5th Gen 4Runner Performance Mods

How to Increase Performance on your 4Runner. Everything you can do to hike up those HP Gains!

If you are looking to increase your horsepower gains, there are only a few options.

This should serve as the go-to list of performance mods. A few things come to mind when you think of a powerful 4Runner and the biggest one is the Magnuson Supercharger (SC).

If your budget isn’t quite at Magnuson level yet, don’t worry because there are a few affordable options. Some of these mods will give you better horsepower, improve gas mileage, and give your truck a meaner, deeper, more throaty growl.

With a supercharged, you are looking at a 30% increase in HP. While some of the other mods may only yield 1-10% and 10% is pushing it.

Recent Question:

I came from Range Rovers with V8s. I feel like the 4R is super under-powered and slow, but maybe that is because of the big tires and whatnot. I live in Denver so going up to the mountains a lot, the truck seems to work really hard up the hills. I am hitting 3500rpm to a few minutes at a time getting up hills. Also, the truck is recording just about 15mpg.

Do you think this sounds right from a power standpoint? Other than supercharging, which is out of my budget, is there anything to do to get more power? I’m guessing TRD Intake and Exhaust would be your first choice? Thanks!

Quick Response: In short, yeah the intake and exhaust for sure. Also, depending on Colorado laws, adding headers or Y-pipe would make a difference. The headers are not street-legal in California but we are installing a set eventually. If you install them, you may have to remove them for smog which would be quite a hassle.

Also, the throttle controller is pretty cool. I just installed one and was pretty impressed at how it changed the driving response. You do not see any real-world HP gains, but the features allow you to adjust your throttle response which provides a new experience, its faux performance. You feel like you are driving a different well-tuned vehicle.

Top Options

Here is a quick list of what to consider:

Increasing Power

1. Magnuson Supercharger
   1. Install Shop Northern California: Stellar Built
   2. Install Shop Southern California: SD Truck Shop
2. CSF All-Aluminum Heavy-Duty Radiator
3. Cold Air Intake (CAI)
4. Catback Exhaust
5. Doug Thorley Headers
6. Pedal Commander Throttle Controller
7. Mid Pipes/ Y-Pipes
8. Throttle Body Spacer
9. MAF (Mass Airflow Sensor) Spacer
10. Running 91 Octane Fuel

Bigger Tires

Does bigger Tires mean Less Horsepower?

Some think you have less horsepower when you throw on bigger tires. Try not to confuse larger tires with less horsepower.

When you run larger tires on your 4Runner, you are not losing horsepower, you are adding additional unsprung rotational mass. This causes your 4Runner to work harder for the same tire rotation.

The problem you are seeing is gearing (Increase in added weight and a larger rotation), not an actual loss of power. To get back to “normal” with bigger tires, you need to change your gear ratio (regear). Regearing can be costly and time-consuming, this will likely be something you would take to a shop. Once you regear your 4Runner, things should feel like they are back to normal with power.

Overloaded with weight?

Being overloaded with weight will affect your performance. Don’t overload your 4Runner with useless stuff unless you need to. Rooftop tents are a prime example. Pictured above we have a CVT rooftop tent (239 lbs) mounted on a 2016 TEP. We ran that tent for 2-weeks and then removed it. It was too much weight for the 4Runner and destroyed drivability performance. Understanding weight on your 4Runner is really important. Please check out that post for more information on weight relative to the 4Runner chassis.

If you are overloaded with equipment, your rig moves slower. It’s simple physics.

For guys with serious weight; bumpers, winch, racks, storage, accessories, camping gear, and more, it is often a good idea to regear or supercharge.

We also built a new GVWR + Payload calculator for guys looking to add up all the weight on their rigs. Check that out to understand your exact payload.

Magnuson Supercharger

The Magnuson Supercharger is hands-down, the best performance mod you can buy.

Boasting 30% horsepower gains and a 27% torque increase, this is better than any gains you will see from a catback exhaust, a cold air intake, headers, or a chip combined. Headers might come close at about 20hp but you will never experience the true potential without the Magnuson Supercharger.

There are many other benefits to a supercharger as well, not just HP gains alone.

For a full review, and overview of the blower, check out this review.

CSF All-Aluminum Heavy-Duty Radiator

Improving your cooling system will also play a key factor when looking to increase performance. As you increase your horsepower to compensate for issues such as bigger tires and overloaded weight, you will need to increase the performance of your cooling system. Heat soak is another common issue that is usually overlooked.

Some of the trails we hit are done at very low speeds and combined with high power output – can eventually cause your engine and transmission to overheat. This is not a problem you’d want to encounter in the desert or in the middle of nowhere with no help nearby.

