Toyota Tacoma - Blowhard!

The first thing we noticed when we opened the box the TRD supercharger came in was the lack of extra parts. The newest incarnation of TRD's supercharger for newer Tacomas has been so streamlined, the installation process is a snap.

Beginning with a bone-stock engine, we began to pull off the parts that would no longer be necessary once they were replaced in function by aspects of the TRD supercharger kit.

The very first items to be pulled off the engine were the factory intake system, including the stock airbox and the truck's throttle body.

Next, the upper section of the Tacoma's intake manifold was readied for removal.

With the upper section of the intake manifold out of the way, TRD used this trick block-off plate to keep contaminants from falling into the open manifold chambers while we were working on the engine. Otherwise, you can use tape to close off the holes to keep debris from entering the engine.

When the bolts that secure the lower portion of the manifold were removed, the lower section was lifted up and out of the way. This part will no longer be used, but it is recommended that you keep it in case you ever want to restore the truck to stock condition.

The block-off plate that had been used to keep contaminants from falling into the engine was then relocated to the intake ports in the engine's lower intake runners.

A one-way valve was installed inline with the truck's IAC, with the marked end installed closest to the truck's throttle body.

Remove the spark plug wire loom from the face of the timing-belt cover. Using the supplied template, mark a line using a pencil as shown.

Using a saw blade or a similar method of controlled cutting, remove the section as shown. This notch in the timing-belt cover will allow extra room for the snout of the supercharger unit to operate. We used a piece of emery cloth to clean the cut once it had been made.

Release the tension on the belts at the front of the engine and remove them. You'll need to gain access to the main drivebelt that sits furthest back on the main pulley, which must be replaced with a longer belt in order to operate the supercharger.

With the belt out of the way, the block-off plate at the intake runners was removed, and the compressor for the TRD supercharger kit was added to the engine and bolted down using all of the factory mounting points.

To keep things installed perfectly, the mount on the top of the supercharger that serves to locate the throttle cable was changed per the style of vehicle the supercharger was installed on. In this case, the plate for a five-speed manual transmission, two-wheel-drive truck was installed.

Begin installing the dynamic tensioner by first removing the truck's dipstick and then installing the mount for the dynamic tensioner as shown.

Bolt up the new TRD dynamic tensioner using the supplied hardware.

Reinstall the belts on the engine beginning with the belt that comes from the main pulley and services the supercharger unit. You'll be using the longer belt that comes with the supercharger kit for this purpose.

Route the main drivebelt over the dynamic tensioner as shown. The belt will extend over the snout and the drive pulley of the TRD supercharger.

Part of putting tension back into the belts was accomplished from the underside of the truck, where the water-pump tension adjustment could be reached.

The throttle body was reinstalled, and the cable tension on the throttle cable was adjusted to take up the slack in the cable and increase throttle function at the pedal.

The dipstick can now be reinstalled. You'll be using a supplied tab to relocate the dipstick so it won't interfere with the dynamic tensioner or the main drivebelt.

Reinstall the truck's factory airbox and intake tubing just as it was in its stock configuration.

With the supercharger completely installed, the topmost part of the engine does not rise any higher than the stock intake manifolds did, meaning that supercharged and body-dropped trucks are totally possible.

The last step in any performance install should be a stop to check the performance numbers from the work you've done. Since TRD also owns a chassis dynamometer, we made a few runs on it to obtain horsepower numbers. Unfortunately, the truck tested sporadically, so we decided to drive the truck for a week or two and visit the dyno again.

Dynamometer Testing Since we'd only just installed the supercharger at the time this article went to press, we didn't have enough drive time in the Tacoma to allow the truck to adjust to all of the changes that had been thrown at it. Typically, trucks that are controlled by a computer should be driven a few hundred miles to learn the changes that have been made to them. In only two days after testing, though, there was a marked increase in the amount of power that could be felt from the time we tightened the last bolt on the TRD supercharger kit. The following information was received from TRD using numbers from tests on a '02 Toyota Tacoma S-Runner equipped with the same engine and dynamometer-tested on a DynaPack Chassis Dynamometer. We'll amend these figures in an update in our next issue's MT News column to give you the account of what we got out of our own truck.