by Gadget » Sun Dec 14, 2003 12:48 pm
I am the guy that did the install and tune on Joe's beautiful Solara.
After years of trouble shooting the never ending issues that TRD left us on the supercharged 3.4 I feel that I have put together a great performance upgrade kit for these engines.
I have always put my info on my site, which is in need of updating by the way, so that others could benefit from my efforts and have as much fun as I was having with my trucks, both of them. The problem we were faced with was no good sources for the parts and components needed as a good value. I had worked with on clown in Washington, but he started ripping people off and double charging customer's credit cards and also over charging for his so called "kit". I broke ties with him and started working with another company to get them to market a all in one box kit for our needs. He insisted that he add a bunch of needless stuff like pressure regulators, fuel lines, and fuel rails and on and on. That drove the kit price way out of site and not one of those extra things would of done any good at all.
Out of frustration a friend and I decided to do it on our own so we can get our friends the parts they need at a good value without a bunch of needless stuff.
After much effort and endless flow testing of pumps and injectors we have finally settled on specific components that will do what is needed and are cheap enough so that everyone can take advantage of it. We worked very hard on our sourcing and we able to pull enough money together to make volume purchases to keep our costs down so we can pass those savings on to the end user. We feel that our kit price is very good especially compared to what else is out there.
You can go to our www.URDUSA.com site and look over our 5VZFE kit and see what we are using. It all works perfectly in the Camry/Solara except of the fuel pump.
Joe's car uses a newer type returnless fuel system and there just is not a pump upgrade available that will work. I spent countless hours over the last week with Denso, Walbro, and a few other aftermarket pump companies trying to find a good replacement pump. There is nothing. Now I understand that there is an earlier version that has the return type fuel system and our pump upgrade should fit just fine on those vehicles.
For years I ran a gadget called a Boost-A-Pump made by Kenne-Bell on both my supercharged 4Runners that worked great. The only downside to it was the cost. They retail for near $200. That is way I looked into an intake pump upgrade, because it is cheaper.
I installed the BAP on Joe's car and it was just the ticket. It is set at 30% and is providing sufficient flow and pressure to feel those larger injectors I put in.
The stock pump Denso tells me is the very same pump that is in the 4Runner just the discharge port is slightly different for the returnless tank mount. It is rated at 90 LPH which is no where near enough feed that supercharger and it the most likely reason TRD stopped at 4 PSI. That engine proper fueled and tuned will take more just fine. Joe tells me he has a 6 PSI pulley on it and you will be surprised how much better these supercharged engines run when properly fueled and tuned and not by some band aid pressure increasing FMU or a single additional injector.
Our approach of using the proper size main injectors has many benefits. First we can properly fuel the engine in all conditions from idle to WOT and full RPM. Second there is a cause and effect of the larger injectors that makes the engine run better.
To dial in the injectors we use the FTC to pull the MAF signal back to get the proper fuel ratios. The ECU interprets this as a decrease in engine load. This makes it want to run a more aggressive ignition timing. Timing makes power. Now here is the cool thing that Toyota does that we benefit from. Our engines are mechanically noisy compared to other engines out there with the solid lifters and everything else. Because of this the ECU has a hard time of figuring out what is knock and what is not below 3000 RPM so it dose not use the knock sensors to adjust timing below 3000 RPM. It uses an extrapolation of the high RPM timing to set up the low RPM timing.
Now with the stock supercharger on the stock fuel system it will lean out on the top end. This causes knock and the ECU pulls out a lot of timing on the top end. This intern causes a reduction in low RPM timing whether is it needed or not. Now when we properly fuel the top end, the timing is run more advanced from knock reduction, and with the addition of the timing from the interpretation of reduced load on the engine, again the timing ends up more advanced in NON boost conditions. Most everyone reports a peppier engine in non-boost and many repport more MPG in cruise.
The down side to this is a more pronounced High Gear/Low RPM-Ping problem. I know on the 3.4 when people increase fuel delivery on the top they get more pining in low boost below 3000 RPM when the knock sensors are not used. This is where our timing controller comes in. We pull out just enough timing in that low boost low RPM range to suppress the HG/LR-Ping so you never get the HG/LR-Ping problem.
This has been the main complaint with the supercharged 3.4 and it is most likely why TRD stunted your engines with no boost below 3400 RPM. That just ruins all the benefits from a positive displacement supercharger and makes the car drive like, well, crap.
There is simple way to restore the boost below 3400 RPM like is should be and really make your car feel wonderful when you drive it. It is all about enjoyment. The only downside to this is additional stress on the auto transmission.
I was one of the first to break the tranny in the 3.4 and I know how expensive it can be to fix. I do intend to market a performance upgrade kit for your vehicles at a great price, but you all are really going to need to beef up your tranny or our kit will kill it for sure. Be sure to contact my good friend Pat at www.levelten.com about getting your valve bodies upgraded and be sure to tell him I sent you. You might what to get a group thing going. I got him to do that with the 4Runner/Tacoma guys and he did knock off a bit on the price.
By the time you get your valve bodies done, our kit will be ready for you all. Right now I just need to nail down a final cost on the BAP and we will be ready for the 1999 Supercharged Solara. You all might have to help me with info on the other years Camry and Solaras. I will be honest I do not know the Toyota car line very well. I am a truck guy, but I am sure I can help you have as much fun with your cars as I have been having with my trucks.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Gadget
www.GadgetOnline.com
www.URDUSA.com
After years of trouble shooting the never ending issues that TRD left us on the supercharged 3.4 I feel that I have put together a great performance upgrade kit for these engines.
