hey guys long time watcher first time emailer. I love the work you guys are doing and was wondering if you had any advice on what type of turbo works best in my 89 Camry?? Thanks and keep up the awesome work.
Sincerely yours
– Cake Jaffa
Dear Jafa Cake
First I want to say thanks for the support and let me also say although Jaffa Cakes might be good, ginger snaps are the way to go!
Okay – after much thought I have narrowed the type of engine in your car to be either: an 1S-FE, if you have a 1.8L.; a 3S-FE, if your car is a 2.0L.; or, if you are lucky enough to have the V6 model, you have the 2VZ-FE. Unfortunately, regardless of which of the three engines you have it should not be turbo charged. I know there are people on the internet that insist that if done properly you can turbo these engines. But unless you have a deep understanding of engine rebuilding and are completely familiar with the intricate science that is turbo charging I would not go down this road for one simple reason: Toyota designed these engines for economy. We know this because of the letter ‘F’ in each of the engine codes explained in detail below. In Toyota’s case the ‘F’, oddly, stands for “Economy Narrow Angle Valve” and when you consider adding a turbo charger to an ‘F’ series engine it means one of the main components inside your engine (your valve train) was just not designed for power. So if you do turbo charge such an engine your chance of catastrophic engine failure is huge! Oh, and just to make sure we’re all clear, a catastrophic engine failure occurs when the larger pieces inside of your engine decide they no longer like the job they have been given and do something else – like destroying all the other pieces inside of your engine. Therefore because your engine never had any sporting potential to begin with I do not think you should give it some 20 years later.
However, if you are anything like me, the thought of not being able to do something is aggravating. So I did a little more thinking and came up with two options to make your ride go a little faster.
The first and cheapest idea: Use Nitrous Oxide!
That’s right, the crazy go-go juice from the FAST AND THE FURIOUS! I have never installed this stuff before, so I can’t give you the complete low-down. But from what I understand you can boost your horsepower by about 50 ponies for only about $400. Which is a sizable amount of power for a very cheap price. Also, because you do not run Nitrous all of the time you might be able to prolong the life of your engine longer than you would with a turbo. And if you do happen to grenade it you can always take off the Nitrous kit and put it on another car – which is almost impossible to do with a turbo. Then there’s the best reason to get Nitrous: to get girls! For you see, I have given this quite a bit of thought, and have decided that because there is so much mystery and adventure surrounding this strange power-producing-gas, girls who like mystery and adventure will surely think you are a very desirable person and want to give themselves up to you just to be a part of the danger that is Nitrous. I think it’s the bad-boy image thing they like so much. So from this aspect I would run out and get a kit right now! However, back in the real world, nitrous is only good for a blast of an extra 50 horsepower from time to time and if you still want a truly fast car there is one more option that will make you hard to touch on the street while making the ladies never want to touch you…
The second and most expensive idea: Swap the engine!
One of the engine types that fits into your car is a 3S-FE… the ‘3S’ part of your engine code stands for “Third Generation” of an ‘S’ block (3S). Now excuse me while I go back to school on this one and dust off the old “If / Then hypothesis”
IF you car has a 3S block THEN finding another engine that uses a 3S block should fit right in because tuner wisdom states: “If you have different engines with similar blocks the engine should fit into a similar car without too much problem.” Now armed with that wisdom there is one engine that fits the bill, the 3S-GTE from a 1990 MR2, which just so happens to be already turbo’d! What luck! However, before you start looking for 3-SGTE engines on E-Bay, let me warn you, Cody, Chim Chim and I have been putting an engine into a truck using the same tuner logic I just explained to you. Our block numbers are the same, both blocks are VG30’s, and both engines are fuel injected. The only difference is the original engine is a VG30D and the engine we are swapping is a VG30DE. Which, using tuner logic, should be a walk in the park…. and when we finally finish the show on the swap you can see just how wrong we where. Here’s a sneak preview of what you can expect: To do the swap we have custom fabricated: a hybrid transmission / full custom headers and exhausts / a complete custom intake manifold / custom heater hoses / modified engine mounts and the engine wiring harness. Which, really, is not a huge deal – if you have two months, a welder, a fully-stocked shop and several engine swaps already under your belt. But otherwise it is HELL and not something I would recommend to a beginner. So yes while tuner wisdom states that your Camry can have its very own 3S-GTE engine; NV8 wisdom will tell you to be very, very careful.
Now lets say you do decide to swap the engine, get it running and then find out that you’re car is very fast. That would be great, right? Right. The problem is adding raw power to cars tends to bring out their weaknesses. True, some of these problems could be remedied by simply adding better brakes or stiffer suspension or welding reinforcements in the engine bay or going whole-hog and re-welding every joint in the entire car (known as stitch welding) all just so your car can handle all of its new power. But now your “simple” engine swap has turned into the complete fabrication of a hardcore racecar. Ouch. Not exactly what you signed up for.
And that’s not all, these new power problems are also magnified when the build includes a front-wheel-drive platform (such as yours) because, unlike a rear-wheel-drive car where the front tires only have to steer the wheels, the tires in a front-wheel-drive car have to steer the car and handle an extra 100 horsepower coming from the engine. Do the math on that and it should come as no surprise that when you work the front end that much harder you’re just asking for trouble.
And another thing to be very careful about is the Chick Factor. Girls don’t like engine swaps. Not because they don’t understand the need for speed but because they’ll never see you – you’ll always be in the garage and believe me, you will be. But girls aside, the real problem is once you’ve invested so much time and effort into going fast, speed is no longer simply an opportunity to scare your passenger. It becomes a state of mind in which you understand how much work it takes to achieve great speeds and, conversely, how little time it takes for you to loose not only your hard work but also your life. And for whatever reason, even though you understand the dangers, you still must press on, pushing you and your car to the limit… you know, as I write this I cannot help but think that if I were a chick I would stay away from these nutballs too.
So there you have it Mark. If you want to go a little faster and increase your chick average get Nitrous. And, if you want your car to last for years, put the Nitrous in your car and never use it! However, if you have a deep love for your car, are willing to forgo romance, are ready to spend way too much time in the garage and want to completely thrash your bank account – go for it dude – do the engine swap….!