OK guys,

I am wondering if it is worth dumping any cash into my wive's 1993 4Runner v6 ?
I have put quite a bit into it in the past two years and I'm not sure if it makes sense to keep hoping to make it perform better. It is a 90% on-road vehicle with intermediate weekend warrioring when time permits.

Mainly I wish it had more power and handled a little more responsively.

The main questions are these :

1) Are there any tuning tricks that will give some hp to this 1993 v6 AUTO with 107,000 miles ?
What is the most noticable improvement ?

2) Should I just beat the truck to death or plan to upgrade as components fail ?

3) How much longer will it last ?

4) The rear brake pads are going fast, who should I order replacements from ??

5) Do any of the aftermarket exhaust manufacturers actually improve performance and HP on the 3.0 L ? Or just more noise ??

-Thanks for your time and energy if you reply .

1. other than headers there is not anything that will give you a big boost in HP.

2.Just beat her to death, if you can do the work yourself saves$$$

3.If you take care of it I would say over 200K not uncomman.

4. Toyota or any autoparts store brand, the rear brake shoes take forever to wear out this is what the 2nd time you have replaced them?.

5. If there is a HP gain it is not much.

Let's face it the 3.0L does not make allot of HP and there is not much you can do about it.
I have 118K on mine and my plan is to take care of the engine ...but when it does die to go the 3.4L swap

If your truck is in good condition run it untill it dies and do the swap.

Allright,

1. What is the NOISE/HP ratio on those headers ?
on subarus the headers make the engine sound insanely loud usually is this the case with the 3.0 ?

2. So far I'm doing all of the installations myself except for the K&N FIPK. I will try and do the brakes pads myself this time, any tips ???

3. These engines just go slow forever , huh ?

4. This will be the 3rd set of rear pads.

5. I will skip this for now..I have previously contemplated the Borla, Jardine & Performance Parts exhausts, headers and free flow cats.

Well I think that I will be concentrating on those brakes for the moment, we do a lot of driving into the canyons and mountains around los angeles.

1.Headers are loud no matter what you put them on a V8 or a 4cyl.
I have them on my MR2 and there loud and I have them on my Vette and there loud.....But it's a good loud.

3.Yes they go slow forever but it is a good engine with few problems. That counts.



2.If you have never changed rear brake shoes get yourself a Chilton or Haynes repair guide they sell them at any autoparts store.
Drum brakes are drum brakes there is not much differance between them. Good luck.

The Haynes guide is what has given me the courage to keep trying to do more work on the truck myself. It is truly helpful, but this forum and http://www.4x4wire.com are getting me stoked to hook up her grocery assault vehicle into a worthy offroader as well.
I have been tricking out my Forester for the past 2 years, but I want to do some hardcore camping this summer, so I 'm getting ready to make the 4Runner dependable and rugged. It seems to need attention every 3 months or so lately, so I plan on lurking around here for info.

Thanks everybody, I will post some pictures and video as soon as I can.
I have some footage from my last trip to Big Bear Lake, CA


:clap:

Here is a shot getting ready to go biking. A typical activity for this 4Runner on a Saturday. Thule rack.

nice....keep her on the road!

BTW nice red 4runner

Good luck with the brakes run into problems post up

Hey Mikes4runner,
It looks like our trucks were seperated at birth.
It's nice to hear from a clone !
Same year, same color.
I'm going to do the brakes in a few weeks I"ll let you know how it goes.

Yes our color is Garnet pearl ( only know that because I still have the window sticker).

good luck with the brakes.

I'm new to toyota's, but I would think opening up the intake air flow and opening up the exhaust flow would help the engine perform better, and increase hp.

My 95 is pretty damn slow There has to be somehing we can do to spice these rides up

From what you see in the previous posts, 'spice it up' is a bit of a misnomer. It's not a bad engine, it's just a design that doesn't respond to the usual performance mods. The best thing to do is make sure you have ALL the various parts working properly-- good dist. cap, rotor button, plugs, plug wires, TPS and AFM properly adjusted, throttle body clean, tire pressure optimum, and don't carry around any extra weight.

The 3.4 is a much better design -- more power and better economy. Doing that swap when your 3.0 dies, is really the best route for your $$.

Mike in AR