Giving Your Tacoma a Power Surge with a Supercharger Kit

Turbochargers are all the rage and are fantastic options for producing boost, but they bring two very big problems to the table. For one, they are very complicated to install and may require fabrication to work properly. Second, and more problematic, is they’re also are subjected to lag. When it comes to off-roading, you need all the power you can get in an instant. 

This is why superchargers are the rage off-road; they produce immediate boost even way down low. Having additional power at all times goes a long way when you may need all the possible throttle available in a moment’s notice. Superchargers don’t all stick to one design. In fact, there are a few different designs on the table. Knowing what they are and how they work will tell you right out of the gate what you need.

Roots: Roots style blowers are the easiest to identify. They sit on top of the engine with a pulley on the front. As the engine turns the pulley, two turbines use vacuum between them to draw in air and positive displacement, and then force that added displacement into the engine. For a Tacoma, the Roots style is best fitted to V6 models.

Screw: Screw, or Twin Screw, superchargers are designed almost identically to roots style blowers; in fact, they are a variant of roots blowers. These units use two screw shaped turbines to compress and speed the air up as it is sent to the engine. Again, these will live on V6 engines as they mount in place of the intake manifold. 

Centrifugal: At first glance centrifugal superchargers look an awful lot like turbochargers. This is because turbos were based off this platform. These units are belt driven and use a fan within to force air to the engine. This type of supercharger is very popular because they are compact units and can be mounted easily within the engine compartment without tearing too far into the engine. They can also be fitted to any engine, regardless of its configuration. 

Before slapping a supercharger on your Tacoma and trying to achieve as much boost as possible, one has to consider just how hard they are on engines. Not only do blowers force air through the engine, they can help the engine nearly double its power output. 

Boost vs Internals: Pistons, crankshafts, connecting rods, and the valve train are all subjected to serious stress when boost is applied. For all out off-road Tacoma or track trucks, the engines are usually torn down and beefed up. This way, they can handle the amount of power that they are putting out without tearing themselves to shreds. If you are serious about throwing boost at your engine, do so moderately. It only takes a little to make a big difference in power. If you want to go nuts, make sure you consider beefing up the engine so you don’t blow it up when you romp the throttle on the trail.

Running a blower can be greatly benefitted from making additional upgrades. By themselves, superchargers work great, but if you want to make sure you’re getting a solid efficient burn, you want to consider throwing in an intercooler and upgrades to the fuel system. 

Intercoolers: The use of an intercooler will help bring down the temperature of the air within the supercharger. This helps in two key areas. Cooler air is denser, meaning more oxygen can be pressed into the engine. Cooler air is also less likely to detonate under compression. For those looking to make a lot of boost, this upgrade is a must. 

Fuel System Upgrades: Superchargers are an air intake upgrade. They push more air into the system but leave the fuel system to work independently. With most blower kits, fuel system upgrades necessary to the system will be included. Though, if you plan to go all out, you will likely want to consider a high flow fuel pump and bigger injectors. 

Tacoma trucks that are naturally aspirated from the factory are going to have tunes designed to run naturally aspirated engines. The second forced induction is introduced the factory tune will no longer work. 

Some kits will include a tuner that will run a program to get the engine up to speed with all the power it is now making. Despite the included programmer, one should go to a professional tuner in order to achieve the absolute best results. 

You may be wondering if installing a supercharger is something you can do in your home shop. This really boils down to the level of preliminary knowledge and skill set you have. Superchargers are complicated systems that require a truly skilled hand to install. 

Pro’s Recommended: In the case that you have some basic knowledge of how things work under the hood with little wrenching time under your belt, we suggest having pros do the install. There are some weekend warriors who may try to pull this off but rest assured that this is no funny business. If you have any questions or doubts, there is no shame in calling a local shop with trained techs to tackle this job for you.