So now we know - Never try to make a Camry into a race car

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

I love people who make the best of what they have.  Props to you.

Can you send provide a link and or pics for this please?  "Rear IRS Balljoints deleted for Poly Inserts (they're unpredictable, multiple inserts that rotate freely around a single axis are not), Solara Front Strut Bar."  I think you're saying it's basically a heim joint made of urethane and rubber, but not sure.  It sounds interesting.

One note, I'd build some shielding around your intake, right now it's a hot air intake grabbing E36 M3ty hot air from the engine bay.  Try some shielding around it and ducting from the wheel well to get cool air.  Heck, you've already stripped the car so why not a NACA duct on the hood, still shielded.

I may not love the base car, but I love what you are doing.

Welcome.  

Thanks for the welcome :)

The original ball joints were Heim joints embedded in a rubber insulator, which tended to deteriorate within 5000 miles. Once the rubber wasn't entirely holding the joint, the rear wheels would change toe angles whenever the joint took forces, because it would move into the missing rubber void and then or push the wheel that way, and upon changing directions I would get significant rear end instability. 

What I did when replacing the rear with poly was shave down some extra poly sleeves with a hacksaw and utility knife, pressed out the heim joints with a 20 ton press, cleaned and lubed the bore, then spent 2 hours trying to press the shaved sleeved inserts into the far rear lateral arms. These inserts hold a 10 inch bolt which connects each side of both lateral arms (4 10" bolts total) and force the wheel to put the cornering forces through alternative suspension components and the tire. The result is the ability to swing the rear around without it being mushy and instable while decreasing dynamic rear slip angle slightly.

It would be beneficial to shield the intake for sure. I built a ghetto dryer duct intake which was under the front bumper fully exposed to air, and it was slightly stronger at high rpm, but the throttle response sucked compared to this DIY short ram intake, so directed flow ice box is an option but forcing intake air through a longer route is out. Although I don't think the intake air is actually hot, just warmish, the header wrap works and the y pipe is wrapped as well, plus the solara strut bar isnt made for this car so there is a quarter inch hood gap, and I've removed the windshield cowl weatherstripping, so there is 1-2 inches air can flow out of the bay over the windshield as well as the gap on the front and sides. and a 1 sq ft hole above the torque converter where it's sucking cool air from the wheel well and bottom of bay. Cooler air is always better though so I'll probably do that.

Just did some autocross runs balls to the wall today with the accusump and didn't even have valve train clacking a single time which is a relief. I'll post some videos with a build thread later, but I just wanna say for anyone who reads this thread that my engine didn't blow up when going to the g-force limit of 200TW tires with a heavily modded suspension while staying in first gear and above 5000 rpm for 60 seconds straight while flinging the car all over the runway like a madman. 6 times. 

Edit: Here's a clip of 2 best runs, I need to learn to drive, and buy better shocks.

I've long been a member of the Build What You've Got Club.

Watching for more.

I'm always surprised that the 1MZ doesn't have far better aftermarket support. The worst problem they had was their tendency to sludge up if you didn't keep up oil changes- otherwise they're a light aluminum block that make ~200HP easily, had 8 years of non-VVTi, and their manual trans options are the mega-common S-series 5-speeds and the near unbreakable E-series 5-speeds.

This is really cool. Thanks!

GIRTHQUAKE said:

I'm always surprised that the 1MZ doesn't have far better aftermarket support. The worst problem they had was their tendency to sludge up if you didn't keep up oil changes- otherwise they're a light aluminum block that make ~200HP easily, had 8 years of non-VVTi, and their manual trans options are the mega-common S-series 5-speeds and the near unbreakable E-series 5-speeds.

This is really cool. Thanks!

The sludging was the most known issue, but a non issue for the most part - Toyota just didn't happen to idiotproof it. You sell 10 million of what was the most sold car in the united states at the time and a lot of those people are bound to be idiots who don't change their oil.

The lesser known but actual issue with these motors is the valve cover design allowing leaks due to toyotas engineering choice to use rubber washers on the bolts, and only giving .25mm of spare depth in the bolt bores so you can't choose to torque it down more so the washers don't work themselves loose.. The only fix is to use different bolts or different washers - and 99.9% of people will have no idea why their valve covers are seeping 10,000 miles after they changed them.

I can't speak to the manual transmissions, and I'm going to swap in another one of the 4 speed automatics when this one blows up -  IMO without a high revving engine a manual swap is just a hassle to drive around without any of the fun factor. The 4 speed auto in mine is original at 313k and works great even with the ridiculous abuse I've put it through. The best part about these is that you can completely control shift points & shift speed with adjusting nuts in the engine bay.

Being able to go to 40mph in first isn't bad either, (44mph with stock tires), and redlines second at 75mph (82 stock). I can floor it whenever above 20mph and get instant peak torque. Chirps skinny 200tw tires at 30mph if I whack the throttle.

As far as aftermarket support goes, it's not great, and it could be far better - but if you look hard enough you can piecemeal some engine mods together - nothing fancy though.

Headers & Y-Pipe have been dynoed at 25hp/20tq above 3500 rpm - I haven't dynoed them on mine but that seems about right. There were only a few designs for this engine; originally over $1500, and only 2 that were effective - and only one that's currently sold, OBX at around $450. Absolute pain in the arse to install.

All sorts of random ripoff intakes sold that will free up another 5-10hp if you have done the exhaust. They won't make any power if the exhaust hasn't been done - it's the biggest hp thief in this car. DIY SRI ran me under $100 in parts and its amazing.

Lightweight undersized crank pulleys are sold that will free up another 5-10hp. $100.

Other than that I know of no bolt on mods you can do for more power. The TRD supercharger is a unicorn that is for all intents and purposes non-existant, and goes for upwards of 3-4 grand to make 50hp. Not worth it, can make an extra 200hp for that price with pistons, rods, cams, and a diy turbo setup.

I plan on swapping in 2mz/3mz intake/exhaust cams eventually for another 10-15hp where it matters. Gotta find a used 2mz head for cheap (300 minimum) or get lucky in a junkyard. 3mz cams are everywhere and I can get for $50. Then you have to get it tuned as well, thats another $500 for a piggyback + another few hundred for tune.

So basically you can spend $800 on bolt-on to free up 40 whp (I haven't dynoed it, but that's a very educated guess.) ,after that, it gets expensive fast to not go much faster. I'm a sucker for this money pit so I'll most likely do the cam swaps and probably look into DIY FI eventually.

Let me be clear that this is absolutely not a cost effective way to get a car that will go fast and handle well, and there are hard limits to what it can do without fabrication. Like many people here, the decision to dump money into a car was an emotional one not a rational one. I personally do it because I'm an attention whore and driving a camry that from the outside looks like a regular camry, but sounds like this one, accelerates like this one, and handles like this one turns a lot of heads. I could buy a car that makes twice the HP for the same amount of money I've put into this.