suprathepeg

Well after much consideration I've decided to try and build the 3.0 for more power. I thought about a 3.4 swap and even a 3vzfe swap but the time and money involved was more then I was willing to invest. I've talked to a lot of folks about this and most of them seem to think I'm crazy, likely they are right. So don't bother with the "why waste you time"s and the "why not swap any other engine on the planet"s cause I've commited to this and I'm gonna see how it goes.

There is a lot of good info out there on these engines, the trick is finding it. I've come accross everything from DOA to turbo/SC 3.0s and even a lot of blown HG 3.0s. Some interesting things have come up though and I plan on trying pretty much all of them. There unfortunately nobody that offers a complete package other then DOA and thats unfortunate cause there are a lot of these things in runners and trucks flyin around.

My goal is to hit 200-220 hp under the stock redline of about 6k. I think I can do it for under $3000 and only time will tell I guess. IF in the end all I get is 200 then I'll be happy. I plan on doing almost everything one step at a time and taking it to the dyno each time I add something to get the "real world" numbers for each addition. Thankfully I have a deal with a local shop with a dyno, so it won't cost me an arm and a leg to get it all done.

There are some fairly obvious flaws in the 3.0 that make people shy away from them such as: Poor HGs, Burnt #5&6 exhaust valves and generally hot exhaust temps. I hope to fix all of these in my build and will try to show some numbers for that as well.

Here is my laundry list of mods/parts in relatively the order I plan on doing them:

Phase 1: Fresh rebuilt mill with performance heads. Gonna use EB's valves and have a good P&P done, I'm pretty confident that these will not dissapoint as even the most staunch anto 3.0 guys have said they work out well.

Phase 2: Freeflowing exhaust. I'm gonna leave the stock manifolds on for now and have a custom 2.25-2.5 progressive setup with a 2.25 Y fabricated. I'm really testing the theory of how effective headers really are compaired to just a crossover elimination. Depending on how this goes I may install headers at then end of my build. I wanna see another 30-35HP at this point.

Phase 3: Cams, there has been a lot of contension as to the effectiveness of cams on the 3.0. I'm gonna be a tester for sea2sky tuning so I wont have to invest in them if they don't work out. They are claiming 20-30hp with these cams so if they work out then I should be at my goal already, if not then soldier onward (as if I'd stop there anyway ).

Phase 4: Intake. I might be chasing a chicken here but it seems to me that the plenum is fairly restrictive and unbalbnces. Meaning that cyl 1&6 are a little starved for air, so I'm gonna port it and build a bigger air chamber for it to see what that does. I'm hoping for better throttle response, a smoother powerband and hopefully a little better milage.

Phase 5: Ignition. I'm gonna try and modify the stock for longer dwell, if this doesn't work out then I'll likely get the jacobs unit.

Phase 6: Tuning. Likely I'll use a SMT7 piggyback unit. We'll see how it works out. I wanna get the ignition advance and air fuel map all done up to see what I have.

Kinda long list I know. I hope to have it all done in the next year with phase 1 being done by the end of Feb. Sometime during all this I'll have to find the time to install the locker, LSD and gears I have sitting here.

So far I got the core all torn appart and at the machine shop, EB's valves came in the mail today . So the heads should be done soon.

Only thing I came accross that I'd say you should all look out for is the cam sproket bolts. These are killer to get out so expect some serious work there. Or you can be lazy like me and take them to the machine shop with the heads and have them do the dirty work.

4x4Lamm

Go for it!

BTW, whats the SMT7 piggyback unit? Can you post me a link. All I know of is the standard JET chip.

Lamm

suprathepeg

Talk to weasy2k about the SMT product. He is a perfect power dealer.

tc

Looking forward to seeing progress on this. There have been people on here talking about each of these projects separately, but seems to be little progress, and noboy has had the foresight to integrate them all together. Would be great to have the final step be one of node's turbos...

Weasy2k

The SMT6 would be the way to go for your basic "upgrade tuning" SMT7 would be a bit overkill.

What it does is intercept some signals that your stock ecu gets from the sensors and tricks it into thinking its "in control" when really you are

In essence what i am going to be doing is taking the stock V6 with my Cams, installing a wideband o2 sensor (you wont generaly have to do this if you wanted it because ill be selling these with base maps that will work right off the bat), and testing the air fuel ratio of the truck + timing. I will then modify those values with the SMT6 with the help of a dyno and see what kind of power i can pull from this engine.

I will then retune the truck with 94 octane and see how much power i can gain with that (im estimating roughly 15-20 going from 87 octane to 94).

Who knows! Ill be working with suprathepeg in regards to the cam aspect

Silver_Truck

I hate to break it to you because its great to see others building their 3.0s but I have EB's valves, P&P heads and upper and lower intake manifolds/plenums, ISR, headers and full 2.25" exhaust and I highly doubt I'm getting anywhere near 200 horse, yes the cams will add a good amount along with tuning and ignition but I'm probably sitting happily at around 160 with all that. Although I'd love to get on dyno to test that and see what I'm at.

Weasy2k

Its also how it is all done and the dyno will tell

suprathepeg

I'm sure your getting a lot more the 10hp over stock, unless you've got something else wrong. Get that thing on a dyno and I be you get 150 at the wheels almost at the mark.

