I spoke with several mechanics (personal friends of mine)B4 I bought my 2002 2.7. MOST of them suggested the 2.7 as they see these machines from time to time to work on, they admit:
1) On a per Toy basis, they see any one V6 reoccurrently visiting the shop.
2) Owners get much bigger repair bills.

I would loved to have gotton a V6 just for more power. (As God knows, I just unloaded a 460). But as I dont tow anything, Im not a speed demon or a drag racer, I elected to go for reliability, and a little better gas mileage. . (I migrate every 6 months back and forth between AK and CA, and this hauls all my gear very dandily.)
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A note here. Ive been driving my stock '68 Land Cruiser 35 years, so Ive gotton to know lots of cruiser owners too. Lots of them put V8s in them. And over the years a good 1/3 of them put 6's back in, another 1/3 wish theyd never put a 8cyl in. Hmmm. The 6 goes for ever. Why put a 8 cyl POS in there?
We know part of American mentality "bigger is better", and thats cool. We also know we're free to choose, buy, modify, etc without having to justify ourselves.

So,Im not arguing 4 vs 6. Im just saying do your homework, and make a decision based on what you learn, and what you need or want.

Jakesnake, Did a search on here and two other Taco sites and only found one person who had the problems you speek of. That one person was the only one i found to believe there would be a recall of the 2.7 . It's now 2004 and Tacoma says that they never had a recall and have no plans to recall them and in fact they are there top engine for the Tacoma.
Also there is very little difference in the 6 and the 4 in power but the 6 will have the 4 beat by a litle on the heavy loads. Going down the highway there is very little difference in the two.I like them all myself, as long as they are Tacomas. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Just out of curiosity, can you still get the 2.7L s/c in Canada? TRDUSA does not sell it... claime dsome design issues. Grapevine says that the company in South Africa (I forget the name) that made them for TRD still produces a newer (redesigned?) version... any thoughts/ideas on possibly procuring one?

I've had two Toyotas with the 3.4 (T100 and Tacoma S-Runner) and two Toyotas with 4 cylinder motors (4-Runner with 22RE and Tacoma with 2.7).

Comparing my T100 with the 3.4 and 5spd to my Tacoma with the 2.7 and 5spd is like DAY and NIGHT. Having owned both the 3.4 and 2.7 in 5spd, I would never suggest the 2.7 comes close to running with a 3.4. The 3.4 is an awesome motor for a small truck, fun to drive hard, powerful enough for light truck duties, good on gas, and reliable. However, I purposefully bought my '03 Tacoma with the 2.7 instead of the 3.4, because to me...classic Toyota "fun" and reliability means having a 4 banger under the hood. From what I understand, the 2.7 is a stout motor, like the 22r motors are, though I do have a buddy with this new-to-the-block low end knock in his 2.7. The 3.4 on the other hand, is also a great motor and probably has far less problems than the competition's motors.

So, I would say people buy the 2.7 for three reasons
1) they can't afford the 3.4 at buying time
2) they don't know or care any better
3) they wan't "classic" toyota

The 2.7 does quite well for what it is. I run 33" tires with stock 4.30 gears and have pulled 3000 pounds up steep grades several times. Granted, its in 3rd or 4th gear while my T100 would've hardly broken a sweat.....but, the motor does pretty good.

Reliability wise, it probably isn't an issue, but I am crossing my fingers that sticking with the 2.7 will save me some grief at some point.