The 3.4L TRD Supercharger Thread

[MFMG2019]

I'll definitely try it. I'm going to check the injectors today also

 

[gamefreakgc]

I just bought a 99 4runner s/c. It's in really great shape, no rust. 160k on it. First Gen charger. I've personally changed oil, oil filter, fuel filter, new belts, plugs, plug wires, coil packs. Re checking plugs tomorrow. New intake system. Cleaned TB. Cleaned the maf and iac.The problem is at low idle is will try to die out. If I put the pedal to the floor, it will line right out. But no check light. It spots and sputters under 2500 and as soon as I floor it, it will run strong. Tries to die out at low idle everytime. Sorry for the poor Grammer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. It also has been sitting for 1.5 years in a building. Mostly happens while driving. Parked and in neutral it will low idol but I can give just a tap of the throttle and it will be fine.

Water in the gas? Bad gas potentially?

If not gas, I would also suspect a mis-routed hose causing a vacuum leak or something missing. There's like 6 different vacuum hose routing options for this engine so it is easy to get it wrong or have the wrong diagram. Use the TRD manual here to find yours:

https://www.parksoffroad.com/tacomamods/miscinfo/TRD34LSCInstal.pdf

 

[Devbot]

It's not exactly a quick job but dropping the transmission pan would be what you are after. The transmission is all fluid, gears and clutch plates and is fairly mechanical. The first thing you'll notice with a failing transmission is metal shavings in the fluid that is caught by the magnets on the bottom of the pan. Fine powder that doesn't overwhelm the magnet is fine but any shiny brass or large slivers. This is what a healthy pan and magnet looks like:

This is what a failing transmission pan looks like. Note the large fragments strewn about:

Yeah I knew of that, I was thinking something more in depth. I just had my trans flushed and filter replaced a couple years ago so I doubt it would tell me much anyways
I guess I'll stay n/a until I need a whole new motor now that I've read a little more about it. There's just too many things to gamble IMO; trans, head gaskets, valvetrain... My car runs good for 300k but knowing my luck it'd turn into a nightmare hwell:

 

[jmh139]

2nd Gen Supercharger Rotor Pack Replacement

I thought I would post this here in case it could help someone. I bought a 2nd Gen TRD supercharger for my 98 that turned out to have a bad rotor pack. Something metal had traveled through the rotor pack and messed up the timing and damaged the blades (It made LOTS of noise at idle). A replacement rotor pack from several of the rebuilders was quoted from $900-$2000 so I wanted to look for something cheaper.

I purchased a 04-07 Cobalt SS supercharger for $100 locally on Facebook marketplace as it looked to be the same m62 pack. It is ALMOST the same. The rear shafts from the rotors turned out to be about 1/4 longer than the TRD rotor packs. Using a caliper to measure everything, this is the only difference I could find. I used an angle die grinder to cut off the 1/4 inch and chamfer the ends and gave it a try. Seems to work perfectly. I went from 4.5 psi of boost to a little over 6 and have no noise. I have driven it a bit now with no issues and wanted to post about it.

I have attached some pictures, one showing the difference in the length of the shaft, one while I am cutting (I took turns cutting slowly to keep the heat down), and one completed. You can see in the pictures I taped everything REALLY well to keep out any metal shavings. I hope this helps someone, the Cobalt superchargers can be bought in my area for $200. Also the coating on the blades is different, it does not flake off like on my TRD rotor. Every Cobalt supercharger I looked at was in great shape.

Also added a bonus picture of our (my son and I) 4runners. His is on the left, supercharged, manual with a locker. The middle one I will probably sell soon as I am not driving it much, manual 162k, supercharged with a locker. And my daily on the right Automatic, supercharged with a locker.

 

[infamousRNR]

Does anyone know how I can source this dynamic tensioner pulley bolt? mine sheared!

[MENTION=115347]gamefreakgc[/MENTION]
[MENTION=127339]4Reak Show[/MENTION]

.