Increased Cooling Performance

CSF’s All-Aluminum Heavy-Duty Radiator is the proper solution for overheating and heat soak issues with the increased capacity and efficiency of the radiator core and all-aluminum end tanks. The CSF ultra-efficient radiator core features CSF’s exclusive B-Tube Technology and the thickness is nearly twice the size of the OEM unit (OEM: 1 row 22mm vs. CSF: 2 row 42mm). To top it off, CSF increased the capacity of the transmission oil cooler at the bottom of the tank to assist in maintaining transmission oil temperatures in an optimal range. This can be very crucial for those who tow or travel with heavy loads.

Cold Air Intake (CAI)

The cold air intake is a key element for increasing airflow in your engine. We have covered this topic a few times throughout the blog. TRD cold air intake systems or any cold air intake for that matter, give your engine free-flowing, cold, oxygen-rich air for optimal performance.

Although we already have a cold air intake, the TRD, aFe, or K&N may give you a leg up in performance. This is also a heavily debated mod in many automotive circles.

Independent testing (from TRD) has shown that TRD air intake systems combined with exhaust and performance filters give your vehicle more horsepower, torque, acceleration, and pulling power.

Regardless of actual HP gains, you will feel and hear a difference. It might be a slight difference but worth it in my opinion.

Do yourself a favor and start with a cold intake for your first mod.

Catback Exhaust

This was the first mod that we installed. This might have been the first step-by-step install on the website, the MagnaFlow exhaust.

You can also grab a Borla Exhaust, which is also a great option for a Catback exhaust. We did an article recently that compared the MagnaFlow, Borla, and Gibson Exhaust. That would be a good place to start if you are looking for differences in these exhaust systems.

These systems work by increasing the airflow capacity to produce more power across the RPM range. They deliver a boost to our 4Runner in both torque and horsepower.

Doug Thorley Headers

We still have not installed our headers, but we do have them sitting in the office. These are well-known for the best Headers out there. If you are unsure about what headers are, go check out that post. in short, headers make it easier to push out exhaust gases from the cylinders in our engine. Headers work by eliminating the manifolds back-pressure. Instead of sharing a common manifold, each cylinder gets its own exhaust pipe.

Running 91 Octane Fuel

This one is a toss-up and all personal preference. If you go from running 87 to running 91 octane, you probably won’t see a difference. I started running 91 octane in the 4Runner for about a month and didn’t notice any improvement.

Directly from Toyota:

The “Research Octane Number 91” quote refers to the research done by the government. When testing the vehicle, 91 grade octane was used in order to determine the miles per gallon (MPG) ratings for the vehicle. The higher grade the octane level, the better mpg the vehicle will get.

Fuel is always a heavily debated topic. Do your research.

MAF (Mass Airflow Sensor)

Some people even say cleaning off the factory sensor will increase HP (I don’t know about that one, but who knows).

The next option with the MAF is Spacer. A spacer sets a different MAF sensor placement which tricks your engine into running different fuel ratios. In certain areas of your throttle curve, the engine will create a different fuel-to-air ratio, thus creating more horsepower.

There are people out there who swear by this and people out there who would laugh at you if you installed one. The choice is up to you. We will eventually throw a spacer on just to see what everyone is talking about.

With the spacer, you are expected to see better gas mileage and increased horsepower. For what it’s worth, why not just install one? It’s cheap, easy, and can’t hurt anything. The Toyota ECU is smart and will reset itself back to its original settings if you install or uninstall it.

Throttle Controller

Find It Online

• Pedal Commander Throttle Response Controller: Check Price

This is a new one for the blog. We wrote a post on this recently. This thing blew my mind. We saw this gadget about 6 months ago and breezed past it. I was thinking “How cool can this throttle response controller be”?

Then, we had a guy email us on the website in all CAPS up in joy, bragging about how epic this product was. After reading the first two sentences of his email, I bought one. I bought the PC38.

The throttle response controller gives you the ability to adjust your throttle response on the fly. If you want to increase your MPGs, drop it down to Eco mode by holding the yellow star. If you want to drive at somewhat of a stock level (with a little kick in umph’), kick it up to City-Mode.

If you are feeling sluggish, then leap to Sport Mode (this is seriously fun).

If you are in the mood to seriously romp down the road, up a hill, or smash on the freeway, bump it up to Sport+ Mode. At this point, you will FEEL like you are driving a Supercharged Range Rover Sport, V8. Driving on the freeway with the PC in Sport+ is awesome. You can mob through traffic and switch lanes like a true boss. Sometimes, I feel like it’s Supercharged. And yes, we did test-drive the Magnuson Supercharger when we were in Ventura. It’s obviously nothing like a Supercharger but damn, is this thing cool!