3rz-fe Building for beginners

Alright people, im offering a slippery slope. I may or may not have the dreaded burnt valve (s) issue. Cyl 1, 100psi; cyl 2, 120 with 212,000, quit testing at that. Dreaded cylinder 1 missfire. Got to pull the head to confirm. Got NEW coils, wires, plugs (needed to happen). New fuel pump, regulator, and injectors,( also needed to happen) Any who, i prefer to use these opportunities to get MO POWA. How much can i do, without changing the ecu? Only mods: deck mod on intake(meh), LC long tube headers, 2.5” LC high flow exhaust.

 

There is nothing you can do to add real noticeable power without adding boost. I recently rebuilt (about 15k miles ago) and when I rebuilt it, I did ALOT of things to make mo powa baby!

Bored the cyls out to 98mm from 95, balance shaft delete kit, larger injectors, bored the throttle body to a larger size, blah blah blah. No difference was had. Honestly it felt like more of a dog.... but that's because I put the rebuilt engine into a truck that had 3.58 gears vs the 4.10 gears in the original vehicle


So my advice is just rebuild the head (IF THATS WHATS WRONG WITH IT) and don't worry about more power unless you're willing to throw a turbo or supercharger on it.

Here's a hint from what I've learned on this forum. A turbo is 100% more power adder than a supercharger for the 3rz

 

You probably gained a lot more than you realize.

10% power increase is the "noticeable" difference when it comes to power increases so long as nothing else changes.

400hp needs 40hp to feel any change but 100hp needs only 10hp to feel faster.

4.10 to 3.53 is a *HUGE* difference in gearing.

I had an '00 went from 4:10's that came with it (manual gears) swapped in 4:30 diffs (E locker from an auto trans) and I felt like I was supercharged all of a sudden.

Had you placed you *MO-POWA-BABBEH* motor in the old truck with the 4:10's it should have felt considerably more lively than before.

Gearing makes a huge difference.

 

That's fair, I plan on regearing when I can afford to install a locker. You give me hope that all my work wasn't for nothing

 

But based off what ive read from an overwhelming amount of threads on this forum, I still stand by my statement that any real powa is only noticeable if boost is added

 

Awesome information! I now have a follow up question regarding BOOST. Do you have to do aftermarket ECU, or can the factory be retuned? I’d be looking toward the low boost 5-10psi.

 

You'll find more folks experienced with boost in the Performance and Tuning sub-forum: https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/performance-and-tuning.8/

I haven't been brave enough to add boost myself (and I'm too stubborn to buy premium fuel), but I can tell you the following from my own casual research:

1) LCE makes some complete turbo kits for our trucks. Probably the easiest way to get up and running, and a good reference for what parts you might want, but a complete kit is much more expensive than DIY-ing it.
2) The factory ECU can not be re-tuned.
3) There are several companies that make harnesses to plug in a Haltech computer. Some of those companies also have base maps. Google "Haltech 3RZ" to see what's out there.
4) I think somebody (maybe @Reh5108 ?) told me that you can get away with 5lbs, maybe a bit more, before exceeding the engine management's ability to deliver enough fuel. After that you're looking at injectors, fuel pump, aftermarket computer, etc.

 

I've never done it, but this guy knows boost. Stock ECU is fine for low boost applications

 

I’ve had two different 3RZ trucks, one I turbo’d and the other supercharged. With the turbo, I was able to run 8psi on the stock ecu with pink top injectors and a 190 fuel pump.
With the S/C, I tried to run that same set up and the ecu made it run pretty weird. Lacked power and pinged like fuck under load.

On both trucks, I eventually ran a Megasquirt ecu. I noticed a much bigger improvement putting this on the s/c truck. Way more usable power and responsiveness and no more pinging.

The turbo truck definitely faster and made More horsepower, even with the standalone on the s/c truck. It even made more HP on the dyno than a 5VZ S/C truck I had with 2.2 pulley and 7th injector.

I have build threads for both my 3rz trucks you can search for in here if you want check them out

 

My old turbo truck: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/boostedkas-turbo-3rz-tacoma.435280/

My old S/C truck: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/boostedkas-already-mostly-built-s-cd-single-cab.550170/

If I would have been able to keep the reg cab, I would have put the turbo stuff on it. That would be sic: Turbo'd, geared RC.

 

You can up the piston compression if you don't want to boost. You wouldn't even need to do any other supporting mods other than potentially midgrade or premium fuel depending on how far you increase it by.

You can also port/polish the head.

 

You guys are on a complete different level of knowledge than i am, and i appreciate that you are willing to share that with me. I think boost may be further down the road than id like. I do have to pull the head and hopefully just do a valve job and not have to replace the casting. I dont need another project at the moment. I have an 87 4 runner that i need to complete for my son. Thank you for all you guys know and offer.

 

For just keeping it all motor, I noticed a drivable difference by switching out my injectors to the 01-04 pink tops and pulling off the intake manifold and cleaning all the carbon build up. I did this by spraying oven cleaner in it, letting it soak for a while, then spraying it out with the pressure washer.
I also deleted the EGR system at the same time as all that.

 

If the higher-flow injectors were the magic change, is it safe to assume you also lost some fuel economy?

 

The flow rate is slightly higher with the pinks, however, the ECU will automatically adjust for that change. The truck actually ran more fuel efficient with them because the spray pattern of the pink tops more evenly distributes the fuel into the cylinder than the brown top injectors. So when all motor with stock internals, the change in performance didn't come from added fuel, but instead from more efficient delivery of the fuel.

 

Don't have to for low psi stuff but I'm sure it's beneficial. I've seen talk of a small percentage of 3rz ecus being unlock able but I think it's just talk.

I'm running 5.5 psi and I'm happy with the afr under WOT and banging gears. I feel it gets a little lean when climbing hills and slowly increasing the throttle. I can watch the timing retard and I assume this is due to the ecu detecting knock. I had no clue what I was doing when I first installed my turbo, still not sure I do but it's made it 50k with it so far. Can't wait to add a stand alone. Mine also came with the pink injectors.

Prior to the turbo I installed the LCE headers and felt they made a pretty noticeable difference in the torque curve. Noticed more torque than hp with the turbo as well. It's by no means fast but it's a heavy truck and for sure pulls hills better with it.

 

Apart from 01-04 Tacoma with 3RZ, are there any other cars/engines I can watch for pink tops in when I'm at the junk yard?

 

I would assume the last few years of 3rd gen 4runner probably have the same injectors. Idk if other Toyota vehicles use them as well. I had gotten mine from eBay. They were brand new for ~$100 a few years ago.

 

Actually there was a problem with some of the pink tops....
even tho I have rebuilt set currently in my truck.
I believe the plastic was cracking on some.

If you have the pink ones with the fine spray holes, u may need to run cleaner thru those more often.....or a tank of 10% ethanol every so often......and keep an eye on the plastic housing at the ecm connector.

Denso has a supersede part#....


Toyota Tacoma 2.4 2RZ, 2.7 3RZ, 4-Runner (CA Only) OE Replacement Fuel Injectors (fiveomotorsport.com)

 

So the problem with the pink injectors was related to physical damage / a case issue? If so I wonder if there is a visible sign that would tell someone that the injector was in trouble.