my 93 4runner is at the shop gettng the rear axel housing modified to fit the OEM toyota E-locker. the locker has 4.30. on the 4runner i ran the vin numbers and thought it had 3.90's but when they took it apart they said that it has 4.56's. maybe the previous owner changed them? i dont know. my question is weather to stick with these or go to 4.88's. (I plan to go to 33's in the very near future) the guy at the shop said that i would not be able to tell the difference between the different ratios, but does not seem all that keen on toyotas.(it is mainly a jeep off-road shop) to stick with these gears would save me a pretty good chunk of money but would make my 3.slow even slower. what should I do????

 

I say stick with them. 33s should be fine with 4.56's IMO

 

If its a 5 speed I would think 4.56s would be alright. My 94 runner came with 31s and 4.56s and now has 32s...I don't know that I can really notice a difference. From what I can tell, bumping it up to 33s wouldn't be too bad. Depends alot on your driving style and location though.

 

i have a 5 speed. i drive fairly agressivly. and i live in colorado springs, the part im in is about 6,000 feet in elevation.

 

For me it would probably depend on the price. The only problem I could see with 33s and 4.56s is long hill climbs, but then again jumping up to 4.88s probably wouldnt be much better. I think I'd find out the difference in price doing it now versus doing it later. Unless you're talking a pretty big chunk of change, I'd stick with what you have and see how you like it.

 

ya its about $600 for new gears and the install. so i think ill just stick with what ive got and then see what the outcome is. thanks

 

I'd get the 4.88's

I also have an idea for you....Find someone looking to upgrade to 4.56's Swap diff with them. Then the stock diff geared to 4.88 and split the cost with the donor. That should get both of you some better gears for half the price each.

 

I run 33's with 4.56's...

 

Go for the gusto, Byron....go 529
You have a 4 cylinder.....33" heavy-ass tires.....thin air.....here in AZ, most of the guys run 529 with 33"....winds up a little more on the highway but then when you get ready for 35" upgrade, your gears are there to handle it. Oh ya, let me put the gears in at least the rear for a long life. ZUK

 

I would say go to 4.88's, ESPECIALLY if you have an auto, trust me, you will like it better. I mean you can run 3.58's with 35's if you want, just depends how much you hate yourself, haha. If you plan to run 33's go to 4.88's, it will keep your acceleration and give you a much better crawl ratio.

 

He said he has a 3.0 v6 5-speed guys.

 

I ran 33's with 4.56 for a while and yes, you can tell the difference....especially on hill climb. the 4.56 will leave 5th gear useless.
I now run 35's with 5.29 and it's much better.

 

But he's talking about going from 4.56s to 4.88s and eventually running 33s. Would that little of a jump in ratio be worth the money?