Tundra Upgrades

Ok,

So I'm working on fixing stuff in the forum now that we've got it back online so I get to post some stuff up as part of that test. Going to make a couple posts in this thread on some mods made to my truck in the last few weeks and post some pics...


First post is my 46 Gallon Fuel Tank Upgrade that DeebsTundra (old school name from back in the day here) and I installed on my truck at the beginning of May. This is the TransferFlow 46 Gallon Midship Fuel Tank Replacement

Link to the product installed:
https://www.transferflow.com/shop/product/0800114225

Test reply! I'm able to view the pictures if I open them in a new tab, but the in-forum viewer isn't working. 46 gallons though?????? wow I never heard of a tank that huge. That must weigh a ton all filled up! How big is the stock tank? Probably costs a fortune to fill up LOL. Though maybe not as much these days...

Second was an upgrade to the rear springs from the stockers (3 leaves + 1 overload + 1" block) to a solid OME Dakar Set(4 leaves + 2 overload) There's ole Deebs behind the truck and another shot of him cutting a seized bushing sleeve off of the shackle!

Thanks for the heads up on the pics... I'll see what I can do to fix that.
Yeah, 600 mile range on my truck now, lol. TBH though I wouldn't bother filling it up at E anymore, just at a half tank so it'd be just like normal and would have the extra tank running spare. It'll come in handy mostly when I'm towing my camper around... Yeah, I'm gettin old. Got a camper now. LOL

Assuming I'm filling up when the light comes up @ the 6gal reserve warning:
600-680 miles on a road trip (vs 300-340).
400-480 miles with mixed city/hwy (vs 200-240) (heavily depends on how heavy my foot is in it too)

So did you have to do something special for the gas gauge and warning light? I can see how that would come in handy for towing, but also for being out in the middle of nowhere and needing to idle the truck maybe for some aux power

Oddly, ZERO changes made to any system in the truck other than the tank swap. The sending/pump unit is the stock one. It literally was a removal from the stock tank and direct fit into the new tank. You then had to add on an additional vacuum box alongside the stock one but other than that, everything has been solid. The truck freaked out a bit trying to calculate miles to empty but once it figured it out it seems to be just fine. I've been monitoring the actual OBD2 output via my stereo head unit (Pioneer has some neat stuff in it) so as far as the ECU is concerned, I'm measuring correctly. MPG still calculates just the same as well and did from the start.

huh that's really cool, it even is able to relearn the miles-to-empty even for such an "extreme" parameter. I'm sure the people who designed that thing never thought the gauge would ever calculate DOUBLE what it should haha, but then again, it's probably made to be fitted to any vehicle system. Very cool at how easy it was just to swap stuff over! That's some good engineering

So I think that's a side effect of Toyota's engineering of the system for two different fuel tanks with the same sending unit. There are two models of Tundra in regards to the fuel tanks. There's the 26 gallon version and the 38 gallon version... Since the all of the components to the fuel system are identical between both models, with exception to some fuel line routing differences on the FFV models, adding 10 more gallons over OEM max really didn't phase the system that much. I just happened to get the crap end of the stick with the 26 gallon model and ended up with a much higher fix. I had actually considered just swapping to the stock 38 gal first but then decided that the extra 8 gal and a full steel tank was worth the extra few hundred bucks.

hey just think of it this way... if you had the 38 gal version to begin with, you wouldn't have been nearly as motivated to upgrade to the 46! Certainly wouldn't have been as good of an upgrade $$$ that way either.

Man I thought I had it bad filling 31 gallons on my old 1500 lol

Haha truth! But I'll tell ya, that 46 is nice... FYI, filled it up from half a tank this morning... 20gallons. lmao. It's been a month since I filled up so I can't complain too much.

Lol, yeah but like I mentioned above, I fill up at a half tank. The extra fuel is really for when I'm hauling the camper to the mountains and back so I don't have to fill up while I'm up there... down here gas is 2.03/gal right now and up there it's about 3.13/gal. They literally jack that price up due to the tourists, so in reality, being able to haul my camper up there and back without filling up saves me at least $20 a trip. Plus on longer road trips I have to stop less which is nice. I'm still using the same amount of fuel, just having to fill up less.

You'll have to see if your MPG takes a hit from the extra weight of double the fuel. Probably not much of a hit I'd reckon

My old 1500 was a V6 and I definitely noticed a power difference with a full tank compared to almost empty lol. The fuel weighed it down enough to make it a problem, so I’d have to floor it more to make up for it. On a newer truck with something that isn’t a dying v6 with 286k miles though probably wouldn’t be as bad lmao

I haven't seen much impact on the MPG... I mean the Tundra doesn't exactly get the best gas mileage anyway so... lmao.

As for power, the upgraded suspension actually made a huge difference as it balanced out the vehicle better and the truck actually feels like it accelerates better now since the power is being delivered to the wheels and not soaked up by weak ass suspension. Could be the placebo effect, but it definitely feels like I don't need to mash the gas as much to get it up and going anymore. Now if I could keep my foot out of it to hear my exhaust is another story.

So updates!!! (granted a few months behind but still lmao)

Got the shocks upgraded after that OME setup so no longer running any crap job block lift, it's all suspension!

Fronts were upgraded with Bilstein 6112 Coil Over set and the rears got the Bilstein B8 5160 Reservoir Shocks.

Next on the docket is differential change out. The stock 4.30 has to go. Upgrading to 4.88 as I don't really intend on running higher than 34" tires on this thing because I do actually use it as a truck and do actually tow with it. 35+ would start to cause some issues for me in that department so I'm kinda avoiding that move. Hopefully the 4.88 should help with the extra weight and slightly larger tires. Heavily debated going with the 5.29 but that may be pushing it just a bit much, lol. Right now I'm running about 200-250RPM lower than stock config with the setup I've got and the 4.88 will put me at about the same on the top side so I think it's a good swap out.

Thanks! 4.88 isn't available OEM. The OEM is only available in the 2014+ as a 4.30. Two well used options are 4.88 and 5.29 from Nitro, but as I mentioned above I'm not really running or planning to run tires big enough to merit that. With my 34's and the extra weight on the truck, 4.88 should be a solid update to help round out the issues presented by the existing mods. They're not major issues, hence the minor re-gear. But I'm taking the opportunity to install an actual real LSD into the thing as opposed to Toyota's weird pseudo-LSD that isn't really an LSD. Whomever thought that whole leveraging the ABS system and some other trickery should be taken out back and flogged.