holy moly I got my eyes opened today...

My 90 3vze sits infront of the auto tranny, 4.10 gears, 235 bfko's, and is the heart of my 4920lb pig! When I tap the gas the front end lifts slightly, the back end drops slightly and my truck lurches foward. The result is the exact same from off idle to about 5000rpm - a good strong, relatively consistent, feel and pull to it. Lots of torque and usually fun to drive.

Well today a 93 4runner rolled in for me to do some stereo work on (tomorrow yall will see an addition to the ghetto azz install thread) Obviously I couldnt (and wont) rail on a customer's car, but I did do the quick gas tap as described above. I was quickly dissapointed. The engine just made more valve tapping noises and didnt really do much to move the vehicle... I had to get into the gas pretty good to impart any kind of change from the 2mph idle. The 93 was bone stock with only 183k.. Bone stock save the "high performance" NGK plug wires... Maybe the Torque converter is sucking butt...but... Oh yeah and it had the 2nd gen azz sag AND horrid brakes. That poor 93 needs some serious TLC.

Incidentally the quick gas tap done on the 2.7L 4banger has about 2x the lurch that my 3vze does...just for refrence. Off idle I dont know, but I think my 3vze would outrun the 4banger in 3rd gens, even though they tout the same hp/tq specs.

Just thought Id share!



ps - dont ever race a duramaxx 2500, its quite disheartening to see a truck that is close to 2x the weight of yours put 4 truck lengths on you by the top of first...lol

 

sweet.

 

On the topic of inequal 3.0's Ive heard that the '88 3.0's didnt suffer from the hg issue like the rest of the 3.0's if thats true then Im a happy camper since my dd is a 88 runner 3.0 5spd.

 

Yup, the earlier 3.0's used a head gasket containing asbestos, and wasn't subject to failing. In 1990, toyota had to get rid of the asbestos (EPA regulations) and their redesigned HG's at that time didn't hold up. They've since fixed the problem with a steel slipperplate design.

 

yea i remeber the days wehn my 3.0 was good...then it just wen tdownhill...i jsut thought it was the output of my 3.4L tacoma s/c that made me think the 3.0L was slow.

 

My completely gutted single cab, and I mean gutted, with the manual tranny does a good job of masking the relatively low power of the 3.0. That, and all the mods I have done to it make it way too fun to drive. I think I might have an orgasm, and eargasm, once I get the turbo on.

 

Coolness!
Also, being a foot higher is going to give you a lot more throw back feeling when you get on the gas.

 

I agree, my 3.0 seems fairly strong and always has. I have always driven it fairly hard. It is attached to a 5 spd with 4.56 gears and 31" tires

 

nothing like blown suspension to help you feel the power

I remeber my buddy saying his 3.0 was vbery strong....

then i made him test drive my truck....

it was exatcly like this the whole 1/4 mile run at WOT

 

Haha, funny smilie.