funjumper

Why is it that the TRD supercharger kits are listed for 1997 and later 5VZFE motors?

Is there something about the '96 Tacoma 5VZFE that won't let it run a supercharger?

Will a swap to an ECM from a '97 do anything useful?

I have a 5VZFE from a 1996 2wd Taco that will be installed into a '94 4runner. I want to have the option to install a supercharger eventually.

Stevo3

I think its something with the brain not being able to compensate for the forced air / fuel mixture. Not 100% sure on that, im sure someone else will chime in to help out.

MTL_4runner

That's true for the stock ECU (in the beginning people were sending out their ECUs to be reprogrammed), but once you start using a piggyback controller you eliminate the problem altogether. Look at Mark's (Midiwall), he's got a 96 and running a S/C with a timing/fuel controller.

rimpainter.com

Yep, with the right fuel/timing/tuning mods a 96 can be safely charged. Without the mods it pings like a mother though.

Stevo3

MTL_4runner, hes talking about the Tacomas tho. I remember reading somewhere you CANNOT supercharge a 96 Taco, But you could a 96 4Runner. For what the differences are between the 2, I have no clue. Personally I'd imagine they should be the exact same brains. But for some reason they arent.

Stevo3

Heh, you got the pinging part right , I know first hand experiance.

mastacox

I think it still holds true that a 1996 Tacoma cannot be supercharged, regardless of the fuel mods added. Changing to a 1997 ECU is the way to do it...

MTL_4runner

Good point, I skimmed past that little piece of info.

I'm not sure on the Taco ECU, if it were me, I'd try to get in contact with Gadget and ask the S/C'ing guru himself.

funjumper

My 4runner is a '94 SR5 manual trans.
I am doing a 3.4 swap.
The donor motor is out of a '96 Taco 2wd manual trans truck. I have the wiring harness and the ECM from the donor.
I bought a '97 ECM from a 4wd manual trans Taco on eBay. Is there any online reference material for Toyota ECM compatibility? Does anyone know what the differences are between a 2wd and 4wd ECM?

I am using the ORS full kit and their crossover pipe.

I live in California, so I have the fun of dealing with smog checks every two years and I'll have to go through the referee process to get registered.

MTL_4runner

You should download the FSM online and compare the pinouts for the two ECUs.
You shouldn't have any issue using the 97 4WD ECU as long as your harness is wired correctly.

fullmann

from what I was told about the 96 taco vs the 96 4runner was that the 96 taco has a 16 bit ecu and the 96 4runner and 97+ taco have a 32 bit ecu.

this is all hearsay though. so, your mileage may vary.

Gadget

I have been getting lots of emails recently from people doing 5vz swaps into older trucks. The best advice I have for you is to just do the engine swap with no supercharger. Once you get it up and running and all the kinks worked out then do the supercharger and fuel mods.

Several folks have done everything at once and when something is not working correctly they have no idea where to start the trouble shooting.

As far as supercharging a 5vz the newer the ECU and harness the better. It seems that the later trucks with the cali spec or with the air/fuel ratio sensor have ECUs that are very easy to tune with fuel mods and they run really well, but the key is they are super easy to tune. If I were doing a swap now I would really look for an ECU and harness from a air/fuel ratio truck that does not have the drive by wire throttle body.

However, any year 5vz 95+ can be supercharged just fine as long as you do the proper fuel mods and tuning.

The crazy stuff about swapping ECUs is just not needed and you should be very careful when doing so. Every year or two Toyota changes the ECU boxes and pinouts. You may have an ECU from a truck and the plugs look the same, but the pinouts can be very different and you really screw things up. For example, the 2000 Taco has 4 differnet ECU boxes and it is very easy to plug in the wrong one.

The whole reason why URD was started was to market a one box kit solution for supercharging the 5vz. My 96 Supercharged 4Runner runs smooth as butter and makes great power with the URD Fuel kit and now the URD 7th injector system.

If you want to install a supercharger and have it run really well you may want to consider installing one of the URD fuel upgrade kits. There are lots of 95 Supercharged Tacos and 96 4Runners running around with our kits and are running great.

Gadget

funjumper

Thank you very much for the clear and concise summary of how to go about the project correctly. I really appreciate it.

I was planning on completing the swap as you recommend. Once I am operational and smogged, then I'll be looking into supercharging.

JKLUNDER

HOW DO I CONTACT GADGET, FOR ANSWERS??? iS THERE A WEBSITE? THANK YOU.

toytech76

I highly recommend URD and their products. They are outstanding and they certainly have done their homework. Go to www.gadgetonline.com to see gadgets site. At work my boss has a 95.5 manual V6 EGR 4x4 taco S/C. Just to experiment we put my ecu from a 97 4x4 V6 non egr 4runner in it to see how it would work and it worked just fine. He got a used ecu matching my part # and just plugged it in. Definately early taco's especially with egr don't respond well to supercharging. I think if you have the cash and want to do it right, get a complete system from URD. www.urdusa.com