I have a 1988 Toyota Truck Xtra Cab, 5-speed manual, ~140k miles, 4x4, 2.4 litre engine (93 HP).
I love my truck very much, but do wish it had a bit more power. It can be frustrating going up hills in 3rd gear, pedal to the floor, unable to break 40.
I was wondering what y'all might recommend as means to increase it's power by maybe 10-15% without sacrificing too much reliability.
I've read on some other forums that the following might get me a bit more power: upgrading to an electronic fan tweaking the gear ratios (I have slightly larger tires and don't think this has been done) new headers new exhaust
I just thought I'd run it by y'all and see if you might have thoughts or suggestions.
bump plus small additional info: I'm looking to spend not more than $2k.
Thomas Hughes
5VZ swap. It's the only way.
Tyler Roberts
seems a bit pricey - quick google search suggests it's ~5k.
I love that it has a 22-RE, which I'd rather not replace.
I will look into this further - thank you for the recommendation nonetheless.
Ryder Turner
You got a sweet little truck man. My friends have those. I think they're a 2.2L if I'm not mistaken. Honestly my 4.0L Mountaineer feels fast as fuck after driving them. And the independent suspension and luxury features makes me feel like I'm rolling in a Range Rover or something.
Don't modify the truck. Smaller wheels and tires might make it accelerate faster. Do you feel like it is dangerous merging on highways? Or you just want POWEERRRRR
My friends struggle to do donuts n power slides in theirs, but I think the lack of power steering is a bigger reason than the engine size
LASTly and best advice, a smaller final gear in the differential will get you to accelerate faster. IDK Toyota's stock ratio's but most American full size truck's come with like 3.55's or 3.73's. You can put it a 3.90 or 4.10 and that "slow big truck" will launch like a rocket with 4.10s. That's what the Tow packages come with. When you put on big mud swamper tires you need smaller rear gears too. Jeep's, it's common for guys to go 4.56 for super slow high torque crawling.
Hope this helps! I'll post a sweet Toyota Pickup photo I have.
oh yeah, one more. Imagine how slow this truck would be, but still awesome as fuuuuck.
Sadly these things fetch like $5,000+ in my area.
Josiah Bailey
clean out the fuel injectors by pouring pic related into your gas tank
you can also try putting a K&N air filter in it if they make them for your truck
have you ever changed the trans fluid? i did on my car and afterwards she pulled like crazy.
sometimes a basic tune up can restore power if you havent done it already
Jonathan Clark
just throw new gears and lockers at it. kill 2 birds with 1 stone
Lucas Adams
Thanks for the post!
It does feel a bit dangerous at times merging - can have the pedal to the floor and the speedometer will be creeping. It also seems to work pretty hard at what I'd consider pretty low cruising speeds (anything above 65 mph).
I will definitely look into gear ratios and see what I could maybe find.
The tires aren't massive - maybe 31 or 33". I like them - they look great and give great ground clearance. I could imagine that smaller tires might help... I'll look into that as well.
Thank you again!
Joseph Peterson
Thank you!
Hmmm I didn't think of that. Seems like I could get one for ~3k, plus installation. That could be an option. I love the truck and want to keep it as long as possible, so could be worth the investment. I won't say how much I paid for mine... but if i were to resell I couldn't imagine settling for less than 10k. I'm a sucker, what can I say. Excellent advice. Greatly appreciated! I'm ashamed to say i've never heard of lockers... will also check this out.
Thank you all so much!
Grayson Mitchell
yeah dude 33's with stock gears will be a dog. I have 33's and stock 3.56 gears in my 3rz Tacoma. its slow, and when it had a burnt valve and running on 3 cylinders (essentially as much power as a 22re) it was a fucking DOG
Jacob Reyes
SBC swap it.
No I'm not memeing
Josiah Gray
haha good to know. Seems like changing out the gears might be a good first step. I purchased the truck with the tires on it, but don't think the previous owner changed the gears at all.
Jason Brooks
Last bump to squeeze any last thoughts outta y'all.
93 HP in those generally feel like a good big because of the gearing.
Your truck is probably in need of a tune up so do that first before you go about fucking with it.
Asher Bennett
Running on 3 cylinders doesn't give you 3 cylinders worth of power.
You actually get much less because the dead cylinder is still taking in and compressing air and all the others have to drag it along.
So instead of a 25% loss a good old 50% is closer to the truth.
OP needs to bring his car up to spec. Which can be done with minimal $$$ depending on the condition.
Caleb Barnes
>going up hills in 3rd gear
It's not that hard to downshift + rev match at a moment's notice, then once you've gathered enough pull, shift back to 3rd. 2.4 L is a very generous engine displacement, in fact
Cooper Young
Those things climb mountains in 3rd which is why I believe OP's truck has some issues.
Isaiah Allen
If you put bigger tires on change your differential ratio. You should be able to get parts and work done at a decent place for 2k or if you have patience and time parts can be had for probably 1000
David Williams
They don't climb mountains at 50 to 60mph in the high range box user
Levi Jackson
If you haven't done so, give it some good maintenance/tune up. It's almost a 30yr old engine. >Get some upper cylinder restorer/soak and get those cylinders, pistons, and rings free of all that carbon. >Pull the injectors and send them to get cleaned or buy new ones. It's been 30 years so maybe new injectors will atomize better? >Use a engine flush a couple times with some cheap oil. This should cleanup any gunk in the engine. After you flushed used your preferred oil. Same with the tranny and diff. >Get a CAI. The stock filter system on those old beaters are all tuned for maximum efficiency/not power. Thanks DOT/EPA. >Check your wheel/axle/driveshaft bearings. >Change/check sparkplugs, boots, coils, distributor. >Check your belts, chains, and the accessories like power steering pump and AC.
And once you get that done you can work on cheap mods.
Simple things like a cat back exhaust and intake should give you some gains especially on a econobox truck.
Though I'm not familiar with any of those engines but I'm sure you should be able to find compatible aftermarket parts like headers and intake manifolds for dirt cheap. Hell maybe even the newer re engines share the similar components so a simple used head swap might give you good gains.
Join a forum for your truck. Alot of info is probably already documented plus they'll help you out too