 

[gamefreakgc]

I thought I would post this here in case it could help someone. I bought a 2nd Gen TRD supercharger for my 98 that turned out to have a bad rotor pack. Something metal had traveled through the rotor pack and messed up the timing and damaged the blades (It made LOTS of noise at idle). A replacement rotor pack from several of the rebuilders was quoted from $900-$2000 so I wanted to look for something cheaper.

I purchased a 04-07 Cobalt SS supercharger for $100 locally on Facebook marketplace as it looked to be the same m62 pack. It is ALMOST the same. The rear shafts from the rotors turned out to be about 1/4 longer than the TRD rotor packs. Using a caliper to measure everything, this is the only difference I could find. I used an angle die grinder to cut off the 1/4 inch and chamfer the ends and gave it a try. Seems to work perfectly. I went from 4.5 psi of boost to a little over 6 and have no noise. I have driven it a bit now with no issues and wanted to post about it.

I have attached some pictures, one showing the difference in the length of the shaft, one while I am cutting (I took turns cutting slowly to keep the heat down), and one completed. You can see in the pictures I taped everything REALLY well to keep out any metal shavings. I hope this helps someone, the Cobalt superchargers can be bought in my area for $200. Also the coating on the blades is different, it does not flake off like on my TRD rotor. Every Cobalt supercharger I looked at was in great shape.

Also added a bonus picture of our (my son and I) 4runners. His is on the left, supercharged, manual with a locker. The middle one I will probably sell soon as I am not driving it much, manual 162k, supercharged with a locker. And my daily on the right Automatic, supercharged with a locker.

Thanks for posting this here. I've saved this for reference for when my rotor also eventually wear out as I think mine have 150K-200K miles.

 

[gamefreakgc]

Does anyone know how I can source this dynamic tensioner pulley bolt? mine sheared!


[MENTION=115347]gamefreakgc[/MENTION]
[MENTION=127339]4Reak Show[/MENTION]

.

Oh, it's the short bolt for the pulley. That's a toughie. Try backing the thread out and take the pieces to ACE hardware. Will be either an M8 or M10 but the size I don't know as I never took one off. Could also cut a longer bolt to size.

 

[phattyduck]

Oh, it's the short bolt for the pulley. That's a toughie. Try backing the thread out and take the pieces to ACE hardware. Will be either an M8 or M10 but the size I don't know as I never took one off. Could also cut a longer bolt to size.

McMaster-Carr is a great source for odd fasteners too... I bet that bolt has a Toyota PN though - if you want to stay OEM(-ish) there.

-Charlie

 

[poisedforflight]

Some info that I screenshot on ig awhile back

Hmmm....I was about to pull the trigger on a Gen4. This is intriguing but will it be worth the extra $1500+ I'm thinking it will cost?

I'm glad to see this thread is still semi-living after all these years. I've been following for quite some time and am about to start restomodding my '98 with 148k miles on it.

 

[poisedforflight]

So Im going to be going more in depth with the tuning on my 4runner than I think most have before and at least have in a long time. To me it just has seemed like the 5vz could make so much more power than it does even with the blower bolted on top. Ive also found the majority of the community just falls back on the "runs the 7th injector with their tune and thats as good as it gets" which drives me nuts because its nothing more than blind consumerism lol.

In order for me to do this though I needed a better way of monitoring the motor and to watch for any impending issues. For that I needed an exhaust gas temp (egt) gauge. An egt gauge and sensor is essentially just a thermo couple that is mounted in the exhaust stream as close the the cylinder ports as possible and it essentially is used to monitor the efficiency of the burn in the cylinder chamber and from that can tell you quite a bit if you know what you're looking for.

I choose to mount the egt probe just past the flange where the exhaust collector mounts to the header for a few reasons. The first being accessibility, it was nice and easy to get a drill and welder torch in there, the second biggest reason for mounting here was to not have to drill a hole into the cast manifold and risk cracking it.

