I have an opportunity to buy a 86 4runner with a 22rte but am not familiar with that engine. I have done a lot of research here and on yota tech but was wondering if anybody had any input or opinions on the 22rte vs the 22re or just the 22rte in general (sorry if I'm beating a dead horse here). Also this truck is an auto and I would want a 5 speed at some point and I know that some yota pickups came with the 5 speed 22rte combo but not sure how that would apply to a 4runner (I'm assuming that it would work but haven't been able to find anything definitive).

22rte is the turbo. Hence the T.

Im not familiar with them, but they are pretty rare. If its running good, get it.

You can swap any 5 speed from a 22re into it.

EDIT: WTF how did this get above your post subtegral, Haha.

Having worked on a number of them, I'd say stay away on general purpose. They aren't real noteworthy as far as longevity goes, unless they're cared for EXTREMELY well.
They do have the good trans, transfer case and rear ends though.

The RTE's are rare and cool but they're far from flawless.

I got rid of my rte for a few reasons:

1) The turbos aren't good for 4 wheeling. They need a bit of air to help keep them cool. The turbo will be spooled up for the most part while wheeling and won't have sufficient airflow to help keep it cool.

2) The turbos that come with them (CT-20) are usually cracked around the exhaust housing side and they're expensive to rebuild.

3) The turbo manifolds are bad designs and a lot of them are also cracked.

Parts for these motors are getting hard to find in good condition. I rebuild my motor with a few performance goodies about 1000 miles ago. I have more power out of my N/A 22re than I would have with a stock 22RTE motor for far less $$$$$.

I did keep my rte block for a turbo build later on maybe. But I'll use a steed speed manifold and a T3/T4 turbo. But it will go in a car or a daily driver 4runner, preferably a trekker one of these days.

Thanks for the quick responses guys! I figured that the turbo would add to some reliability issues. This one is completely rebuilt (whole engine from block up according to owner). I did find a site that is dedicated to 22rte powered trucks in case anyone is interested 22RTE-Trucks.com lots of good stuff there on the subject. Apparently its not that hard to go 5speed with it but you need to use the trans from a rte pickup from the same era and not a N/A runner. If anybody else has any knowledge on the subject it would be appreciated.

Turbo runners and trucks came with the R series transmissions that were used later on with the V6 engines. While they are a stronger trans I have seen many people swap in a W series trans with no problems with a boosted truck up to 200 hp. I wouldn't reccomend that you do smoky burnouts at 200 hp with a W series though.