MAD 4Runner

I just bought a 95 4Runner back in January and so far I love it. The only thing is when I take it up into the mountains to go snowboarding it seams like everyone is passing me. At most on some of the passes I am only able to do like 55 maybe 60. I was wondering what would be some good things to change to improve the power up in the mountains. I have 120,000 miles on it so if there are other factory things I should change please note them as well. I have changed the spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor. I also put a K&N OEM stile air filter. Any suggestions would be great.

green91runner

welcome to YT, the best online resource i've found for toyota trucks.. lots of good people and months of reading ahead of you.

there are lots of threads about this stuff, use the search feature type in '3VZE' if you have the v6, and '22RE' if you have the 4cyl. these rigs aren't powerhouses by any means and they weigh ALOT.. so hills are a challenge for all of us, short of spending thousands under the hood (v6), or regearing it, you will always have difficulties. no quick fixes.

also, take a look in the tech section.
https://www.yotatech.com/~corey/tech/techpage.htm

p.s. your bank account will never be the same.

Paul H.

Welcome and get used to the slow climb up hills. The 3.slow is a very dependable engine but lacks guts.

frankenrunner

welcome "MAD 4Runner", & enjoy, this is a pretty decent site.

as for suggestions;
since you've already done the drop-in, OEM K&N, i would suggest that you do a intake swap( you can find the 411 on that in here as well).
it basically entails getting rid of all of the factory intake hoses, silencers, etc.,rerouting or capping off the PCV & valve cover ventilation hoses & going w/a AFM to throttle body intake tube, making for better breathing for your 'runner(which should be particularly beneficial to you as you're up there where the air is thinner.
other than that, always push the button on the side of the gear selector lever to disengage the overdrive while climbing up the mountain only, making sure that you push the button back in when you are on more level terrain &/or have passed 4k rpm while climbing.
carve some for me & enjoy!
later,
-f-

ChickenLover

Going with headers and getting rid of the stock cross-over will give you a decent gain in hp.

green91runner

anyone ever dyno'ed one before and after this mod?

NRM

welcome mad runner, i always love hearing about the drive up the mountains. i've made the same drive a lot and it drives me crazy. the big hill by georgetown, i can only go like 45-50 up it, i'm practically getting passed by semi's at some times!! over the years, i've realized there's just not much to do with this engine. i don't wanna do headers cause i don't wanna lose low-end torque plus they're expensive. i figure i'm just gonna wait it out till i can afford to drop a 3.4 in it! anyway, welcome to the board and if you ever wanna do any work on it or just talk shop, lemme know, i'm right up in boulder.

frankenrunner

-bump- to "ChickenLover", yet another good, fairly low cost, horsepower increasing mod to help w/the climb.

-f-

green91runner

low cost?? what? headers/exhaust is an expensive mod

MAD 4Runner

The semi's are not what is bothering me it the little two door nissan stanza that pass me like I am sitting on the side of the road. But maybe in a year or so I'll get one of the new tacos, those are nice and with that extra power I will be doing the passing not the other way around.

Mark

frankenrunner

i did say "...fairly..."

also, i'm still working the idea of simply removing the x-over & capping it's tie-in on the driver's side header, then running pipes off of the stock headers which, all in all, should be way cheap compared to buying headers "&" exhaust system components.

p.s. still looking for some stock headers to play with to flesh this idea out...

DudeBud

here are some manifolds http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33617