Sensor installed...
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/147275993@N05/49118401928/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_20191124_120658"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49118401928_0d526cd6b7_b.jpg" width="469" height="1024" alt="IMG_20191124_120658"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

And Gauge installed in the only spot I had left right below the 12v outlet.
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/147275993@N05/49119101082/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_20191124_162424"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49119101082_903d1d107e_b.jpg" width="469" height="1024" alt="IMG_20191124_162424"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Took the truck out and immediately could see that I was both losing power and was also being harder on the motor than necessary. I made the same run 3 times and averaged my results just to keep the data consistent. This pull was done at 65mph roughly 2500 rpm in 4th gear pulling a 6 percent grade for roughly a minute.

Averaging the data heres what I got.

AFR after 3psi, 12.5
No ping
EGT 1500 degrees

From the limited info out there I was able to find of guys running egt gauges on the 5vz they were making peak power right at 1400 degrees and this also proved to be the sweet spot for my motor. I did 4 more runs each time advancing the timing by 2 degree from my original map and got the egts down to 1400 and could feel a significant torque increase and was finding I actually was having to push less boost to maintain the same speed. Less boost more power? thats the magic recipe.

Over the next few weeks I am going to try playing with the cam timing and doing some other things to see how much I can really squeeze out of my setup and once Im happy with it Ill see about throwing it on a dyno just to put an actual number to it.

Would this be a good location for the Wideband O2 sensor as well?

 

[Black798]

The WB o2 sensor you'll want to have after the collector tubes come together into one so you can monitor both cylinder banks. Where that EGT probe was installed was only monitoring the passenger cylinder bank.

 

[mo2le]

Hey all, my first "real" post here, so I apologize if this has been covered but I have not been able to find anything specific to help me.

I recently picked up an '01 with a 2nd gen supercharger, URD 7th kit, and tune for a great price because it needed knock sensors. Got those taken care of, now onto doing the timing belt...

I have it all taken apart and each cam is roughly 1-2 teeth "behind" time, with the notch in the cam gears 1-2 teeth to the left of the marks on the rear timing cover. This is with the pink dot lined up with the arrow in the block at the crank.

My question is this: is there any reason that a shop may have done this? PO said that he put the SC on but never did the timing belt, but I just want to be sure that there would be no reason that a tune may call for this adjustment--I understand that ignition and valve timing are two different things. (145k on engine, ~45k since SC install)

My plan is to put it back together, properly timed, and hope for the best. Any input on your guys' experiences with this is much appreciated! Thanks

 

[SgtAbn]

2.2" SC Pulley upgrade question please

Hi Guys, this is a great thread - thank you all for contributing. I have a 2002 T4R with a factory installed gen 2 supercharger. I live in the mountains in NW Colorado and even with my supercharger I can't always keep up with the V8's when we are driving through the mountains at 80 MPH on the highway, so I want to upgrade to a 2.2" pulley from URD; so I read this entire thread but I'm still confused a little. If I am just going to the 2.2" SC pulley, I need to upgrade the fuel injectors as well correct? Do I also need to "re-tune" anything on the truck? If so, to what extent please? I'm really trying not to make this a major project, but I also want it done right the first time. Please advise me guys!

 

[Speedy]

Hi Guys, this is a great thread - thank you all for contributing. I have a 2002 T4R with a factory installed gen 2 supercharger. I live in the mountains in NW Colorado and even with my supercharger I can't always keep up with the V8's when we are driving through the mountains at 80 MPH on the highway, so I want to upgrade to a 2.2" pulley from URD; so I read this entire thread but I'm still confused a little. If I am just going to the 2.2" SC pulley, I need to upgrade the fuel injectors as well correct? Do I also need to "re-tune" anything on the truck? If so, to what extent please? I'm really trying not to make this a major project, but I also want it done right the first time. Please advise me guys!

Since you're at altitude the answer will be "it depends". I'd recommend a 7th injector kit over trying to do all new injectors. The tuning for the 7th is a lot easier. You'll need an AFR (air fuel ratio) gauge to know if you need more fuel and you'll need to listen for any detonation below 3,000 RPM to know if you need to pull a few degrees of timing down low in the rpm range during boost.

 

[SgtAbn]

Thanks Speedy, I'm putting a new engine in it so I'm going to replace the fuel injectors (among other things) before I drop it in anyway.

 

[gamefreakgc]

Thanks Speedy, I'm putting a new engine in it so I'm going to replace the fuel injectors (among other things) before I drop it in anyway.

