There must be more than 100 reasons for getting rid of a 10-year-old truck with over 100,000 miles the clock. There are, however, strong arguments for keeping such a truck; namely, it's paid for and it still looks fine.
Our '92 Toyota SR-5 4x4 pickup appeared in excellent condition: the red paint just barely faded, the interior mint and stock right down to the stereo. The only obvious problems were a broken cupholder, an extremely worn driver floormat, and a chip on the hood. We contacted Downey Off-Road for an opinion.
Toyota rated the 3.0L V-6 at 150 hp. Awkward, lanky, and out of date, the stock airbox (lower left) didn't do wonders to help the truck breathe.
"The first thing I would do," Jim Sickles, president of Downey Off-Road, told us, "is have a compression check to ensure that it's a truck worth sinking some money into."
The advice was taken, and a stop at a local mechanic proved that compression was fine.
Our Toyota wasn't the quickest gun on the block; box stock, the truck struggled 0-60 mph in 13.3 sec. Basically, it was ready to race Yugos. With that information, we turned to K&N Engineering in Riverside, California, to find out what kind of power was being made at the wheels. K&N technician Kirk Swanson put it on the dynamometer and found that of the 150 ponies, only 117 made it to the pavement. That said, he replaced the massive (and dated) stock airbox with a K&N Fuel Injection Performance Kit.
The Downey Off-Road exhaust system sports a header that's larger, louder, and easier to look at than Toyota's original manifold. Toyotaphiles will recall the anemic exhaust notes from the stock SR-5. The Downey Off-Road system took care of that.
Computer-controlled vehicles are funny things. Although the Toyota was now louder underhood, in fact, the dyno showed it actually lost power and dipped to 112 hp.
"After some mileage," said Swanson, "the computer will learn that more air is being forced into the induction system. Once that happens, the timing will adjust, and the power should go up."
With that in mind, we put an additional 1000 miles on the Toyota and paid the dyno another visit. The numbers went up from stock by one, and 118 hp showed up at the wheels. Although the numbers were not impressive, the new 0-60 time was. The FIPK clipped a little off the clock, and the truck turned in a time of 13.0 sec. Not bad for a half-hour job.
At 100,000 miles, most catalytic converters have served their time, clogged with carbon debris- the Toyota cat was no different. The complete Downey Off-Road exhaust system provided a new one that alone improved the flow due to its cleanliness.
As with every upgrade, others inevitably follow. We turned to Downey Off-Road in Santa Fe Springs for a complete Downey exhaust system, which included headers, catalytic converter, Magnaflow mufflers, all the piping hardware, and the all-important CARB certification sticker to pass emissions. We went to Keith Pollastrini of K&K Auto Care in Torrance for the installation.