2zz-ge engine mods

[ihavelift]

Hey guys, pretty new to the whole (actual) mod scene, have spent many years planning on what monster turbo I'll be putting on my car (nonexistant at that time!).

Now that I have a car ('01 toyota allex running a 2zz-ge motor), I've narrowed down a lot on what I want to do. My ICE is in full swing so that's no issue.

My major concern at the moment is what adjustables to use (being a student and all can't afford to shell out $3k on some super duper ones) .. I have been suggested D2's or BC's. No way I'll use D2's but don't really know about BC's, so if anybody could shine some light on this or suggest what I should do I'd appreciate it.

The next plan is to get a greddy e-manage ultimate, hopeful outcome is to attain a more aggresive tune and lower lift point and raise redline. Again, any comments on this are much appreciated!

Please chuck in any thoughts!

Cheers,

Nick

[barryogen]

My suggestion is that unless you are doing some serious track time, or just want the adjustables for wank factor, just get some bloody good springs and struts for it.

The TRD Sportivo ones for the RunX/Allex are pretty good(not too hard/bouncy), I believe they drop it 45mm, which is plenty, but still awesome for road use. and from memory they're not too dear last time I checked.

For other info...
Have a search for RunX or 2zz or zze123 on these forums, and you should find plenty of info.

[d1 mule]

nothing wrong with BC adjusties.

whydo you want to raise the redline?? its there for a reason

[barryogen]

They already redline at 8300, and stock cams hold it back after 8500 so you would gain very little by raising it without some changes.

Also after 8500, most of the reading I did suggested valve float becomes an issue.

There is the odd one in the US doing 9500RPM, but they are few and far between. Try newcelica.org and maybe some of the Lotus sites as the Exige used the same engine for a while.

Hell, also talk to the toyota Racing Series guys, they're also using the 2zz.

[ihavelift]

hey barryogen (dave?), i was told you had the same car and to talk to you about mod info. What have you done to yours?

I would prefer springs/struts but was told adjustables are the way to go, not too keen though as they're just so expensive and way overkill for what I need. Where can I get info on these TRD Sportivo items?

I didn't know that about stock cams, I've been talking to a guy in Aus who has set his at 9000rpm without changing cams. But a lower lift point would really help, i hate changing gear and going out of lift.

[ROBODISCO_20v]

By the sounds of what you're after an e-manage ultimate would be a bit of an over kill also. (Unless you plan to turbo in the future, you may also want to consider a power FC in that case.) For the same money if not less you could pick up a 2nd hand Apexi SAFCII or Camcon & a dyno tune. That matched with a high flow panel filter, decent exhaust (maybe even headers) & iridium spark plugs should give a modest increase in power & make it much more drivable especially at lower rpm.

[ihavelift]

I'm not planning on ever having this car as forced induction, I'd rather keep it as N/A and buy a turbo car and mod that. Too many things can go wrong when turbing/SCing an N/A car ... it's f**king cool and unique but I just don't have the pockets to keep on top of all the issues that can arise.

I'm not sure how far I'm planning on taking the allex, hence the Greddy item, but if another item would be better suited to it I'll look into it.

Great thing about these forums is they'll keep me from making a big (and expensive) purchasing error!

[Mr Revhead]

as mentioned coilovers maybe over kill

but if you do decide to go for them, and plan on keeping the car for a long time, its best to spend the extra for a brand that can be rebuilt in nz. only one brand that can be afaik

the TRD kit would be an excellent choice, just very $$ now

other options would be bilstein shocks, and TEIN springs. or koni shocks
or even just springs and new stock shocks

[MasCam]

You could look at these

adjustable shocks and springs

Maybe with some of these

stabilizer bars

I have the shocks and springs sitting in my garage waiting for the stabilizer bars to arrive (next week hopefully) so I can't comment on how they go but they certainly look very nice . They seem to be about the same rates as TRD for the most parts but you do have the option of damper adjust on them.

Oh and you can get them from here

http://www.fortyone.co.nz/

They are a Toyspeed sponser.

Chris

[barryogen]

I used to have one(now in an altezza). It was great barring a few mechanical mishaps.

If you touch the exhaust, keep the CAT, it stops a lot of the tinny/drony sound.

Swap the stock air filter for a TRD or other high flowing item, no need for a pod setup, it just makes the AFM read funny on part throttle.

It had the TRD sportivo suspension kit, and it was phenomonal, I rode in one with Tein gear all round and it was a bit firmer, but still ok for the wife.

It had a stiffer rear swaybar, which was great, but it needed to have the suspension bushes made firmer as it made some clunking noises when entering driveways caused by the bushes being too soft.

