What I love, what I hate: My 21 platinum build thread (Now supercharged)

Well said. Brother in law is a mortgage lender so I know where at now with the rates. Sounds like you got it when the getting was good too so that's a plus! I'll be following along as you complete more mods...

 

Was that with the stock Magnuson tune on VFtuner?

 

WOW! I just spent 2 (working) days loving your build(s) the truck of course but also the garage & P-car/X5 Kudos sir!

Enjoy!

 

about a thousand miles on the OTB Mag tune, about 600 miles on VF's "upgraded" S/C tune. I have about a hundred miles on the HPT now. Cole was just back over at my place today doing some more logging and updated the tune. I should have another 150-200 miles on it by the time we get to my next dyno appt on 5/31.

Thank you! I am sad to report that we are preparing to send the X5 down the road to a new owner...we've had her for seven years and it has been one of my personal favorite cars to drive. Wife and I decided we're going to try being a two-truck family - 2nd gen Taco with a canopy, and the Tundra without. I like the way the Tacoma is coming together, but I am seriously going to miss that X5. The Taco will be a much milder build than the Tundra. Mods include

- front/rear heated seats
- nfab side steps
- Katzkin leather interior
- 8" display Kenwood head unit
- front/side cams
- 2" lift
- Color matched grille and door handles
- tailgate lock
- Compustar alarm/remote start
- camper shell (soon to be color matched)
- OE headlight projector retrofit (this was actually a lot easier than I expected it to be)

I'm not ready to put a camper shell on the Tundra yet, but both the wife and I are really digging having that big enclosed space in the back of the Tacoma.

 

I understand the X5 is great, I had a 2006 4.8Si loved it. First the water cooled alternator went, then the water pump (BMW coolant ain’t cheap, then both Tonkin chain tensioners. I looked into all the while you are in there (Vano$) just the tools to time it are a fortune. Traded it in on a 4Runner.

 

@e30cabrio lol you had me at water cooled alternator. I've found my fair share of WTF working on ours, too. German engineers can come up with the most complicated solutions to the simplest of problems.

 

I was shocked. It has a kind of 20's scuba looking helmet housing that the water circulates through. How is coolant cooler? Seems to me it's a warmer.

 

The provided magnuson tune is definitely not great. Yours isn’t the first I’ve seen of a bad tune provided by magnuson with knock all over the place. These trucks need a custom tailored tune in every application with a supercharger. That’s one reason anyone considering supercharging their truck should budget for a custom tune as soon as it’s installed. Anyone who supercharges their truck and keeps the provided out of the box tune doesn’t know what they’re missing. Glad it’s running better now. Nice build!

 

Couldn't agree more. I was one of those poor souls that ran the Magnuson tune almost 20k miles before ViktorG set me straight. You don't know how bad it is until you look.

 

I was about to say Viktor did a great job on my not SC Sequoia & said the Mag tune left a lot to be desired.

 

@e30cabrio @AZTundra @Silver17 Where were all of you with your wisdom and knowledge four months ago when I was first figuring this out myself lol. I mean, that first test drive after the SC was on was pretty exciting and all b/c sure the truck was faster now, but now that it's legit tuned right - OMG.

@e30cabrio You described it perfectly (BMW's solution to an alternator that should have just been made bigger so it didn't have to work so hard in the first place) lol Freaking water-cooled alternator

 

Sorry about that lol. I had not gotten to that point in your build thread yet. Admittedly I even skipped ahead to get to some supercharger goodness cause that’s my favorite topic. That’s when I found your struggles and resolution.

 

@Silver17 lol well it's affirming to say the least that we are all coming from different places but reaching the same conclusion.

The next consideration @PNWTundra2021 and I have been talking about is axle wrap. He has OE suspension, I have Ironman. We both have LSD, 5.29 gears and 35's. We haven't taken turns driving each others trucks post-SC yet but he notices quite a bit of hop on corners. He has some SDHQ bars on the way to address it. The Ironman leafs are quite a bit heavier than the OE ones. I do not seem to be experiencing the phenomenon to nearly the same degree he is. I'm going to set up my camera under the truck while it's on the dyno though and get a first-person view of what's going on back there. Now that the tune is as hot as it is, I am wondering if I'll start experiening this more too in daily driving (I barely have a hundred miles on HPT so far and most of that is highway).

Long way of asking, what suspension are you currently running? Are you running bars too?

 

In the rear I have the toytec mini 3 leaf AAL and airbags with daystar cradles. I don’t keep the airbags inflated unless towing. I can honestly say I haven’t experienced any violent axle wrap that is perceivable while driving. I also don’t do a lot of crazy throttling out in tight corners, and don’t have an LSD yet. I’m sure the axle is twisting and those leaf springs are bending under load, but like I said I wouldn’t know it if I was unaware of what axle wrap is. I do plan to get traction bars as well as an LSD at some point. Those are my next big mods. Just trying to decide if I want to regear while the rear is apart. I’m putting fresh 33x12.50s on when my new wheels come in and if I’m satisfied with the look and performance I may skip the regear.

 

Yeah, hard to say just how helpful a regear might be with 33's. On my normally aspirated and non-geared non-tuned 2017, I went to tires that were 33.8" tall and definitely noticed that the truck did not want to shift right anymore. it was one of my biggest complaints about driving it, honestly. Probably though, 33's are such a minimal jump and now that you have a good tune on board I'm sure it does an excellent job of compensating. My bet is sure you'd probably notice some difference with gears but probably not real high on the bang-for-the-buck list. Unless you are thinking you might someday go bigger, I'd probably just stick to the LSD and save the $3k if it were me.

 

@DannyD303 still around, still driving and loving the Tundra. Since my last post here I have been checking other projects off the list...got the garage all trimmed out now. It's really rewarding to work in. 944 is painted and all put back together. finished it in time to hit a few Cars & Coffee events last summer. Now working on my project that is the most overdue - the Diablo. I set out hoping I could have it running and driving by spring but there have already been some setbacks that will require custom machining. Those are going to set me back two-three months while I wait in line at the machine shop. nothing is ever easy, but it is still fun and rewarding to finally be making this car a reality!


My office: if you call me, this is where I'm sitting when I answer my phone. desk is a sit-stand by Uplift. And yes, the toolbox sword is my personal defense weapon of choice! lol


Kitchen is finished


Central vac with hose that recesses into the wall when not in use.


I put two of these dustpan vacuum attachments throughout the downstairs. Combined with a polished floor these make cleaning up giant messes crazy fast.


944 is finished. Got her done in time to enjoy a few drives last summer. You can see all the windows I trimmed out in the background too. I really want to be that guy who actually finishes his projects, so I took a bit of a break to build the Tundra and then the 944 but if I didn't get back in here to finish up the shop I was never going to forgive myself.


The Diablo as it currently sits. Working on getting the engine/trans mounted





My first time inside a gearbox...as a result of setting the engine/trans in in the above pic I discovered I am going to have to flip it upside down in order to get my output shafts to line up with the hubs. This is what everyone does with the Porsche transaxles more commonly used in these cars, but I was hoping the Mendeola wouldn't need it. This is why I'm now stuck waiting 2-3 months while I have some new pieces milled out to facilitate that. I'm thankful I was able to come up with a solution that should only cost me about $1,200. Kind of disappointing to have to stall the drivetrain for this long but not much I can do about it at this point except bellyache to all of you lol