Hi everyone I am planning on buying a first gen 4runner soon and am thinking about lifting it. I was looking at 33" tires and I was wondering if you have to change the gearing on the truck so that your truck will still move with these tires on? Thanks!


Dave

 

you dont have to re gear, i dont know if the 4runner would lose that much speed and mpg? someone will know more then me

oh yeah and welcome to the site

 

I had an 85 22RE SR5 4Runner and it was AWFUL with 33s and stock gears. 5th was useless on the highway, you had to downshift to 4th even on flat ground in a headwind. I changed to 4.88s and it was perfect, drove it that way for 12 more years.

 

I have 33's on my 22re and stock gears and it does great.I think it's faster than my 91 with the 3.0.

 

I run 31's on the stock gearing (4:10). It's a bit of a dog but within reason. I'd have a hard time imagining 33's with this setup. I've been getting 20mpg with this setup for the 16 years I've owned the truck BTW.

Mike

 

Gears are the single best money you will ever spend, it's the most cost effecient power mod ever devised, ESPecially with small engines. Big torquey V8s can deal with being off their torque curves much better, a little hard working 4 cyl is barely adequate at the right rpm, dropping it out of the "sweet spot" by 15% really hurts performance.

Do a search on this forum (and on Google for that matter) on gear swaps. There are dozens of long threads.
You will believe....

 

my 3.0 turns the tires fine with stock gearing except i loose lots of speed on hills during highway driving. that's all. i still can get up and go but quite like a used to when i had 30 inch tires.

 

35s and 4.88s, plenty of pep and go

 

My 3.o was perfectly 'driveable' with the 35s too, as long as I never tried to use 5th for anything but coasting. It was driven that way for 2 years and more than 60,000 mostly highway miles. BUT, when I put the 5.29s in there - man oh man oh man was I grinnin'! yeah BABY! It's fun now! It was NOT fun before, it was just.... driveable.

 

Thanks everyone for all your info. I had one more quick question how well would a k&n filter help out with those tires? Thanks

Dave

 

REGEAR. Everything else is but a band-aid but regearing if you are running bigger tires and serious about getting your power back. Doing things right ain't cheap, but it is worth it.

 

how much does it cost about to regear a runner these days?

 

I spent 1300.00 for everything on a 4.88 front and rear swap. Had a reputable shop do it.

I ran 33x12.50 on stock gears. I had to slip the clutch alot to get rolling. Up hill was a nightmare. The speedo was off quite a bit andmileage suffered. I got about 15mpg

After the gear swap and 33x10.50 tires, my mileage increased to 18-20mpg. 1st gear is solid and 5th gear has a use. I can't believe I drove that way for a year.

I have added a K&N, Thorley header, free flow cat, and flowmaster 40 muffler, with 2.25 piping and nology plug wires. It runs strong, and when I get on it it has a little more pickup. Mileage stayed at about 18-20 depending on my foot, ac use, and terrain.

If you do all my mods, plus use a non-resistor plug with the nology's and add a cam, bigger throttle body and new injectors........you might feel a decent difference, but I bet you would lose mileage.

I feel that my mods have been decent and keep efficiency in mind.

But if you're looking for V8 power it ain't in a 22re. And v6 power ain't cheap

 

I paid $900 for the regear of my '85 a long time ago.

I was quoted $650 this time for the '90 (different shop) and so I stepped up to a Truetrac rear and got the gears and Truetrac done for $1100 total. I carried in my third members at that price. Well worth it.

The K&N won't make any difference. It does perhaps help a bit at the very top end, but you drive around at 5000 rpm.

 

I put a k+n cone filter,header,and 2 1/4 exhaust on ours and it made a huge difference.I can't wait to get the 5.29's and see how big the difference is then!If you can't afford the regear right now a couple of add ons would help but a regear should be on the list.Even with no intake or exhaust it took off like normal so maybe I have a freak of a truck.

 

Thanks for all the help!