Zizzle

A bit of background: Weekend warrior. 3.4 swapped SASed 90's pickup. Dual causes, e-lockers on 37s. I live at 7000 ft above sea level, so I'm down 3psi atmospheric pressure compared to sea level. No problems with power on the trail, but I need to tow a tear drop camper over some mountain passes to the trail heads. Need a bit more omph on the highway.

I have a done a couple of LS turbo swap on other vehicles. So I know what goes into both a swap and a turbo setup there.

At the moment I'm seesawing between an NA LS swap and putting a turbo on the 3.4.

I have a 4.8 LS that I could use. Would have to buy the bell housing adapter. Redo engine mounts. Make it all fit etc.

On the other hand, ebay turbos are pretty cheap and a bit of fab work seems like far less effort.

I wouldn't be looking to run too much boost. Say 5-7psi tops.

My questions are around the Toyota specifics. On the LS turbo side you upgrade the injectors and fuel pump. The GM MAF isn't up to much extra flow, so it's deleted and the ECU is switched to speed density mode . Then you do a bunch of manual ECU tuning with expensive software. Mainly pull a bit of timing & tweak the VE table.

So can the stock Toyota 5vzfe ecu & injectors & MAF handle boost and still run closed loop? I would upgrade the fuel pump since that is relatively easy.

Intercooler needed? With winch etc. there isn't much room.

With the GM ecu it goes into open loop mode at WOT so I usually set up my AFR to go down into the 11.x:1 region to prevent detonation. Is there something similar in the Toyota ECU or will it try to maintain stoich under boost? (sounds dangerous).

Are there manual ECU tuning steps needed?

Any other upgrades recommended for a turbo?

I would of course run a wideband.

vasinvictor

iTrader: (3)

Stock ECU will go to open loop at 85% throttle or above. Until then it tries to maintain stoich, even in boost. You won't want to be in boost while towing at 14.7, obviously. You can do a "free fmu" fuel mod and hook the FPR to a boost source, it'll increase fuel pressure to a point. I wouldn't dare run 7psi on stock injectors. I might run 3-4. You can run a shot of methanol on a wot switch or something similar. Otherwise, you can piggyback and tune closed loop boost, and/or run larger injectors.

Saying all that to say, if you have the ability to do the LS, just do that and be done with it. The 5vz is a awesome platform and super stout but a booger to tune.

Zizzle

Yeah bugger.

I guess microsquirt + injectors + turbo is possible but more expensive than a LS swap at this point, with less reliability.

vasinvictor

iTrader: (3)

And it kills me to recommend an LS swap, but if you're towing either ls, or Magnuson s/c. Turbo is just too "on/off" and a pita to tune for closed loop boost.

DRCOFFEE

Thats a no brainer. LS swap. Far less heat and more linear torque. Less to go wrong on the trail. And no super premium gas to worry about.