Topic: 3.0 V6

[japbike736]

My 94 2WD 4Runner has the weakest V6 engine I have ever had in any SUV I have ever owned. Gets terrible gas mileage, about 17 HWY, 13 or 14 around town. It has a factory replacement engine with 45000 miles. The engine was a free replacement because of the recall on these engines from 90 to 97 models. It started with a head gasket recall but that was not working so Toyota went to full long block replacement. I got lucky. Mine blew up in the middle of nowhere with 215k on the original engine. They came and got it, put a new engine in it and charged me 600 bucks for incidentals. That was 4 years ago. I don't think any of the "BIG THREE" would stand behind a vehicle like that. That being said, what can be done to get alittle more power out of this thing??

[94Runna]

Unfortunately, you can do very little to get more power out of these engines.
Headers and a good exhaust system, coupled with a LEGIT cold air system.
The auto trans is what steals a lot of the power as well.

[Snowtoy]

My 94 2WD 4Runner has the weakest V6 engine I have ever had in any SUV I have ever owned. Gets terrible gas mileage, about 17 HWY, 13 or 14 around town. It has a factory replacement engine with 45000 miles. The engine was a free replacement because of the recall on these engines from 90 to 97 models. It started with a head gasket recall but that was not working so Toyota went to full long block replacement. I got lucky. Mine blew up in the middle of nowhere with 215k on the original engine. They came and got it, put a new engine in it and charged me 600 bucks for incidentals. That was 4 years ago. I don't think any of the "BIG THREE" would stand behind a vehicle like that. That being said, what can be done to get a little more power out of this thing??

What size tires do you have now?

If 17 HWY, 13 or 14 city, is with an auto trans and 3.90 gears/stock tires, that is pretty good, a manual would/should only be about 3mpg's better.

Swapping to the 4.10 3rd should help with the city mpg's, as well as hwy if it is an auto, if manual it may not help with the hwy miles depending on your cruising speed and tire size.

With the detuning of the heads by Toyota, power/mpg gains isn't cheap to do with the 3.0, no one mod will yield much, so figure on spending around $1000-1500 before you find any real gains.

[japbike736 [OP]]

It's an automatic with overdrive. I put 3rd gen wheels and tires on it. Looks good but changed the gear ratio quite a bit. Went from a 225 75 15 to a 265 75 16 tire. Big change in the way it drives and feels. The vin sticker says it is a G072. I think the 4.10 gears and going to a 70 series tire will just about get me back to the stock  3.90 ratio. The 4Runner has really good ground clearance and with the LSD unit I think it will do much better on these backroads and beaches here in central California. Thanks to everybody for your feedback 

[Snowtoy]

The 265/70's would make you about 2.5% under geared instead of the 5% you will be w/your current tires and the 4.10's, either way the performance/mpg's should be better than the 10.5% you are under geared now.

If you decide to stick with the 265/75's, the 4.30's would be about stock performance, for better than stock performance the 4.56's would be my choice.  4.56's would be about 5% over geared, which would liven up the light-to-light performance w/o sacrificing hwy mpg's as they would only raise your rpm's by 120 at 70.

Before you consider intake or exhaust upgrades, I would toss a 4.56 geared 3rd in and see what performance is like, the 4.56 gear set was a factory 3rd and you can usually find them used for $250 or less.

[toe]

 

[:)bestgen4runner]

My 94 2WD 4Runner has the weakest V6 engine I have ever had in any SUV I have ever owned. Gets terrible gas mileage, about 17 HWY, 13 or 14 around town. It has a factory replacement engine with 45000 miles. The engine was a free replacement because of the recall on these engines from 90 to 97 models. It started with a head gasket recall but that was not working so Toyota went to full long block replacement. I got lucky. Mine blew up in the middle of nowhere with 215k on the original engine. They came and got it, put a new engine in it and charged me 600 bucks for incidentals. That was 4 years ago. I don't think any of the "BIG THREE" would stand behind a vehicle like that. That being said, what can be done to get alittle more power out of this thing??

You best bet would be a gear ratio change, other than that I would not add any additional stress to a known Lemon Engine. Best of Luck.

[japbike736 [OP]]

Thanks Snowtoy for doing the math. I have all my money invested in this 4.10 LSD so I am going to go with that for now. I will be going with the 70 series tire to get as close to stock as I can with this setup. Mine has ABS so it was important to find a chunk with the hole for the sensor. The 4.10 had it and the gear was tight and the price was right. Thanks to everybody who replied to my thread.