A 5-spd 3.0 second gen Runner will have a lot more power than the 22re 5-spd you drove. Definately hold out for a 5-spd. A buddy of mine had a '93 5-spd and it wouldgot around fine, nothing like my mod'd 3.0 truck(which weighs more), but it performed well enough for the era the Runner was bilt. On the other hand my sister had a '95 3.0 auto, and it could barely get out of its own way. not to mention its dismall mpgs. Here '95 auto got about 13mpg on average, while my buddy in the '93 5-spd averaged around 17.

You can modify the 3.0 to get more power out of as some of us here have, though it isn't cheap to do, but compared to a 3.4 swap it is cheaper.