Celica Forums General Discussion Engine and Performance 1zz cams FINALLY!

crower said the cams arnt done yet and wont ship till wensday now makes me mad because johnsGT already got his installed

that sux.

you will need an air compressor to get the cam sprocket off/on correctly. you'll have to tape up the first hole on the cam and then blow the air in. this lifts a locking pin that will release the cam. if you DONT do this you wont get it off. and if you dont get it right when you re-install it, you wont have VVT any more

other then that it isnt too hard.

What stage did you get?

stage 1 because i just lookin for a little better take off, n/a


i have all the tools i need compressor (my dad is a mechanic by trade) and we have a hot rod/custom business, just when it comes to doing something spefic id never done before i get a lil nervous, im sure it will be fine though.

when i work with chevy 350's a such they are such simple beasts you cant really mess anything up, but the celi is different and i just dont wanna screw up so i ask the pros (aka, lucky) when i get to do the install you might have to give me ur cell number or sumthin, haha i might need help.

heres a picture of john's ...

here's stock ones ...

WOW!!!!! Nice...that doesn't look too bad at all...did he install themor did he have a shop do it or what????

We, meaning a few guys from my team did it. Lucky, Illusive, and Smaay from another site.

yeah, they looked good. my digi cam seems to be dyin on me so the first pic didnt come out too good. in the sunlight the screen washes out for some reason

im doin stage 1 so i can use all the stock springs a retainers, so i dont have to remove the head right?

^^ yup.

well shit/...so all one really needs to do is pop open the valve cover, take out the other cams, put the new ones in and make sure everything is timed right???? I've never done an import, but I've lended a hand in a couple of chevy 350 buildups...

Lucky/John... Could you maybe write an install on this?

Also any dynos yet?

^^^ yeah for real

well it helps to have a toyota vehicle manual. it has the whole install already in there including all the torque specs lol

but I guess when I do mine in a lil bit I could maybe take some pics and write something up for you guys lol

and I'm uploading a short video clip of his car at idle. it sounds so freakin smooth. better then brand new even. if you didnt look at the intercooler or under the hood you'd swear the car was stock. you don't hear that typical valvetrain "tick".

we added the mwr springs/valves and cams. should be ready in a few minutes.

I will have dynos for you guys shortly

nice! cant wait, my cams finally supposedly got shipped out today


... how much is the toyota manual? or can i get it in pdf version ??

I dunno. I stole my teamates lol

thank god we have controlled inertia...and easyc

anyways mike or john: how long did it take you to install the cams? I have never ever done anything like this at all. Just curious to how long it took you

hard to say since we did the valves/springs too. so the whole engine was removed.

imma set asside the whole day, granted it wont take that long, but i dont feel like droping anything down there and having to remove the whole head, hehe

alright well thats cool...

still its great having you guys here

congrats to all of you fellas...I already have the MWR hardware am just gonna be looking to change the cams out. BTW John or Mike...yeah it sounds smooth...but did you notice anything performance wise from the cams???? or are you just gonna wait and dyno it...

I just got done looking at the tech manual under the gallery section and WOW!!!!! Its gonna take me an entire DAY (making sure I really pay attention to detail)...it doesn't look like you have to remove the engine in order to just do the camshafts...or the crank pulley or anything like that...should be cool...for John, mike or illusive,...Am I right in that you don't have to remove the entire engine if you don't want to (I don't have a hoist and have never taken the engine out of my celica...very scary...and I am avoiding it altogether if I can help it)...I'll probably just take off the hood and head cover to do them...and of course the timing cover to get to the timing chain...it looks pretty straight forward, especially since I don't have to remove the head to do it...

I got mine apart including takin pics and measuring all the shims in 2 hours last night. and no, I didnt remove the motor.

wow...way to go man...sounds good...

I haven't actually taken it for a spin yet. Currently the strut is broken, we are waiting on the piece in the mail to fix the strut. It should be here today or tomorrow at the latest. I will update how it feels once we fix the strut.

OMG crower said they'd deffenity have it shiped out on wed, and now their saying they arnt done yet?? wtf bs john's got his installed


and i cant get through to Brian, all i wanna do is talk to him jeez, imma have a stroke if i dont start gettin some straight info from them!!!



... soryy i had to vent im on hold with them, as i have been for the past half hour

finally they got someone to go check shipping and i guess it has been sitting out there waiting to be shipped!!!

so anyways they guarenteed me that it would be going out today for sure!

i hope so

you need to check valve clearance also with the new cams installed and make sure the gap is within spec, that can be found on a sticker under your hood :bow:

theres a specific pattern you need to follow when removing the cam bridges, since toyota cams are hollow you can actually break the cam if removed improperly,

theres also a retorq pattern and 2 different torq specs one for the main bridge that crosses both cams and another for the individual bridges for i/e

there is also an easy trick to use for putting the cams back on with out having to pull the timing chain tensioner, but I'm not going to tell anyone that unless your a VERY experienced mechanic becuase if you do not know what you are doing you WILL break the timing chain slipper and that will require pulling the engine to fix.

I always think of certain someone who broke the slipper the first time he tried it lol

I don't like to risk it so I just pull the tensioner out.

sucks that it happened but its good that we all learned from his experience

W00t!!! my cams are in and they are prety!, i will take some pics tomorrow when i get home from school before i put them in.

very nice

I hope you do a before/after dyno

^^^^^ yeah for real

^^^ i meant i have them now, im not gunna put them in till tomorrow...


LUCKYYY I NEED URHELP MAN!!!

heheh i'll fly you up here first class and you can put them in for me ghegheheheh


anyways wish me luck

before and after dyno please...btw...what are your mods now so that if you don't dyno we can get an idea...

I can do that hehe.

well then get on it fellas

im about half way done, im just having trouble gettin the cams out with the sprockets still atached, i dont wanna fuck up the timing, so i might wait for lucky to log on later tonight...

besides me doubting myself it has been easy

1) bring up to TDC
2) remove vave cover
3) verify that the TDC is on the compression stroke and dots match on cam sprockets
4) remove cam berring cap bolts
5)remove chain tensioner
6) remove cam shaft assemblies (where im stuck)!
7)
8)...

it's just a few bolts holding the cams in, what's got you stuck ?

just wondering how safe are aftermarket cams?does anything else in the motor need to be modified to have camshaft?I have a injen sri.any probs on running it on a stock motor and especially for a daily driver..?thanks

FUCK YES! it's in and feels awesome, im auto and now it revs almost to redline before shifting!

wooot ill givve it like a week before dyno so the ecu will get ahold of the new item

stage 1 or 2?

I think he got stage 1.

since silvaceli dyno'd his gt auto with exhaust @ 110whp i'm thinking with intake and cams you'll be around 120-ish...any bets?

111!!! What now. I am hoping he reaches 130 whp But regardless any improvement is a big improvement when its that low.

i still say 120-ish...but the peak hp is not what matters...i want to see how it improved the power curve...if all is well i may think about going n/a when/if i get an mr-2 instead of a 2ZZ swap