Great info. It appears the 4Runner I am looking at has the highest gear ratio, if I'm adding bigger tires which I will pretty much immediately, how difficult is it to change only the gears, and would it be necessary?

Changing the gears is difficult, requires special tools if you want to do it yourself, built diffs that you can swap in from Ecgs would cost maybe $2000+/- for the front and rear. A regear may not be necessary depending on the size of tires you want and your tolerance for driving a slow as shit vehicle. I have 33” tires on stock gearing and it’s fine to me but mines a v6 so ymmv

My manual 3RZ feels fine with stock tires one the factory 16" wheels geared at 4.56. I drove a friend's auto 5VZ and it was noticeably smoother and quieter since it was shifting at lower rpms and it tackled hills easier.

I've loaded it up to the brim twice in the last year and done long 2k trips. No issues, but hills are challenging. I'll usually not be able to keep at highway speeds when it is loaded like that and need to drop down to 4th/55mph. I pretty much always drop to 4th on steep grades though anyways.

The 2.7 & 3.4 4Runners share the same 185 frame. All suspension components are interchangeable. The only thing different are the size of motors, motor mounts, exhaust mounts, and transmissions. The automatic in both are turtles. The 5spd in both are a little peppy than the auto. I come from a toyota family and I have driven both trucks in the automatic/5spd in the 2.7 and 3.4.

My mom in Hawaii has a 98 2wd, 5spd, 2.7 4runner that was given to me 3 years ago. We use it when vacationing back home for our family. My younger brother has a 02 2wd, automatic with a 3.4 and his wife has a 97, 4wd, 3.4 automatic. I drive a 98, 4wd, 3.4, automatic that is built.

I have driven all trucks in stock form and to me the best truck is the 2.7, 2wd, 5spd truck. Both trucks in the 5spd form are great trucks with both engines.

As far as the gear ratios go, it went 3.72, 4.10, 4.30, 4.56, and 4.88. The 4.88’s came in the 1st gen Tacomas witch share the same front suspension components as the 3rd gen 4Runners.

Good luck with your decision and happy hunting.


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Since it came with the 3.73 gears, is it a 2WD? If so, you can easily just swap the rear diff to a 4.10 version with no problem. I believe the 4WD 4-cylinders got the 3.93 gears if it was a 15" truck.

You will still have an incorrect speedo if your truck is ABS equipped due to the change in tire size.

-Charlie

Yes, it is indeed a two-wheel drive 4 cylinder manual. So do any of the two-wheel drive models come with the 4.1 gears, or do all of them have the same as this one? I know they put them in the 4x4, but maybe this particular model only had the 3.73?

The rear diff is the same for 2WD and 4WD - you can use any of them. I would suggest finding a cheap one from a 4WD guy who has upgraded his diffs and has his stock 4.10 rear 3rd-member laying around cheap.

My 2WD V6 Auto had a 3.73 stock (15" wheel SR5). I swapped over to 4.10's when I did the 4WD swap and bigger wheels/tires.

-Charlie

Allow me to just name drop for a moment and say that @JZiggy and @Pyral make super solid points.
I will say that, many moons ago when I was 18, I had purchased my first vehicle. It was a 1996 base model, 2WD auto with the 2.7L. I f’ing loved that thing and I miss it almost everyday. It was literally completely stock. Zero modifications. Low mileage, I wrecked it. But now that I’ve owned my 3.4L for almost 9 years, I will say that they are indeed comparable. The only time I noticed any difference with the 2.7 was, as previously mentioned, merging onto the highway. Aside from that, I don’t really recall any speed issues. Plus, I’m not going for “speed” in a 3rd gen 4Runner. Like what? Gas mileage is definitely similar as well so no noticeable differences in that department. Less maintenance due to timing chains and whatnot is SUPER nice for sure. If it were me, I’d say pull the trigger on it. 2.7 or 3.4 doesn’t matter to me. If it meets the criteria of: 3rd gen, overall in good mechanical and physical shape, has been taken care of, then why not? If I could do it over again, I’d get the same truck I had, just with a 5-speed manual trans and 4WD. But those were rare in the 2.7 from my understanding

Thank you for the input. I'm getting really close to actually buying this thing without driving it beforehand but I guess I will have to take that risk, it definitely looks super clean for a 20 year old car.

I will admit I'm a little bummed out that it's not going to sound like the V6 does, but of course that's a given.

On a side note, according to the factory brochures I was reading, for the year 2000 the 4 cylinders were not available with 16-in wheels at all and it looks like there was no 4x4 4 cylinder option. I've seen a few 1999 models with that configuration, but never a 2000, so maybe they only offered it with the base model? Seems odd that they would discontinue that on its last year but who knows?

4-cylinder 4x4 was MT only in 2000. 16" wheels are a separate option on the base model.

https://www.top4runners.com/runhist/...00_4runner.pdf

-Charlie

You could easily pick up a 3rd member, 'pumpkin', rear differential (it goes by many names) at a junkyard and bolt it right up. If you put 16" wheels and 265/70/R16 tires which are stock for most 4Runners, it's going to feel slow. If you go any larger than that, it's going to feel very slow with 3.73 gears. I had a 2WD auto 4Runner with the 3.9 gears and it was a slug.

I used to sell complete 3rd members for around $200 to $250. One could get it from a pick-n-pull for around $75, about 90% of 4Runners came with 4.10 gears. They are a little tricky to remove the first time as you have to partially pull out both axles, remove the rear driveshaft and get it juuuuust right to pop out but it's not anything terrible. Also they are very heavy.

Good luck finding one in Southern California in a junk yard. They tend to be one of the first things stripped off as soon as the 4runner or tacoma hits the yard. It sometimes seems like the yard themselves take them out. I have never seen an elocker in any of the yards I visit. You might get lucky though depending on where in Southern California you are.