New Owner and Advise Needed!

[BloodyShadow23]

Hello Everyone!
I am a new PROUD owner of a 97 5-speed manual 4runner SR5 trim! I am so happy to be joining a community that is supportive of each other and knows their stuff. I was looking through the "Buyer's Guide" when I was thinking about buying my baby and it sure did help out! Then I already looked though the "What to look for" thread and solved problems with my PCV valve and warped front rotors. Now here is my questions. I plan on yearly visits to Moab, UT and that means going over many mountain passes (I live in Colorado.) while towing dirt bikes. I have been looking into getting better brakes and adding power to help while still remaining an awesome daily driver that it is. What do you guys recommend I get/look into first? And have you guys had any experience with said upgrades? It has 158k on the engine btw.

Thanks!
Andrew

 

[MONTYMTB]

Congrats, and welcome!
Do the Tundra brake upgrade, you won't regret it:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/94923-hard-find-specs-info-measurements-231mm-13wl-tundra-calipers-rotors.html
Unless you get some different wheels you will have to use the 199s.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Welcome. Advice: read lots of build threads! Check out the sticky thread.

 

[Kanger328]

I assume you mean going to Moab to off road your 4Runner. That place has got some gnarly trails, which will require some heavy mods. Generally, heavier the mod the worse your vehicle becomes as a daily driver.

As far as increasing power, supercharger seems the only way to get any real power. Some claim they get a significant bump with CAI, performance air filter, etc. but I've done this to my vehicles before and even drove a 3rd gen with CAI. I didn't feel jack...ha. If you really want to earn some street cred on this forum, do a diesel swap or a turbo. That'd be awesome!

Congrats on the rig and welcome!

 

[LittleCaesar]

Welcome.

 

[hungryeddy]

welcome to the thread, keep me in mind since i'm in denver too and LOVE working on these things. i got a garage with tools if needed.

as far as your questions go, i'll repeat what monty said: do the tundra brake swap, you won't regret it. as far as more power kanger said it right. only way is a supercharger or turbo, tho the supercharger is so unpractical because of how much people want for their used s/c's and the effort it takes to get it installed and working correctly. there's guys on here that turbo their trucks for 1/3 or even 1/4 of the money needed for the s/c.

 

[BloodyShadow23]

Thank you guys for that info! I'll look more into the pricing options for those tundra brakes then. As far as power goes, I would never to have thought about putting a turbo on this engine! Just another thing to look into. And Kanger, Moab will mainly be for my dirt bike. The most off-road work I will do is just getting up into some tricky trail heads or cool camping sites.