Bennito

My 97 SR5 V6 w/ e-lock. List of Mods below the pic.



Engine

• Gen 1 SC
• URD Fuel upgrade kit
• 2.2" URD pulley (more on this later). Removed after my move from Colorado to Arizona.
• 6" Deckplate
• Intake silencer Removal

Suspension (and other stuff on the bottom of the truck):

• PP lift springs (1/1.5")
• billis
• AOR braided stainless (Extended) brake lines
• SS Front Dif Drop
• SS e-brake extension
• iRotors.com drilled/slotted rotors
• LC pads
• SS shackle hangers (known to my friends as nipple rings)
• WabFab extended disconnects
• Energy Suspension Steering Rack bushing kit
• Wheeler's front anti-sway bar bushing kit

Electrical:

• Fiamm horns
• 99+ Headlights
• Burtman Clear Corners (Front) and clear signals (Front)
• RB (4crawler) headlight wiring harness
• Taco Whip Mod
• Optima
• Green wire mod. (my truck's gray wire was green, sue me)

Other:

• CO2 bottle - 20lb home brew
• Husky Liners (yeah, I don't consider it a mod either; but they're worth their weight in gold).

Please abide by the administration's rules of this section and DO NOT post in this thread - Feel free to PM me.

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

Suspension is PP springs and Bilstein shocks. You may also notice the AOR braided stainless brake hose. You can't see it, but there's a SS diff drop in there in preparation for Tundra/LC coils. (not to mention the e-brake extension in back)



Please abide by the administration's rules of this section and DO NOT post in this thread - Feel free to PM me.

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

Here's a few engine shots. Obvious is the 1st gen SC, deckplate and ISR removal. Optima and homemade baseplate as well.





Please abide by the administration's rules of this section and DO NOT post in this thread - Feel free to PM me.

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

Thought I'd give some info on the headlight harness. RB's site encourages folks to test the voltage drop through their factory harness before purchase (and suggests voltage drop over 500 mV as good candidates for his harness). I was hasty in my search for more light up front.

I found MY factory harness to have ~ 290 mV drop (with load and w/o load). Obviously not what Roger is trying to beat. The RB harness measured ~ 360 mV drop (with load and w/o load). I verified 100 mV drop at the inline fuse (my addition). I plan to solder my connections and investigate a better fuse - but at best will probably duplicate the factory harness (voltage drop).

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

My notes and thoughts on the supercharger at elevation. These notes are based on anecdotal evidence and my musings with a fellow SC'd Tacoma in town. Sea level data harvested from posts here on YT as well as custom tacos and ttora. All harvested data used w/o permission.

Data:
Atmospheric pressure (sea level) ~ 14.7 psi
atmospheric pressure (c-springs) ~ 11.7 psi

2.5" pulley (sea level)= 5 psi
2.37" pulley (sea level)= 6-7 psi
2.2" pulley (sea level)= about 9 psi
2.1" pulley (sea level)= about 10 psi
2" pulley (sea level)= about 11 psi

2.4" pulley boost (c-springs) ~ 6 psi

2.2" pulley boost (sea level) ~ 8-9 psi
2.2" pulley boost (c-springs) ~ 7 psi

By addition:
Sum of air w/2.4" pulley (sea level) ~21.7psi
sum of air w/2.4" pulley (c-springs) ~ 17.7psi
sum of air w/ 2.2" pulley (c-springs) ~ 18.7 psi

You can probably surmise what I'm suggesting. I'll be installing some gauges (A/F, perhaps EGT) and spot checking plugs in the near future. Plugs taken out after a few thousand miles of SC use had slight carbon fouling (deposits). Pics to come.

EDIT - I'm not exactly suggesting this. You'll find others at elevation reporting similar experiences on the above websites. Of course - there's always exceptions to the rule. That exception may be me or you.

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

Pic of engine with URD pulley

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

Plug shot. Note plugs look like this after 100 miles, 10,000 miles and 30,000 miles.

