taikowaza

I get my LC engineering bored tb and plenum back today and will post pics. (LCE does not list the 3vze on their website but they will do bores for you if you send them your parts).
Have read that these work best with oversized cams/valves-
I need to educate myself on the way the air flows in the 3vze, if someone can point me in the right direction, I want to study more about cams and valves before committing. Thanks for forwarding a link or PM (I have read quite a bit of discussion but I am looking more for basic principles/fundamentals of how they work)
cheers
T

snap-on

ther isnt much to know about the larger exhaust valve... it allows more axhaust to flow quicker... (i dont know that ive ever seen any flow bench number though if thats what your looking for)

What do you want to know about the cams? duration, lift, all that jaz? those numbers should be floating around as well as the dyno charts to show the new torque curve....

taikowaza

Thanks snap-on-
I'm mostly interested in learning about basics concerning cams...
where they are located in the 3vze, the physics about how they work and why they are effective in creating the curves that I saw in Weasy2k's cams for example. The level of discussion was quite high (altering curves based on shimming diameter etc), and I wanted to read up on the basics to get up to speed. I am sure that I missed a link on this so apologies about that. I am lucky to live close to Weasy and am considering driving up and having him install them (he gave me a great deal)
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by the way, would you do cams before putting on the bored TB and Plenum
or can I put the TB/plen on first while I prepare for the trip up to vancouver
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anything else I should do while having the work on cams done?
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thanks again snap-on!
T

Bill

Well, I'm sure google and automotive books will be more helpful, but I can still throw in my $0.02

Lift: more lift = more room for air to enter. Problem with more lift is that it takes longer for the valves to open and close. This was a big problem in 60's muscle cars. They were putting bigger and bigger valves, and to get them to close fast had to use bigger and bigger springs. The massive spring is hard to open, and were starting to damage seats.

Duration: How long the valve is open. More duration moves the powerband up.

Lobe seperation: distance between the lobe of the intake and the exhaust lobes. Tighter separation makes more highend HP. Lots of overlap isn't good though, it just shoots unburnt fuel/air right through the valves = bad milage, bad emissions and dumps low end torque.

Bumpin' Yota

...until you are on cam, then the engine starts making power!! The cam(s) is(are) essentially the heart of your engine.

too much of any one thing is bad, but in the right combination, its a very very good thing!

OEM cams blow imo...lol As do the valves. Why toyota opted for the tiny valves and ultra conservative cams Ill never know....

taikowaza

OK- here's another question re. cams and valves.
Weasey2k lives close enough to me to have him put on the new cams.
I asked about valves too, but learned that this would entail removing the heads, which equals pretty much another HG job.
my hg were done about 50K ago.

my thoughts- if I have the cams done, I don't want my hg to blow and have to have everything taken apart again...would prefer to do it now.

however, it seems to be running fine now...

what is the SOP for having cams done, do most people also go all the way and have valves and hg done at the same time, or would you recommend just going as far as the cams. (also, are the engnbldr oversized valves necessary or would cams alone be sufficient)

finally- I am going to need shims. apparently we won't know what SIZE shims until after the engine is open. this will add time to the whole procedure as they must be ordered after the fact.

is there any way to tell in advance what kind of shims we'll need in order to have them ready in advance?

Skeeve

The 3vze is a SOHC (single overhead came) engine, so you should be able to just take off the valve covers and replace the cams w/o having to redo the headgasket (score!)

As for how they work, there's entire books written on that topic; I'd suggest the public library, 'cause it's a topic that's a little too involved to go into here...

WRT to the dyno charts that Weasy has posted, they're utter cr@p & (unfortunately) undermine his credibility. ALL dyno charts should have curves that cross @ 5252rpm (due to the formulas involved in converting torque to hp) and the only engines that produce their max torque at 0 rpm are muscle-powered. While I don't doubt Weasy has been able to greatly surpass the performance of the stock cam, I certainly wish he would go to a dyno operator who knew WTF he was doing so that we could get some decent graphs of the difference. BTW, see if you can get that deal for me, too!

WRT the bored TB & plenum: from another post on Yotatech, it seems that the entire intake tract of the 3vze is flawed, so putting on the bored TB & polished plenum can only help. Go ahead and to it now, but do us all a favor, and get a good mpg data point for city driving and another for hwy mileage both before and after the install, and again after installing the cams: that should be very revealing since the better the engine efficiency, the lower the percentage of available power is being used to suck & blow through the intake/exhaust systems...

Ciao!

taikowaza

The LC Engineering bored plenum and throttlebody are on the 3vze, and I drove from Seattle to North Vancouver, ferry to Nanaimo BC for cold water wreck diving, down to Victoria (on Vancouver Island), back to Vancouver on the ferry, and back down to Seattle. I think all in all I drove about 600 miles with them on and off road.

I am really pleased, I have some observations.
-The idle is higher than before, I cannot get it below 1100RPMs. This does not bother me. I am not sure how it will affect the engine. The idle is smooth and strong.

-I need to give more gas to get torque. I can't just slowly open the throttle, I find that my foot needs to be heavier.

-The sound of 'opening up' with the headers and exhaust is a lot bigger. Sounds great.

-There is a lot more available power when I give 'er gas. Low end torque is not spectacular in 1st, but when going up hills in 2nd it is very good. Highway driving has changed too, I can floor it in 5th at 65MPH and have a strong accelleration up to 80. I am really pleased with the LC Engineering job, I am enclosing pics to show you their craftsmanship.

I am in touch with Johnny (Weasey 2K) in Vancouver and I want him to do the cams, shims, water pump and timing belt. My question for the forum is, should I do the head gaskets/valves at the same time? Also, is there any way to tell how stable my bottom end is? Is there a way to test it for stability?

I would not want to have all this work done and then have the HG go on me. =nightmare!

here's the pics. thanks!

chimmike

another important factor with cams is ramp up rate. Basically ramp up is how long it takes for the cam to open the valve fully. Ramp up rate and overlap are extremely important factors. I'd imagine a high lift medium duration cam would work extremely well in the 3vze, minimizing lope but maximizing midrange and upper rpm power without sacrificing power down low.

taikowaza

More pics of the LC Engineering Bored and Ported 3vze Throttle body and Plenum.

Review-
LC was very easy to deal with. I sent them a dirty, used throttle body and plenum pulled from another vehicle while I continued to drive my rig.
What I got back was a beautifully cleaned and matched set that has opened up the mid and high end of the engine. The base idle speed is faster but I like it, and am very happy with this addition to my rig. Thanks LC

Bumpin' Yota

if you dont mind me asking, how much did you spend for both of those?


chimmike - the "weasy2k cams" mentioned here have 0.020" more lift and 262* duration. They seem to work though and induce an ever so slight lump to the idle.

chimmike

Yota, do you have those cams in your 4r? If so I'd like to hear 'em sometime.

I just threw in a K&N Replacement and took off that plastic headlight cover thing.....feels like it breathes better.

Bumpin' Yota

yes and no, the cams are in my heads but the heads are off of the truck. Im just as eager as you are to hear what it sounds like!

chimmike

ahh okay