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Another update on the Taco. I picked up another set of 16in rims with 265/75/16 tires on them in fair-good shape with 1 junk, but I have a spare tire that is the same. Popped them on, adjusted the brakes up, one side the adjuster was hung up so that should help it work better. Front end spinning the tires with the trans in 1st is hard! lots of resistance, rear tires are nice and easy to spin. I wonder if the front diff is a limited slip or something. Anyway, both front tires are the correct size now, and I found the old tires were only around 20psi. "New" tires are at 55psi (50 max side wall), and what a difference in feel, ride, and take off. Also found the right rear leaf spring is broken, 2nd from top and the same side's shock is completely blown out. Drivers side is working but looks OEM with 225k. Engine oil has a red color to it, so I suspect there might be a mix of oil + trans fluid in it. Adjusted the scan gauge at +5% and is now my speedometer. Short trip around 7 miles and back messing around figuring out how far off everything is and such with a GPS and idling a bit got me around 22.5mpg, way back was 24.5mpg. ~8 miles back to my house was 24.4mpg. Short trips seem to be a LOT more mpg, since to trip to my dad's house was 17.5mpg. All trips were with warmed up engine (150f+).
Also no fan has been no problem at all. Highest temp I have seen while driving was 202F when I coasted off the highway and took off up a hill over the overpass. I took it out in my woods a bit and sat idle for around a min, and saw 206F as the peak and it cooled right back down to 200F by the time I got back to the road going 10mph no grill block.
Trans and Diff oils should be in before long, really hoping the Red Line will be a positive switch for better mpg and still protect everything well. Engine oil will be Mobile1 advanced synthetic 5w30 (15k miles for oil change guaranteed). I ran 18k miles on my corolla on the standard mobile 1 full synthetic, and the oil came out dark (not black), but still not bad so this next step up (highest they offer I think), should be good for the truck.
I suspect 30mpg is very reachable with my situation of work being quite a drive away and the mods to the truck so far and it's winter! No areo mods yet since I took the grill block off for safety. Maybe in the spring I'll look into making a belly pan, not real sure on the material, but I'm thinking fairly thin steel kind of like skid plates. Not trying to add 500 pounds to the truck and I'm not sure on chloroplast for the truck, the carolla's 1/2 front belly pan has been bottomed out a couple of times and it don't really like it much lol.
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