How Effective Are Performance Tunes on Tacos?

Thinking about investing in a performance tune... don't want to make the purchase unless it'll help my truck's performance a good amount. I'd rather not go to all of the trouble to install and uninstall every time I get it serviced if it doesn't yield good performance boosts. Anyone have a performance tune that they like? I have a 2010 V6 4.0 L (Access Cab).

 

a question i have also. lets see what people say

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/performance-and-tuning.8/

Lots of good info throughout if you're looking for broad topics.

 

There is no current plug and play option really for 09+. Unless you want to have someone custom wire in an ECU for $$$$. Even then you'll probably see only 5-10hp. Like Spoon93 said, that section will give you tons of information.

 

Waste of $

 

I wish I knew where it went but there was a thread in that section that went in depth, way beyond my level of understanding, on why "tuners" are pointless and showed the stats behind. Exhaust, and intake are about the only things you can do and even then the gains are minimal and hotly disputed.

@tacobro11 a super charger is probably then only way to really get power out of your truck.

 

Most newer engines (mid-2000+) are in a pretty high state of tune from the factory--certainly not "balls and all", but not so shabby that simply remapping the fueling tables, bumping the timing, and maybe tweaking the MAF transfer function (common stuff on earlier EFI systems) are going to do much--that's how Toyota got 236/266 HP/lb·ft from the 4.0 (at the crankshaft--59 HP/litre). In comparison the 4.6 SOHC V8 in the '99 to '04 Mustang GTs was rated at just 260/302 HP/lb·ft; 56.5 HP/l at the crankshaft--this was 220 to 225 HP maybe at the rear wheels.

The GT's 4.6 l tune could be tweaked as described above, and with modest bolt ons (aftermarket TB, upper plenum, exhaust and larger injectors) could actually deliver 260/299 HP/lb·ft to the rear wheels--assuming an 85% MT drive train efficiency this is 305/351 HP/lb·ft (66 HP/l) at the crankshaft--here's the last dyno run I did with my '03 GT (10/31/2012--Halloween!):



Fortunately we do not have emissions testing here in Florida as I doubt the modifications and my tune would have passed-look at that AFR.

The bottom line is that peak efficiency (think mpg) happens when the engine is operating optimally, and Toyota has no motivation to not tune for peak efficiency--so while there may be a few HP here and there there isn't much in the way of bolt-ons that's going to have a big pay-off...

 

You are right, just a tuner is basically pointless on a stock truck. The engine is already well sorted out for what it is. There is only a few hp to be had by the tuner itself. Once you do a bunch of suporting modifications it starts to make more sense.