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

Steering rack / front stabilizer bar bushings. 30$ (or so) from Wheeler's. Search for the 10 page thread on steering rack play and use the linked writeup. My notes:

1) E/S (or wheelers) now sends the correct sleeve for the center mount. no need to ream any of the sleeves.
2) Bring plenty of 19mm sockets, ratchers and box end wrenches with different "stack" heights (due to tight spaces)
3) C-clamp and disc-style spark plug gap tools worked wonders for pushing in the new bushings/sleeves.

overall, great improvement in the "tightness" of the truck. Highly worth the 3 hours and 30$.

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

More on the SC. During my last few months at elevation my 4runner developed a ping under acceleration in the 2k to 3k rpm band. Pulling the EFI fuse at each fill up solved that issue. Ultimately I put the stock pulley back on for my move to AZ.

Friend of mine in a 2002 SuperTaco continues to run the URD pulley in C-springs w/ no known issues.

Since arriving in AZ the pinging w/ stock pulley is unavoidable. URD kit arrived a few days ago. I still wonder about what caused my car to develop a ping over a year into SC service (in Colorado - obvious is the pinging down here in AZ). I'll clean the MAF and do a few other preventative items this coming weekend.

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

I installed the URD kit over the last two weekends. I may take a pic of the URD PCU. notably for where not to install it. Everything else is hidden.

Weekend one: Fuel pump / fuel filter. The fact that URD recommends Taco owners pull the bed should be a hint as to this task's difficulty. Took me working alone 5 hours to drop the tank, swap the filter, swap the pump and reinstall. Easily the most frustrating experience of the install.

(Note that thermostat & plugs were installed when I lived in CO. I may pull the plugs, but probably will wait a year or so.)

Fuel injectors / PCU. Took 6+ hours for me to install working alone. No beer drank either.

Unbolting the SC wasn't too bad, but took longer than I thought it would. I couldn't loose the passenger side banjo bolt of the fuel rail crossover. I think it made re-installing the fuel rail over the new injectors more challenging. The mechanical swap of injectors went quickly.

First attempt at soldering an injector plug on the old wires was a disaster. I'm not the best at soldering on a bench. let alone when the wires are hanging over your intake manifold. I got so mad I installed butt splices and heat shrink. For some reason I tried soldering injector #2. Went better. I think finished up all 6 (re-doing the butt splice). Not so pretty but it worked.

I bolted the SC back on and started the car. Started up. I was much relieved as I was a bit concerned that I missed a wire or hose and my car would never run again (I'm a worry-wart).

I installed another boost tee and ran that into the cab. I then mounted the URD PCU to the passenger side of the center console. I pulled out the passenger seat and set about my soldering. 14 wires or so later and I was done. Soldering upside down under the dash made soldering above my engine look easy.

I bolted the glove compartment back on, put the seat back in, and took a test drive.

I can still get some pinging in the 2000-2100 rpm range. Will work on that next week. But overall its a 90% improvement over the marbles I had between 1800 and 3000rpm.

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.

Bennito

Pics to come.

Few years back, I procured a 20lb aluminum bottle. It sat taunting me for years. A few months back, I got it converted. Over the last week or so I've got it fitted out. Here's a rough rundown:

Bottle - free
Change of valve and hydrotest = 70$
150psi high flow regulator, 30 feet hose, tire fill chuck, mounting bracket and safety handle = 150$. (wheelers)

You can probably see where I'm going here. Especially when I admit the 20lb bottle is over-kill. Wheeler's offers a 10lb kit for 220$. However, there is some pride of making your own kit.

Using tie downs instead of buying the bracket and skipping the safety handle would save 80$ (ebay didn't yield me much; but its all in your search terms). if you had the air hose around, knock off more. and if you could find a cheaper valve swap / hydro-test, even cheaper.

Airing up a tire in 30 secs. Priceless.

__________________
Ben - 97 sr5 - full of win.