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I haven’t had much time to work on Tacoma related items, life has been hectic, but I have been working on a few ideas.
E-Fan Update-
My electric fan conversion is working good, but it runs on low speed more that I would like. I think the low speed cut on temperature of the coolant thermal switch and the operating temperature of the thermostat are too close together, making it run more than needed. The temp of the engine hovers around 195F +/- 5F, which I am led to understand is normal for these trucks. Typically once the fan kicks on low, it doesn’t kick back off for the remainder of the drive. I am considering putting in a slightly cooler thermostat, but I hesitate because I don’t want the ECU to stay in warmup mode. Alternatively I could just disable the low circuit, but that negates all the reasons I wanted to use a two speed fan.
One major upgrade that may help this situation is ducting the upper grill to the radiator using chloroplast or similar. Right now there are huge openings that allow the air coming into the grill to go around the radiator, maybe if it was direct ducted that would lower the normal cruising temperature enough to make the fans kick back off of low. I know when I did exactly this on my old car it helped tremendously.
Fender Flare Removal-
Another modification I am considering is removing the black plastic fender flares from the sides of the truck. These are the flares that are on the 4x4, note the 4x2 non-prerunner doesn’t have them. From my measurements, they stick out about an inch. They are not necessary with my current wheels and tires, the tire would still be well within the wheel well without them. I do not see any real aero advantage to having them on there. The problem is that with them removed, there will be large square holed in the bodywork from where they mounted. It looks like those who removed the flares end up using plugs to plug the holes.
Belly Pan-
I am still designing the belly pan. I know basically what I want to do with it, but haven’t got super in depth with starting to make it. First, I want to cover over the bottoms of my step/sliders. My preferred material (3/16” aluminum sheet/plate) is a bit pricier than I really wanted to spend on this project, so I may end up just reusing some 0.090 aluminum I have lying around. The area is basically 15” by 80” with supports every 12”-16” or so.
The next area I want to cover is right down the center of the truck. I want to make a light “skid plate” style belly pan in several pieces to run from the front bumper all the way to where the muffler and gas tank are. I am thinking making a light steel frame and skinning that with aluminum would be the best compromise between strength and weight. There are companies that make these skid plates out of folded metal (aluminum or steel) however their designs are not flush and would not be very good aerodynamically.
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