First upgrades - Stage 1 2015 TRD Pro

Before the 4Runner I had an Infiniti G35 sports coupe.
I belonged to a local owners club and we all did similar mods, had group buys, and instead of the trails we would rent the local track.

Almost everyone myself included did a CAI and catbacks. We had dyno days where we would dyno before and after mods. The CAI and catbacks did nothing of significance. Some cars got nothing, others got a minor increase of 2-5 HP at peak HP at the expense of bottom-end torque, or the peak torque moved to higher RPMs.

It became the running joke that our mods sounded better and felt way better with our butt dynos, even if it was mostly placebo.

The only guys with real gains installed blowers or the mighty twin turbo, and reprogrammed their ECU's, but almost every one of those guys was also plagued with various ongoing gremlins and issues.

For the rest of us, the track showed just how much of performance was dependent on the skill of the driver, rather than all the smaller mods.
 
perhaps the most cost effective way to make a 4Runner faster, should you choose to go down this never-ending rabbit hole of a money suck is to strip weight:
remove the back seats, roof rack, spare tire (if you have AAA or carry a patch kit and compressor and are staying onroad) and everything you don't absolutely need. Get lighter wheels and tires (unsprung weight makes a big difference too). There's a general rule that taking the curb weight of the vehicle dividing that by the stock hp/ toque will give you your rough hp and ftlbs per lb ration. stripping this much weight will feel like you've gained that much and likely be more effective on any dyno than a cat back or CAI... making a vehicle lighter is the easiest way to make it go faster (ang get better MPG and increase towing capacity). Also going on a diet likely won't hurt (this isn't meant to be personal so please don't take it that way, but weight savings is weight savings, don't discount the passengers)

just some ideas, good luck but as others have stated, if speed was your thing you should have bought a sports car, if sound is your thing, you should have bought a GX or LC LX which comes with a V8.
 
I had to pause and stop laughing after dag's comment, but seriously...
  • The 5th gen 4R already has a CAI. You draw cold air from the wheel well instead of hot air from the engine compartment. Open your hood and look. Every vehicle I've owned in this century has this stock. Mods to loosen air flow (remove baffles, free-flow filter) may change the sound and might give a very very slight increase in power, but at the expense of allowing more grit into the engine.
  • The exhaust is already fairly free-flowing. An aftermarket may sound better but will have negligible affect on performance.
  • The T4R does have somewhat slow throttle response; you just have to push your foot down farther to get the same acceleration. This doesn't mean the engine lacks power, it means it was designed to help off-road performance where you don't want your vehicle surging forward in a tight spot where it will slam into a rock or tree. Some people claim a chip or flash re-write of the ECU can change this; I've never seen proof that it works.
  • Chips that claim to boost performance by changing timing and such are completely bogus. Your vehicle doesn't have a V8 that has been detuned with cheap parts that limit performance; this is a V6 pulling a heavy BOF brick. The engineers at Toyota have already done pretty much everything they can to squeeze as much power as possible out of 4.0 liters [Edit: fixed displacement typo]. Yes, those engineers were limited by budgets and use high factors of safety to maintain Toyota's reputation for reliability. So yes, you can squeeze more power out of it... but at a huge expense both in terms of initial cost and long-term reliability.
  • If you want major increases in off-the-line acceleration and torque then swap out for 4.56 gears. This will, however, reduce your highway mileage considerably because the engine has to turn faster to maintain the same speed.
 
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Logan714 said:
Wait for the supercharger to come out.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought the TRD Pro was going to come out with.

Shame on you TOYOTA!

Disappointed-Terrible-Awful-OMG-Embarassed-Embarassing-WTF-GIF.gif
 
jwkilgore said:
The engineers at Toyota have already done pretty much everything they can to squeeze as much power as possible out of 3.0 liters.
Click to expand...

what about the final Liter? did did they just say **** it at that point once they reached 75% of the displacement?

there is plenty of more power to be had, reliably and economically and without forced induction or premium fuel if they tried. 350hp is easily attainable.
 
marshal said:
what about the final Liter? did did they just say **** it at that point once they reached 75% of the displacement?

there is plenty of more power to be had, reliably and economically and without forced induction or premium fuel if they tried. 350hp is easily attainable.
Click to expand...

...and we could make some of that power ourselves, if they would just let us into the damn computer.
 
marshal said:
what about the final Liter? did did they just say **** it at that point once they reached 75% of the displacement?

there is plenty of more power to be had, reliably and economically and without forced induction or premium fuel if they tried. 350hp is easily attainable.
Click to expand...
That's how they max out fuel economy, like how the new Chevy trucks do it... every cylinder shuts down every 4th cycle.

Seriously, I corrected the typo in my post.

Now, I'm curious... how can we go from 270 to 350 horspower, reliably and economically, and without forced induction or premium fuel?
 
jwkilgore said:
That's how they max out fuel economy, like how the new Chevy trucks do it... every cylinder shuts down every 4th cycle.

Seriously, I corrected the typo in my post.

Now, I'm curious... how can we go from 270 to 350 horspower, reliably and economically, and without forced induction or premium fuel?
Click to expand...

Eco Block :behindsofa:
 
Maybe we can call up VW and see if they can give us a new calibration in the ECU...worth a shot, even though these are gas, right?

:hippie:
 
jwkilgore said:
That's how they max out fuel economy, like how the new Chevy trucks do it... every cylinder shuts down every 4th cycle.

Seriously, I corrected the typo in my post.

Now, I'm curious... how can we go from 270 to 350 horspower, reliably and economically, and without forced induction or premium fuel?
Click to expand...

There are two reasons for engineers to reduce power in a design.
1. Efficiency - Practical needed power to accomplish the designated task will improve efficiency, in this case mpg.
2. Reliability - This is the biggie. If you have an engine that is designed to make 500 hp but you limit it to 300 hp then you will improve reliability and durability in that application greatly. This is not only the engine but every single component in the driveline will have increased reliability and durability by running at lower power.

Now let the armchair mechanics (you know who you are, you are the ones that have built a GM 350 small block or added a chip in a Mitsubishi Eclipse once upon a time) start posting on why I am wrong.
 
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:iagree:

I would also like to add emissions standards to that mix, though. They are also trying to balance what goes out the tailpipe into the equation as well.
 
1engineer said:
2. Reliability - This is the biggie. If you have an engine that is designed to make 500 hp but you limit it to 300 hp then you will improve reliability and durability in that application greatly. This is not only the engine but every single component in the driveline will have increased reliability and durability by running at lower power.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I don't know if it is the case with our 4runners, but in a lot of performance vehicles torque management is a big killer of power. I had a 5th gen Camaro, and with torque management reduced it made a huge difference in how much power you were actually putting to the ground.

Of course then you run a higher risk of hurting driveline components.
 
jwkilgore said:
That's how they max out fuel economy, like how the new Chevy trucks do it... every cylinder shuts down every 4th cycle.

Seriously, I corrected the typo in my post.

Now, I'm curious... how can we go from 270 to 350 horspower, reliably and economically, and without forced induction or premium fuel?
Click to expand...

increase the compression and use direct injection capable of multiple events per injection, and increase the oil reservoir to cool that hot block off
 
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