Manual transmission Fan Club and BS thread (All Generations Welcome)

http://www.hometowntoyota.com/new/toyota/tacoma/2017-cement-trd-pro-5654153.html

Work with your dealer to see if they can allocate a swap.

 

My dealer told me I could get a 2018 cement TRD Sport in cement with a MT, but not a TRD Off Road in cement with a MT. This does not jive with the spec sheets published on this website.

 

He is either misinformed, Has a Cement Sport on the way or could be telling the truth?

 

8 months in, I still can't parallel park this truck for shit.

 

For shame lol

 

Jack a corner up on the curb...flex like a bro lol

 

You know how you get to Carnegie hall don't you? Practice.

 

I practice all the time! I live in a goddamned city... I just suck at it with this truck.

I drove a first-gen 5 lug regular cab for 15 years so still adjusting! Gimme a break!

 

Just this once I guess... hahaha while the taco is the largest vehicle I've owned it's a fighter plane compared to the full size trucks w/trailer I drive currently at work and the box trucks I used to drive.

 

The back up Camera helps a lot for me.

 

yes, the orange virus tune significantly decreased rev hang for me and others, especially after the 1.02 update which added control of valve timing throughout the rev range. Much less jerky on the throttle as well.

 

Wait...the what?

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2016-toyota-tacoma-v6-ecu-tuning-alpha-release.495735/

 

I'd like to hear your experience w/r/t manny tranny on this tune. I know your attention to detail on setups and your shared enthusiasm in our configuration.

tL;DR...I'm extremely content in the performance of this truck...do you think this tune would make me be even "more" content?

If you have done one already in the ovtune thread, could you point a link...it's a bugger of a thread.

Tnx

 

sure i'll do a little summary.

originally got the Pedal Commander as a solution for the weak throttle. it worked! but it was also very far from linear which made it a bit unpredictable for throttle/clutch modulation. even with the PC it was pretty peaky and that made things like rev matching wonky.

i've been on OV 1.02 for the MT since it was released and it's terrific. it took about 10 days to "stabilize" or whatever due to the ECU's learning function. it's been consistent ever since.

the pros:
- pretty linear. this is a difficult motor to tune for that with the weird ECU stuff and the VVT. but he's done a great job given that he STILL has not had a MT on the dyno. in other words, there's much more to come when he does get one. i believe a MT dyno session is being arranged for the near future, but i can't verify that. even still, i would buy it now as it is and have nothing but rave reviews.

- more torque in the midrange, which gets you more drivetrain control with easy throttle modulation. more torque means you can brush the throttle and get what you need for modulation. you don't need a PC or need to dig your foot into it to get it to respond.

- much more power up top. i almost never rev high, but if you do it's a screamer, moreso than with the stock tune for sure.

- some report better mpg. if i checked i may have it too. obviously it's not my priority.

- 87 oct tune incoming. not released yet. i may take this one myself since i tend to drive under 4200rpm.

- ongoing updates... maybe to a point. but from what i'm seeing on OVtuned.com he's a geek who likes to do his work so he may be coming with more updates in the future even beyond the basics, although i'm just making a guess.

cons:
- some would say the price is a con. i would not say that.

- nothing else for a MT, although some with earlier ECU versions are still reporting excessive rev hang and throttle control. you can find that discussed in the last few recent pages on the OV thread. it may depend on when your truck was produced and the ECU software version. mine is a late version, but Frank, who's ECU is 2 versions earlier than mine, reports all these issues with the same tune as me, 1.02.

if you have any q's, ask away. i couldn't be happier with it, but i also know there is [obviously to me] more power on the table, and an even smoother power curve, but that won't be for us until Mat gets a MT on the dyno and has at it.

if i could take anyone with a stock truck for a drive in my MT, they would want to know how to get that tune. of course, if you have no complaints, you'll need to ask what you'd want if you could dream. for me, if i didn't find the PC then i would have sold the truck. that's how much i hated the throttle. the PC put a bandaid on that issue, but the OV tune fixed it fully, and is still coming back with more.

 

Yeah this is one of those things where it's not a NEED, but once you have it you will wonder why Toyota ever tuned the ecu the other way. One thing I'd like to add to all the pros that @St.Germain listed is the improvement in NVH that I experienced. Specifically when driving through parking lots in 2nd my truck used to want to lug despite still being around 1000-1200 rpms which seems pretty pathetic for a V6. The whole truck would sometimes start shaking forcing me to shift into 1st and cruise around at 2500 or so rpms in the parking lot instead . After the OVtune its much easier to cruise around at low rpm and the truck can also more easily cruise in second and start accelerating from low rpm. The engine seems to overall operate much smoother than before.

 

definitely agree with this.

 

Perfect, thanks for taking the time to write that up!

 

The second gen RA series transmission family has the case cast to the bell housing. The release bearing support is also cast into the unit all in one piece. The issue here is you have a steel release bearing carrier riding on an aluminum support. This setup is doomed to fail.

On the RC series transmissions in the third gen trucks Toyota returned to using a multi piece transmission case. The bell housing, transmission case and release bearing support are all separate. They also went back to the cast steel release support/input bearing retainer. You can see the bolt on steel bearing support on the right side of this photo.

Edit:

The second and third gen transmissions are not interchangeable. The mounting flanges on the rear of the engines are different.

 

Awesome info!

OA