The Toyota 22r series motor although notoriously reliable, is a real dog at 116hp
stock. Throw on some bigger tires, custom bumpers, a hi-lift and some
gear...and your feeling even fewer of those ponies. Common upgrades in the power
areas are header and exhaust, cam and intake mods. I have done the other two,
sorta, and the header and exhaust gave me some higher RPM power it took away some
low end. I went from being able to take Blow Sand at 3K to 4500....
Requirements:
Because I live in a smog nazi state, California, the cam needed to be 50 state
legal, and provide me with some much needed low end power. Also being a poor
college student price was a big selling point. I wasn't really out looking for
a cam but it sorta landed on me. A buddy of Bumpass' was selling a C270 still
in the box...cheap!Installation:
My engine had been replaced with a rebuilt crate engine from
recon about 10k and a year ago,
so the warranty just ran out...time to mess with it. Because the head gasket
was in good shape I didn't want to replace it. Bumpass talked with Tim at
DOA and he stated that you can put in a cam with out replacing the head
gasket, you just have to be careful. First pull all your spark plugs and
put the Toy in neutral, this will prevent the cylinders from compressing.
Second be sure to drain out all your coolant...if I had only listened...
but I'ma getting ahead of myself.
The install is pretty straight forward, but I'm having trouble remembering how I
did it because I took too damn long to do this write-up. When you pull your head
bolts be sure to inspect them, if they aren't something you want to trust
your engine with replace them (I've heard good things about the ARP replacements
Roger Brown's Review).
Mine were OK. Also be sure to put some cam lube on our cam (makes sense
don't it), and set your valve clearances (To Tim's specs, not the stock ones) before you start
her up.Regrets/Problems?
"Bumpus did I just screw up my head gasket..."
Well if you haven't figured it out I didn't drain my coolant properly (in the block) and
I noticed some green stuff coming out in-between my #3 and #4 spark plug...bad.
So I worried myself sick and decided that I would at least see if I had indeed
disturbed that all mighty gasket. Let's just say I'm glad I drive a Toyota,
I've had no problems with my head gasket in the months since I put the cam in.
But save yourself some grief and do it properly.
Like any performance cam the idle becomes more rough, this is only at idle and
only under 1000RPM. Having a completely shot tranny mount helps prevent my sensitive
posterior from feeling much of this roughness, but the shifters shake more than
before. Just reminds you that you have power now...yeah that's the ticket!
Overall Impression:
This has been a relatively painless and cheap way to squeeze out some more power
from my four pooper. The rough idle has been mild and there was no drop in
gas mileage, but a noticeable mild but much needed increase in torque and horse power.
Another benefit is that the DOA cam is more sensitive
than the stock cam and pointed out to me that there were other things that
needed work, such as out of whack valves, poorly firing injectors and others.
A cam will help but a well maintained well adjusted engine will
benefit more from a after-market cam than a neglected one.
Conclusions:
No it wont turn your 4 pooper into a V8, however because of certain circumstances
I bought a set of 33" tires and I have yet to re-gear (stock 4.10 ratio). I thought
I was gunna hate it, but this cam really shows its worth now. I won't lie she lags,
but its about back to stock 22re, with the header and 2" exhaust and cam.
DOA has been a pleasure to deal with and they really stand behind their products,
definitely a worthwhile investment.Helpful Links DOA's home page Back to Words |