If you are doing injectors, I recommend the Supra 'blue top' injectors as they increase flow but also keep the stock Air Assist system that our engines have. Then put a 2.1" pulley on, install a Walbro 190 fuel pump and call it a day. Sure it's not perfect but you'll notice a whole lot more power and your engine will be richer at higher boost levels (read as safer). You could do the injectors for $300 or so from a reputable source, the fuel pump for $100 and the 2.1" pulley for $99 so $500 total. Obviously there's more you can add but if you want to only take a few steps into the more boost/more power rabbit hole then that's what I would recommend. It is a very deep rabbit hole though.

It does not help if the engine starts to ping though. At higher elevation it is much less likely to do so, usually just an issue us sea level guys get to deal with.

 

[SgtAbn]

If you are doing injectors, I recommend the Supra 'blue top' injectors as they increase flow but also keep the stock Air Assist system that our engines have. Then put a 2.1" pulley on, install a Walbro 190 fuel pump and call it a day. Sure it's not perfect but you'll notice a whole lot more power and your engine will be richer at higher boost levels (read as safer). You could do the injectors for $300 or so from a reputable source, the fuel pump for $100 and the 2.1" pulley for $99 so $500 total. Obviously there's more you can add but if you want to only take a few steps into the more boost/more power rabbit hole then that's what I would recommend. It is a very deep rabbit hole though.

It does not help if the engine starts to ping though. At higher elevation it is much less likely to do so, usually just an issue us sea level guys get to deal with.

Thank you, that sounds like good advice, a couple questions please;
-Did you reprogram/recalibrate your ECU, Timing or air/fuel ratio?
-Can you tell me more about "Air Assist System" please?
-Is the "Walbro 190" fuel pump a inside or outside the fuel tank pump please?

 

[gamefreakgc]

Thank you, that sounds like good advice, a couple questions please;
-Did you reprogram/recalibrate your ECU, Timing or air/fuel ratio?
-Can you tell me more about "Air Assist System" please?
-Is the "Walbro 190" fuel pump a inside or outside the fuel tank pump please?

- Unfortunately our ECUs cannot be flashed or recalibrated at all. The only way to change the timing or fuel is by cutting the wires to the ECU and installing a piggyback ECU that alters the signal and then passes along to the ECU in the modified form, tricking it into thinking a change has or had not been made. Many do this with URD's 7th injector kit which comes with a piggyback that can be installed by only changing 6 wires if I recall correctly. Others like mine I had to intercept and change about 20 of them. Once I did I could control fuel pulse, Mass Air Flow sensor voltage tuning as well as timing adjustments as needed.

- Toyota started moving away from dual stream injectors and added the Air Assist in the early 1990's. It pulls air in from the throttle body and mixes jets of air into the fuel stream before exiting the injector. You'll see small holes on the side of Air Assist injectors that Toyota made during those years. They eventually moved to multi-hole injectors with 8-12 holes instead as it provided better fuel atomization. The 'blue top' Supra injectors are Air Assist and provide a better idle and other benefits over the traditional dual stream injector.

- All pumps are internal to the tank and require dropping the tank down in order to remove the fuel pump and sender assembly. Not super hard but having two people makes it a lot easier. Rusted fuel lines makes this job a nightmare.

 

[gamefreakgc]

3rd Gen superchargers with the newer TVS rotors are now for sale. At $4000 I can't say I recommend it but it's nice to see an updated and more efficient design. I will not be buying one though, just too spendy.

Magnuson Supercharger NEW TVS 5VZ-FE 3.4L V6, Tacoma, 4Runner, Tundra - Underdog Racing Development

 

[Devbot]

3rd Gen superchargers with the newer TVS rotors are now for sale. At $4000 I can't say I recommend it but it's nice to see an updated and more efficient design. I will not be buying one though, just too spendy.

Magnuson Supercharger NEW TVS 5VZ-FE 3.4L V6, Tacoma, 4Runner, Tundra - Underdog Racing Development

Don't remind me, I want one so bad and have the money to burn :Cry::Cry: