Can anyone help me or point me to some good posts about putting in a hyper chip upgrade in my 97 runner? I had a mechanic tell me that putting one in would increase my horsepower, and gas milage too if i was easy on the pedal. I don't know much about them or what brands to look at. thanks

 

It's not worth your time or money. But feel free to read this:

http://www.gadgetonline.com/Fuel.htm#ECU%20Upgrade:

 

yes waste of money

 

Ditto, that is definately in the don't bother catergory.

 

you could use the money saved and make a donation to yt

 

If you DO buy a chip, I have this bridge I'll let you have for a good price...

 

oooo... GOOD ONE!

 

Just in case you're wondering,throttle body spacers accomplish about the same too which is to say they both lighten your wallet and that's about it.

I should invent something that people want to believe in and still buy it even with a ton of evidence that it's a waste of money.

 

About the only things you can do for a power upgrade are the ISR mod and the deckplate mod. If you've got lots of cash to lay down, the TRD supercharger adds a ton of power for about $3k or so, and headers will run about $500-700...but some have said they're a waste too. Besides Gadget, I've never really seen a high performance 4Runner.

 

Or just sell the farm and throw the TT Supra 3.0 in your truck.

 

BTW, you don't need a chip to improve gas mileage by being easy on the gas pedal...

 

[QUOTE=X-AWDriver]Just in case you're wondering,throttle body spacers accomplish about the same too which is to say they both lighten your wallet and that's about it.
QUOTE]

Years ago I got the poweraid TBS, and I wouldn't say that it gave me nothing. I now have a wooshing sound behind my dash everytime I hit the pedal. Its part of the character of the truck. Oh well.

Personally, I think the deckplate mod is just as much a waste of time.

 

Headers are kinda' useless on a N/A engine, they're awesome on a S/C engine.

Never seen a "high performance 4Runner"? There are quite a few of them here on YT, I'd like to think that mine's in that group. Or, are you talking about seeing one in person?



[QUOTE=JGM]It's well documented that the 3.4L as installed in our trucks is starved for air. Getting more air into the engine will create more power, and the deckplate allows more air into the engine.

 

Well JGM, at least with the deckplate mod, I get a big growly intake sound instead of the wooshing sound you get out of the spacer...lol. Some guy told me you get at least 15 hp adding a "supercharged" sticker on the front corner panel! He said was going to sell me the sticker for just $199!!!

Seriously, the Toyota V6's are very anemic. They're slow at top end and off the starting line too. And, there's really nothing you can do to improve performance drastically without dropping major bucks. With that said...they're some of the best and most reliable engines built! Combine that with great street manners and awesome off road prowess and you get one great SUY!

 

The deckplate is fine. I know people love'em. I get a kick out of how much we all (including me) try to improve engine performance, when the bottom line is most of these mods offer marginal gains that are inconsistent across the using population.

Translation: Almost like Toyota built the best all around engine for the application. Go figure.

 

Side note: With the deckplate open, my engine runs too lean. With the deckplate closed and the elbow off, my engine runs better (faster with no audible ping in hot weather).

With my mods, the elbow mod is ideal. I think it brings in colder air (but I have yet to prove that scientifically).

 

Look at that gadgetonline.com link above...the ECU upgrade he did supposedly has some nice results, but that company is out of business. It involved manually redoing some ECU parts. It was basically tuning of the ECU. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find another company to do the same thing now a days, but there are no "popular" places that would do it. Look around locally.

The reason it is so hard to find a good working chip is because it's next to impossible to modify the ECU's workings unless you take it apart like I mentioned above.

Sorry

 

When you get to the point of thinking that reverse-engineering an ECU is in your future, I'd strongly suggest moving away from that route and head for a complete alternate controller like a MegaSquirt.

 

[QUOTE=midiwall]Never seen a "high performance 4Runner"? There are quite a few of them here on YT, I'd like to think that mine's in that group. Or, are you talking about seeing one in person?QUOTE]

Never seen one in person Midi. I know that there are some with some stout engines on the forum. My point is that from what I've read here on YT, you need to spend some major bucks to get any real performance gains on the 3.4l V6.

 

Funny part is you still see those bozos on Horsepower TV pushing those TB spacers.
Oh, the kickbacks must be good to get advertizing like that.