Regear, OV tune, or supercharger?

IMHO, $7000 for 90HP is not worth it, there are cheaper ways, but it does have 278 HP and is fine for me, its a truck anyhow...just saying

 

If money only grew on trees to do all 3.

 

OV Tune, then if you don't like it gears, the if you don't like it Forced induction

Then if you don't like it, Nitrous dry shots... if you don't like that there is no pleasing you

 

Regearing and OV tuning sounds like best option. Thanks.

 

Ls swap

 

If money only grew on trees

 

Makes alot of sense. Thanks

 

No 3.5L 6 cylinder

 

Before I make my recommendation, I wat to point out that the Taco is the only truck I've ever owned and I didn't think it was terrible underpowered so much is that it just wasn't very sporty. After driving it for 3+ years, I was finally able to lift it and put 275/70 R17's on it. I didn't notice a lot of drop in performance but you could tell.

Within 2 days I also got the OV tune. I gotta say, that tune made a big difference for me. The throttle is way more responsive, I swear the exhaust note changed and it's way more fun to drive around town and on the highway. It feels better than with ECT on. Then if you hit that ECT button, it feels like I should be racing it around everywhere. It really feels like a new truck. I would suggest this first because it's affordable and may get you what you are looking for but again, I've not owned a full size truck with a hemi and unsure of what your expectations are.

 

To those who advice him to supercharge, or why not both, I have two questions : *(not trying to argue);

1. When Toyota made the 2nd gen engine for taco, it was designed and built with a S/C as an option in mind from the factory, and was taken into their Design considerations, spec and tolerance. Is the 3rd gen's FKS-2GR engine built with S/C into design consideration? In other words, is this engine reliably capable of adding an S/c, or will such an addition make it go kaput eventually? Is it worth the risk? I hope this question is verbose.
   
2. I also want to ask what's going on about the issues with the fuel pump and fuel injectors not being able to handle the higher intake pressures and intake temps for current after market S/C kits for this engine. Could someone kindly enlighten and update me on that? And how are the s/c manufacturer's addressing this problem ? They are surprisingly quiet about this matter especially with the on-going Denso fuel pump recall. I reached out to multiple vendors with this specific question, and I get properly formatted legally polite "non-answers". I reached out to my friend Bren at Harrop, AUS, and they cancelled their R&D *(said Harrop has an S/C for the Hilux, thats all). Magnusson, Whipple, URD are all selling S/c on a case by case basis,, all their websites say products sold out, but if you email them/call them, they'll sell you one. URD wants you to be in their city if you want their S/C. Most weirdly, the folks who did slap on S/Cs on their taco's in this forum are surprisingly hush about it unlike the norm where they'd post 5 pics for a simple floor mat mod.

Mat @ OVTune said he reached out to them and offered to partner; with his upgraded fuel pump and controller solution. (here's a side by side comparison picture from TT thread, stock vs upgraded Mat's solution).

Also on a tangent, I noticed that MESO when he added his twin turbo kit from OVTune, he replaced the stock fuel injectors with Lexus LS500 fuel injectors (which are now hard to find nationwide) which has multiple nozzle ports (here's a side by side comparison picture from his build thread, took 30 mins to dig it out.)
Are folks who are doing the S/c mods also changing their fuel pumps, fuel pump controller, fuel injectors and fuel rails too? *(Although not sure if you can change to aftermarket fuel rails at-all because of how super tight it's there in the valley pan and there's hardly any space in there).

 

Lol yea, this is why I mentioned superchargers are a whole other ball of wax. I'm pretty ignorant on the ramifications, but after enough reading I came to the conclusion that adding that kind of mod is a few layers deeper than my novice automotive brain should be making decisions about.

 

1. Just want to clear somethings up here...do you have any source/documentation that the 2nd gen was designed with SC in mind? I ask because it’s a dubious claim at best and my knowledge of OE design process (limited but exists) is that isn’t at all how it works at Toyota. If they designed the engine to be supercharged (what does this even mean btw, over designed components? Increased safety factors? Reduced factory compression? Routing cooling and oiling paths differently?), as you alleged, it would be for the purpose of manufacturing the vehicle with a supercharger.

This is not what happened. Toyota’s supercharger program was entirely separate (@hiPSI , you know some dudes right? Chime in if you please) and needed to conform to what came out of the factory. Essentially Toyota contracted out the blower work and handled stress testing on an already existing engine (some variants of the 1GR engine did not pass this testing). If I’m wrong please educate me.

All that said, power comes at a cost from stock configuration. Literally no mods are free. Depending on the amount of FI you’re adding everything starts to become less “reliable” or leads to a shortened service life (of course this varies by degree). The only person who can answer your question of risk is you.

2. There are ton of folks here who have been modding their power trains for a long time and much more involved than I ever have. But the short version is your engine needs air, fuel and spark to go bang. Power doesn’t just happen on its own, it’s literally a function of that equation. As you start adding bigger blowers you need to upgrade other components to be able to utilize all that air (i.e. more fuel and spark than what the factory system was designed for). That said, @OVTune and others have noted some idiosyncrasies in the factory fuel systems that are unrelated to FI and more just a “what the eff happened” for Toyota. Do those issues come into play during the regular service life of the truck? Usually not. There’s no conspiracy here other than magnusson being hush with their actual gains and selling to influencers first. URD does weird shit all the time anyway (thinking back to the old 4Runner FI system they tested and teased indefinitely).

OA

 

2nd gen was available with a supercharger option that did not void warranty as long as it was installed by a Toyota dealership. No such option has ever been presented for 3rd gen to my knowledge.

 

I’m aware.

The supercharger was sold by TRD and installed by a dealership (as you mentioned). The TRD FI program was dead before or at around the time of the 3rd gen’s release. It still doesn’t mean the 1GR was designed to be FI’d.

OA

ETA: not trying to be offensive by any means. I know I wrote a wall of text that is skimmable.

 

Lol. I even said I'm not trying to argue in my comment.
Some of us grew up dreaming for and desiring taco's . I think it was the movie "Back to the Future" , where my first love for Tacomas started.
Tacoma 2nd gen could be purchased from Factory with a TRD Super charger *(designed by TRD, built by Magnusson).
2nd gen 4.0 engine, 1GR-FE was superior planned and built with a Super Charger in the design process.
Looks like that knowledge needs some updating . Both your responses are factually wrong, just read the multiple threads here on the fuel pump issues or simply ask Mat @OVTune. Plenty of comments from him too.

 

In case it’s not obvious, changing your diff gear ratio does not have any effect on the power output of your engine. It only changes the rpm of the engine in a certain gear at a certain speed. This can give you a feeling of having more gears to play with by lowering
5th and 6th a bit so they are better for a acceleration rather than just cruising and increasing torque to the ground in 1st so that takeoffs are snappier, but it doesn’t increase power.

The super charger will indeed increase your engines power output, but it is very expensive.

The ovtune will increase your power, the sensitivity of your throttle, and the behavior of your transmission. I suggest you start with the tune.

 

Marty’s truck is what got me into Toyotas too. We can at least agree there.

You clearly didn’t read what I posted or comprehend what “purchased from the factory” means. I noted what I’ve seen in the OVTune thread too but I guess you didn’t bother with that either. I’m not here to argue either but you’re not getting anywhere if you’re not willing to read information.

OA

 

Sorry was rushing here, multi-tasking.

 

Um, changing gear ratios changes a bunch more than RPM lol. It changes torque to the ground, which is much different than power. Read up.