Weasy2k

Im thinking of water injection too...that will help push my timing marks.....hrmmmm

phorensic

You can spend a lot less money and time and get more hp by going FI, whether it be s/c or turbo. I'm hoping to hit 200hp@crank after $1K in parts. And the sky is the limit after that. For such crappy flowing heads, your gains are going to be minimal N/A. Boost tends to...uhhh fix that. Bad flowing head you say? FORCE the air though it, lol. And no matter how much you port and polish, you still won't get the gains that a well flowing head can get (3s, 7m, 2jz, etc).

Might want to contact TRD and ask them what they did to Ivan Stewarts 3.0 to get a lot of power N/A. But I garuntee you they had more than $10K into that motor.

That said, let's see a dyno from your finished N/A screamer. I would suggest a redline higher than 6K also.

Silver_Truck

I'm hoping to sometime soon...maybe Wattora will do another dyno day this year, the problem is dyno time is dam expensive and there aren't many around here. I always hoped I was making more then that but the fact that even regeared with 34s my truck isn't as quick as it was with stock gears and 29s makes me feel like I'm not making that much more power because obviously its not enough to offset the extra rotating weight etc. Please do it though, don't get me worng get some numbers and give me a goal to work towards I'm really interested in seeing those cams and the following numbers because they sure sound good!

Weasy2k

Yea going FI is great as well...im doing what im doing for people who want to keep there trucks relitivly stock...less work involved...
Thats for my 2 products of course.

My plan is to have a whole complete kit with the smt6 for the 3vz-e that will include a high octane map and a low octane map...

suprathepeg

I have nothing against FI in an engine that was designed for it, nor do I think it sholdn't be done to the 3vze. If you want to properly force air into this engine it will not be as cheep as the cheepest parts you can find, especially if its a DD. I would consider a SC with 6# after all that I already plan to do to my engine, the biggest key there being either a piggyback or stadalone and some serious tuning. The goal here is dependability.

I have heard of more then a few guys who added the TRD charger and when they started adding boost without investing in the proper "add-ons" and other upgrades and shortly killed a perfectly good 3.4. Thats with a known solid engine and a SC that is designed for that engine. Boost is no doubt fun, but nothing performance is cheep.

pullnshoot25

Dude, I want to see some smog legal mods to this engine. As of right now, I have headers, free flow exhaust and a K&N air filter, and I am probably only bumping 160-170 or so (so my brother and his friends have told me).

5VZ rods would be good to add to the 3VZ engine to help strengthen it. Look at some of the prerunner trucks that have built engines, they are pretty badass.

Toysrme

Which is where cams come in.
Despite the 2vz-fe & 3vz-e's having cross-over pipes.

Headers have proven time & timea gain to be nearly useless on N/A Toyota v6's. 10bhp from headers nearly across the board. That's whatnon bosoted 1mz-fe's always made, 3vz-fe's made, it's what I figure you 3vz-e's make despite the crossover pipe. I know you truck guys swear by your intake mods, us car guys do not. When it comes to the cars, you can bearly gain 3-5bhp in *peak* power with any intake mod. (The stock for cars is already CAI)
The same goes for the exhaust. Minus our y-pipe, the entire rest of the exhaust system just isn't a restriction. Cat-back is a joke like intake mods. Lotta noise, no performance.
Porting & polishing the intake. Most EGR Toyota's loose 5-10bhp about 9-12 months from being cleaned. P&P'ing the intake doesn't give gains, it just re-gains lost *stock* power.

So no. I know you don't have close to 200bhp too, but I also know you shouldn't fret with what you have done. I bet your power @ 5000rpm is much higher - which is where the 3vz-e has a huge drop-off.
Those mods would do a lot more with more rpm avalible.



The biggest trick in modding Toyota's v6's, regardless of what kind it is, is to mod is "smart". Most "common" things just don't do crap compaired to what they do with other engines & that get's many people in trouble.
They go looking for 25bhp by doing an intake, and cat-back exhaust, or other little things & it just doesn't work like that!!!

Bumpin' Yota

also bookmarked!

Silver_Truck

I kind of question this, wouldn't giving it a good cleaning regain back to stock power and P&P add more on top of that I have everything out of my intake other then the egr but thats currently disconnected just not completely removed which will be done soon. My intake &TB are nearly spotless and my manifold is still shiny (there are some deposits) almost a year after doing the work.

Epic Ed

I think you're insane, but I'm rootin for ya. I'll offer a shoulder to cry on when you're smacking yourself in the junk with a rubber mallet screaming "WHY, WHY, WHY!!!!!! didn't I do the 3.4 swap!?!?!"

Ed

Weasy2k

See people think P&P will give you more HP....and when they dont see more HP they spaz...Toysrme said it when he mentioned that you will have MORE power up top...infact who knows where you are at that point you could have gained 15-20hp...but not at the PEAK. Its not always about PEAK hp its about getting a usable power band as well. Who gives a rats ass if you got 700hp but only usable form 3-4k rpm...wow i will kick your ass with my 300hp engines that has the power and torque avalible from 3-7k rpm.

P&P opens the door to other mods to complement it...IE Cams....
The huge fall off we see in stock dyno runs shows the need for more flow...wiether it be head work or aftermarket cams.

phorensic

It's huge alright. Looks like Niagra Falls.