Proud new owner of a '97

[Thurlo76]

I decided to up grade from my '87 because i wanted some more power and a little more room. I saw this '97 4runner on CL and it was the only stick shift from Moscow idaho to Portland oregon. The guy only wanted $4700 for it so i had to jump on it. I sold my '87 for $5500 and talked the guy down to $4200 on the '97. So far i couldnt be happier. i feel so spoiled with power everything, 185hp, 4 doors, etc.... its so nice..... So far (havnt done any work to it yet) ive got 21mpg which isnt much worse than my old 22re. anyways... this thing is sweet, i dont understand why i didnt do this before!











hope to do some work on it next week, full tune up should get me to like 23-24 mpg... i hope

 

[woodro]

very nice find , how many miles ? never saw those wheels before , stock ?

 

[Thurlo76]

it has 212,xxx on it, has all the papers of everything ever done to it since it was new. its had water pump, oil pump, oil pan gasket, valve gaskets, etc... changed in the last 40,000 so i think im good for awhile. and i dont think the wheels are stock... my grandfather has the same ones on his 2010 tacoma though so they are stock toyota just not on this 4runner. i like them way more than any other of the toyota stock wheels.

 

[farmerjon]

Nice find, low miles! That's a good color too. Glad you upgraded to a 3rd gen, methinks you'll be quite happy as you've been so far...

Looks like it already has some aux lights in the front bumper...

And yeah, I was going to say, those are stock Tacoma wheels.

 

[zgensler31]

The wheels are from the newer trd tacomas. Im a big fan of them myself. One note, if you get bigger, or better described wider tires youll need some kond of spacer. Some even require with the stick size 265s.

But awesome pickup on the stick. I like the red with the black sr5 flares.

 

[Thurlo76]

Im a noob here..... i plan on getting a set of 265/75/16's.... i was told those fit stock suspensions.... was i told right???

 

[white_n_slow]

Good deal. Yeah, after driving my old 22r pickup and the cruiser, there's nothing like driving a truck that actually has enough power to get out of it's own way

 

[farmerjon]

Im a noob here..... i plan on getting a set of 265/75/16's.... i was told those fit stock suspensions.... was i told right???

Yup, biggest size you can fit on a stock suspension. Though I'm not sure if the spare tire (in 265/75/R16) will fit in that size - perhaps others will chime in.

Welcome to the 3rd gen section! I forgot to mention that earlier!

 

[mattleegee]

good price, i recently got the same color and 5sp! love it

 

[rm2fast]

Nice ride love the color look forward to seeing some mods

 

[shadow247]

Nice find! My next 3rd Gen will be a 5 speed for sure! I just hope I can find one as clean as what you've got there!

 

[blcktpgsr]

Any upgrades or mods aside from the tires for this bad boy? I too have a 97, but I didn't get her even remotely close to the price you paid for yours.

 

[PitbullRescuer]

Im a noob here..... i plan on getting a set of 265/75/16's.... i was told those fit stock suspensions.... was i told right???

Yes but the fitmemt will vary with the wheel you run. You should be fine, 99% of people are. Worst case you'll need a small spacer.

Good going with the 5 speed, I love mine.

 

[Thurlo76]

Any upgrades or mods aside from the tires for this bad boy?

honestly not really. It needs new tires, thats the only reason im getting new ones. ive been reading about different intakes and headers and if i end up doing anything to it before the end of college (aside from regular maintenance) ill do something small. I did a bunch of crap to my '87 and just kinda got burnt out.... i really like this one stock.

ive read a few things about the post '98 4runners and some of the upgrades toyota made. i might try to get my hands on some of those goodies. i also need a tow package. PO took it off because he never used it and it made it look taller....

anyone have any decent performance things that you have done to yours??? more so for mpg's rather than power but anyone have experience with headers or intakes??? and in you opinion are the gains even worth doing it?

 

[Thurlo76]

Welcome to the 3rd gen section! I forgot to mention that earlier!

thank you by the way!

 

[downpour11]

Supercharger. (Period)

 

[Thurlo76]

Thats what ive been reading.... Idk though... those $69 chips off ebay seem pretty promising..... haha (sarcasm in case anyone doesn't speak that language around here...)

 

[downpour11]

Lol or some NOS in the gas tank!!

 

[Thurlo76]

that was gonna be my next mod....

 

[02SE]

I decided to up grade from my '87 because i wanted some more power and a little more room. I saw this '97 4runner on CL and it was the only stick shift from Moscow idaho to Portland oregon. The guy only wanted $4700 for it so i had to jump on it. I sold my '87 for $5500 and talked the guy down to $4200 on the '97. So far i couldnt be happier. i feel so spoiled with power everything, 185hp, 4 doors, etc.... its so nice..... So far (havnt done any work to it yet) ive got 21mpg which isnt much worse than my old 22re. anyways... this thing is sweet, i dont understand why i didnt do this before!


hope to do some work on it next week, full tune up should get me to like 23-24 mpg... i hope

Congrats on your new ride. As the owner of a '97 V6 5-speed since I bought it new off the lot, 15+ years ago, I still haven't found a reason to sell mine. Even if I did only drive it 2k miles last year. As for MPG, they were rated at 15 MPG city, 19 MPG Highway on the Monroney (window) sticker.

21 MPG is good. You might not improve much on that. 23-24 MPG might be too optimistic, especially with the Ethanol that is blended into most of the gasoline you can buy today.

I did notice a MPG improvement on my 4Runner, when I replaced my upstream O2 sensor last year. It brought the MPG back up to almost what it got when it was nearly new.

O2 sensors can become lazy over time, causing the ECU to inject more fuel than is really necessary. Which hurts MPG. They can drift out of spec a noticeable amount, without tripping a CEL.