'performance' increases, while after my first drive it seemed like there was, I really cant tell any difference now. Not saying there is none, but for me this modification was a MPG booster.

I am very pleased.

 

Definitely peppier, like the truck doesn't struggle as much getting up to speed as it used to. Drives much better.

 

Gears arrived today. Probably won’t be going on this week though.