Light weight mags make quite a difference to how it felt to drive, I had wedsport 16" somethings on it, and tried some Advanty(?) 18"s on it, and it was (very) noticably slower to accelerate.

Have a search through using RunX and you should find pretty much every post I made about it.

Changing the lift point below 6000RPM will lose you power... the only guys I have seen(read about) gain anything by lowering it, have been guys slapping turbos on them.

From factory they have 4-2-1 headers, with a very very good finish on them, I doubt that you could get anything better designed barring the TRD items which are a 4-1 design, so would sacrifice lower RPM torque.

The 2zz power FC for the Celica is not a straight fit item, you have to re-wire it a bit. There is a company called brashboy that modify them for the 2zz Corollas for an exhoribident price.

When I was looking there was nothing available to modify lift point, all the camcon type controllers weren't able to do it. Some dude on newcelica made a manual one, that they then managed to put on an RPM switch, but after tinkering on dynos found that the factory switch point was pretty much ideal, barring some that lowered it to 5800, but anything below that lost power.

tuning at the lift transition point is apparantly very tricky... its not my area of things, but thats what I have read.

C-one do some funky stuff for them.

have a looky here too for some info on them.

http://dave.net.nz/old_site/id48.htm

[ihavelift]

dave, you have single handidly crushed any aspirations i had at making my car faster without going the forced induction route. Damn you..

OH WELL, back to the drawing board, still need to decide what to do on the suspension front though, so many different suggestions, was hoping for a common suggestion to be occuring but alas!

Thanks for all your help though guys, it is much appreciated!

[Mr Revhead]

When I was looking there was nothing available to modify lift point, all the camcon type controllers weren't able to do it. Some dude on newcelica made a manual one, that they then managed to put on an RPM switch, but after tinkering on dynos found that the factory switch point was pretty much ideal, barring some that lowered it to 5800, but anything below that lost power.

i was talking to lynn rogers about the engines he was doing for the TRS cars and he has dynoed htem with both cam profiles right through the rev range
where the factory settings switchs is right on the cross over point of the torque curves of the cams.
so, unless you make major mods there is nothing to be gained from altering the VVTI. only losses

for a road car with a 2zzge i'd be spending all my coin on suspension

[barryogen]

sorry revhead, I should have clarified my point about lowering the lift point to 5800.

most of that was done on US Celica GTS where I am not sure if they have the same CAM profile as the Jap stuff, there are a few differences depending on where you get them from and what they were put into it seems... hell, one model(potiac vibe GTS I think) had a 7500 RPM redline... it would make it much less fun.

Don't get disheartened by what I said, things can be done for them, I was just pointing out some things you shouldn't waste money on.

There are guys putting quad throttle bodies with bonnet scoops feeding straight into them(intake is on the front of the engine for those who don't know).

There is plenty you can do, have a look around my page, there should be some links to monkeywrenchracing and some company based in poland(I think) that does stuff for them too.

[barryogen]

oh yeah, and take everything I post with a grain of salt... I'm still learning car stuff, and I'm a prick that loves to argue, even if I know I'm wrong

It is a very dangerous thing to be.

[Caldina3SGTE]

wow i'm interested to know what they lift at??the allexs??i thought they where the same as celica. cos i use to own a 99 and a 01 celica they lift at 5800 redline on the dash marked at 7800 but would rev out to 8300-8400, only mods i had were trd exhaust, pod filter spark plugs, and that got me 129kw atw, if i still had the car now i would be going force induction with a Greddy supercharger kit off fortyone,

[ihavelift]

My Allex lifts at 6000 and redlines at 8200-8300.

I think that going for full coil over is overkill, I think the best way to get better handling and make it a bit quicker while still keeping it primarily a road car and not spenidng too much $$ is to go for a set of springs and antiroll bars (aka sway bars??). Also, will be getting a set if 17's ... the advanti sr15s look good but will investigate further when the time comes.

Can anyone recommend what springs would give a good 40mm drop while still having a good spring rate thrus improving looks and handling at the same time?

[Mr Revhead]

id have to confirm but i think TEIN drop about that
impossible to say exactly how much a set will drop a car though
only way to be exact is with adjustable platforms

[GTCRSHR]

viewtopic.php?t=68317&highlight=allex

may or may not be any help, probably the latter,;)

trd springs were $500 from memory, proabbly says in the post

[ihavelift]

OK, so I've decided to go with sprtings and sway bars. The reason for this is I simply think that full coil overs are overkill and just too expensive for what I need. I will also improve ride stability and handling with some 17x7.5 wheels (or 17x8s if I can find a suitable pair).

Thoughts?