2002 Tundra questions

Sep 13, 2005 7 Replies

A friend bought a nice 2002 Tundra TRD 4x2 V8 (easy access cab) on eBay with 90k miles. Very clean truck, service records, and all that.



In crawling around the truck, I noticed some things.


1) the forward drive shaft appears to have been replaced. There is a sticker with barcode and balancing data on it by an aftermarket company. Was there a service bulletin about this or perhaps just a repair?


2) How long are the cam belt service intervals? There is no record of this ever being done and with 90k on the truck, perhaps it is about time? Looks like an involved job on this engine. Should the waterpump also be replaced while it's all apart?


3) Where the two exhaust pipes come together just before the small resonator ... looks -really- pinched. Might correcting this be a good idea if the truck is going to be operating under sustained loads?


4) For a truck this overall size, the cab interior room is small compared to Dodge Dakota I drove recently. The tailgate height is also 36" from the ground yet the bed is shallow. Loading street motorcycles or scooters into a truck bed this high will require backing up to a curb. How do you guys with those jacked up 4x4's do it? 'A' frame and a come-along? LOL


-Philip


FWIW, my '05 Tacoma has barcodes, data, and brand names on many parts, including both driveshafts and axles. I'm guessing outside suppliers?

That doesn't mean yours wasn't replaced, but my new truck is crawling with barcodes.

The Toyota V-8 is an interference engine with a recommendation to change the belt at 90K and is highly recommended. As far as the water pump, check with the shop and see how much one cost and the additional charge to replace it at the same time. Also, would recommend flushing out the cooling system and replace the thermostat at the same time.

Good question. Though about getting a CATBACK system for mine but just not sure what improvements would be gained from it. Borla and Flowmasters make kits for the Tundra.

Thank you.

I am not sure what a CATBACK is for this truck. Does this system replace this 'Y' just before the first resonator/muffler?

-Philip

Don't think so and I really don't remember if that is a resonator or another cat. For sure, the V-8's have four, count them four, O2 sensors, one each bank on the very back of the exhaust manifold and one each just past the cat for each bank. All the pictures I've seen for the catback system start past the Y and go all the way back to either a side exit (single or dual) or rear exit (dual).

Larry

Ok. If a redesigned (less restrictive) 'Y' is not part of the CatBack system, then it's a waste of money in my view.

Also, the sensors on the exhaust manifolds are Air/Fuel ratio sensors (used by the ECU for fuel delivery calculations) while the sensors after the catalyst are oxygen sensors (used for determining catalyst efficiency). The two are not interchangeable.

-Philip

I've looked at the stock Y-pipe. It looks to me like Toyota's engineers created a simple venturi nozzle to pull exhaust from the other side.

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Remember, the exhaust gas comes in pulses of hot gas, not a steady flow. Lots of guys have changed the Y-pipe, but none have said "Wow" about any extra power. If you do change it, here is what a properly made new Y-pipe should look like, not just two pipes scabbed together by Bubba at the local muffler shop.
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You don't want to increase the pipe size, except 2-1/2" is OK on a new system. Bigger pipes cause the hot exhaust gas pulses to expand, cool, and slow, and hurt low and mid-range power.
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Ken

Were the orginal 'Y' like the 'splayed' or 'parallel' examples shown in the first 'burnsstainless.com' link, I would not have brought it up. But what Toyota did on this truck does not suggest a venturi effect ... just a restriction.

-Philip

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