I have always put my info on my site, which is in need of updating by the way, so that others could benefit from my efforts and have as much fun as I was having with my trucks, both of them. The problem we were faced with was no good sources for the parts and components needed as a good value. I had worked with on clown in Washington, but he started ripping people off and double charging customer's credit cards and also over charging for his so called "kit". I broke ties with him and started working with another company to get them to market a all in one box kit for our needs. He insisted that he add a bunch of needless stuff like pressure regulators, fuel lines, and fuel rails and on and on. That drove the kit price way out of site and not one of those extra things would of done any good at all.
Out of frustration a friend and I decided to do it on our own so we can get our friends the parts they need at a good value without a bunch of needless stuff.
After much effort and endless flow testing of pumps and injectors we have finally settled on specific components that will do what is needed and are cheap enough so that everyone can take advantage of it. We worked very hard on our sourcing and we able to pull enough money together to make volume purchases to keep our costs down so we can pass those savings on to the end user. We feel that our kit price is very good especially compared to what else is out there.
You can go to our www.URDUSA.com site and look over our 5VZFE kit and see what we are using. It all works perfectly in the Camry/Solara except of the fuel pump.
Joe's car uses a newer type returnless fuel system and there just is not a pump upgrade available that will work. I spent countless hours over the last week with Denso, Walbro, and a few other aftermarket pump companies trying to find a good replacement pump. There is nothing. Now I understand that there is an earlier version that has the return type fuel system and our pump upgrade should fit just fine on those vehicles.
For years I ran a gadget called a Boost-A-Pump made by Kenne-Bell on both my supercharged 4Runners that worked great. The only downside to it was the cost. They retail for near $200. That is way I looked into an intake pump upgrade, because it is cheaper.
I installed the BAP on Joe's car and it was just the ticket. It is set at 30% and is providing sufficient flow and pressure to feel those larger injectors I put in.
The stock pump Denso tells me is the very same pump that is in the 4Runner just the discharge port is slightly different for the returnless tank mount. It is rated at 90 LPH which is no where near enough feed that supercharger and it the most likely reason TRD stopped at 4 PSI. That engine proper fueled and tuned will take more just fine. Joe tells me he has a 6 PSI pulley on it and you will be surprised how much better these supercharged engines run when properly fueled and tuned and not by some band aid pressure increasing FMU or a single additional injector.
Our approach of using the proper size main injectors has many benefits. First we can properly fuel the engine in all conditions from idle to WOT and full RPM. Second there is a cause and effect of the larger injectors that makes the engine run better.
To dial in the injectors we use the FTC to pull the MAF signal back to get the proper fuel ratios. The ECU interprets this as a decrease in engine load. This makes it want to run a more aggressive ignition timing. Timing makes power. Now here is the cool thing that Toyota does that we benefit from. Our engines are mechanically noisy compared to other engines out there with the solid lifters and everything else. Because of this the ECU has a hard time of figuring out what is knock and what is not below 3000 RPM so it dose not use the knock sensors to adjust timing below 3000 RPM. It uses an extrapolation of the high RPM timing to set up the low RPM timing.
Now with the stock supercharger on the stock fuel system it will lean out on the top end. This causes knock and the ECU pulls out a lot of timing on the top end. This intern causes a reduction in low RPM timing whether is it needed or not. Now when we properly fuel the top end, the timing is run more advanced from knock reduction, and with the addition of the timing from the interpretation of reduced load on the engine, again the timing ends up more advanced in NON boost conditions. Most everyone reports a peppier engine in non-boost and many repport more MPG in cruise.
The down side to this is a more pronounced High Gear/Low RPM-Ping problem. I know on the 3.4 when people increase fuel delivery on the top they get more pining in low boost below 3000 RPM when the knock sensors are not used. This is where our timing controller comes in. We pull out just enough timing in that low boost low RPM range to suppress the HG/LR-Ping so you never get the HG/LR-Ping problem.
This has been the main complaint with the supercharged 3.4 and it is most likely why TRD stunted your engines with no boost below 3400 RPM. That just ruins all the benefits from a positive displacement supercharger and makes the car drive like, well, crap.
There is simple way to restore the boost below 3400 RPM like is should be and really make your car feel wonderful when you drive it. It is all about enjoyment. The only downside to this is additional stress on the auto transmission.
I was one of the first to break the tranny in the 3.4 and I know how expensive it can be to fix. I do intend to market a performance upgrade kit for your vehicles at a great price, but you all are really going to need to beef up your tranny or our kit will kill it for sure. Be sure to contact my good friend Pat at www.levelten.com about getting your valve bodies upgraded and be sure to tell him I sent you. You might what to get a group thing going. I got him to do that with the 4Runner/Tacoma guys and he did knock off a bit on the price.
By the time you get your valve bodies done, our kit will be ready for you all. Right now I just need to nail down a final cost on the BAP and we will be ready for the 1999 Supercharged Solara. You all might have to help me with info on the other years Camry and Solaras. I will be honest I do not know the Toyota car line very well. I am a truck guy, but I am sure I can help you have as much fun with your cars as I have been having with my trucks.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Gadget
www.GadgetOnline.com
www.URDUSA.com
- Gadget
