new guy, first performance upgrade?

[claytongozoom]

hello fellow enthusiasts, pleasure to post with you all. i just got a 07 spec pckg tc(5spd) about a week ago and am planning on getting some new wheels(lighter alloys) and tires for the summer and keep my stock steels for winter. in your culminated opinion what would be a good starting modification/part(s) to install? keep in mind that i'm not planning on an end-result rocket on wheels, just trying to get some more power out of the girl, i'd like to top out at about 250-300hp when all is said and done. thanks guys.

[ForBiddeN]

250-300 hp is a rocket lol. your looking at a supercharger kit or a turbo kit if your wanting that much power. just go with the flow get your intake and exhost and so on and so forth.

[claytongozoom]

haha, you don't know the people i do, that's not that fast. thanks man, probably going to do an exhaust first, now the research begins! suggestions would be helpful, try and leave out the TRD one though, i've heard from pretty much everybody that's it's over-priced

[tbull0488]

if u want to get easy horsepower for the least amount of money .. your first 3 basic mods are a lighter pulley (which adds 10 horse and 11 ft. lbs.), then ur cold air intake (roughly 6 hp in the tc), and an exhaust (about 6-10 hp depending) .. vividracing.com has some great upgrades to search by car including the pulley i already ordered.. only had my car for about a week

and as far as 250-300 hp goes ... ur guna need a supercharger or a turbo off the bat .. i saw a turbo in one of my car mags for the scion that kicks it up to 300 hp off the bat .. but its also 5200 dollars .. u put 300 hp in a scion and ur guna be scootin pretty damn fast ...

take it one step at a time just make sure ur havin the installs done correctly

[ForBiddeN]

Originally Posted by tbull0488

if u want to get easy horsepower for the least amount of money .. your first 3 basic mods are a lighter pulley (which adds 10 horse and 11 ft. lbs.), then ur cold air intake (roughly 6 hp in the tc), and an exhaust (about 6-10 hp depending) .. vividracing.com has some great upgrades to search by car including the pulley i already ordered.. only had my car for about a week

and as far as 250-300 hp goes ... ur guna need a supercharger or a turbo off the bat .. i saw a turbo in one of my car mags for the scion that kicks it up to 300 hp off the bat .. but its also 5200 dollars .. u put 300 hp in a scion and ur guna be scootin pretty damn fast ...

take it one step at a time just make sure ur havin the installs done correctly

ive never seen a intake add 6hp i saw 1 that would add up to 5 on a nice day. and ive seen cat backs add up to 12hp.

[chicotunner07]

simple pulleys will not under any circumstances add 10 horses, 2 maybe, not even, unless u have dyno charts to prove this, i call BS, as for CAI/header?exhaust combined, ur looking at roughly 15-18 HP max "on a good day" thats as far as simple bolt ons will take you, unless u go with bolt on SC, or turbo set up

[tbull0488]

ok well vividracing.com shows an increase of 10 hp on the dyno so feel free to look it up

[claytongozoom]

alright guys, no need to argue here, we're getting off the subject. first thing i'm going to end up doing is letting the car breathe and prepare for any other engine upgrades by adding a new exhaust and header. as far as pulleys go, i'm looking into the supercharger rather than the turbo, so i'll burn that bridge when i see what pulley ships with the SC kit, i believe it'll be overall better for the engine and even sport compact picked it as their upgrade of choice over any turbo available for the car. thank you for the link tbull, it's been very helpful in my research.

[navylife59]

ZPI lightweight crank pulley, NST lightweight pulley, TRD S/C with ZPI 9PSI pulley, nology wires, dc sports headers, TRD axleback, Megan s-pipe, Greddy Ultimate, and a Jotech tune equals 228.4WHP 190.6TQ

[Imagin]

1st. DO NOT run the lightened crank pully. Toyota spent millions to get that right, you can gain power elsewhere (if you want to do the same thing, and be MUCH safer, swap the flywheel) Please DO NOT get the pully. Check www.yoursciontc.com theres a good 15 page discussion on Crank Pulleys

2nd. Stick to the basics, for first mods. intake, header, exhaust. I think the stock tC has too much body roll, so look into suspension and sway bars. And if ur keepin ur stock rims, puttin some better rubber on it. Past that its ur tC, live up to the motto and "make it your own"

[navylife59]

The crank pulley dampner and the weighted flywheel work in conjuction with crankshaft counter-balance weights to balance the entire rotating assembly on a standard motor. The dampner portion of the crank pulley is there to absorb the excess vibrations caused by poor machining/balancing work. This had been standard engine build practices of the Dodge, Ford, and GM. That is why their motors needed to be rebuilt by 80-100K miles.

Everyone knows that Toyota engineers their products to take the abuse and last a very long time. Just as in most in-line motors, especially side facing motors, there are balancing shafts that run in tandem with the rotating assembly either by belt, chain, or gear. The latter being the most balanced system, minimal slack, which so happens to be the method for the 2AZ-FE. Asian products are meticulously engineered, machined, and balanced motors. These companies have long known that vibration causes fretting corrosion. This why they put so much effort in balancing a motor. Simple, it will last longer.

As far as going with the light weight pulley on the 2AZ-FE, I don't see a problem. The motor is internally balanced with 2 balance shafts driven directly from a ring gear on the forged steel crankshaft. The dampner on the OEM pulley is very small and just there as an extra measure of safety. Running a high quality synthetic oil can absorb some of the excess harmonic vibrations that may occur at high RPM, at redline or even higher. How many times are you going to be hitting the REV limiter?

I take very good care of my car; more than most would ever think of. I do, however, push my car to the limits often. I have hit the redline more times than I care to. My ZPI crank pulley has been on since the Fall of 2005. My motor runs smooth, no vibrations, and the oil is always clean.

I don't know what problems others may have been experiencing. I do know that there was a small segment of motors that had improperly machined rod/crank journals that spun bearings. This had nothing to do with balancing. I posted my setup just to give claytongozoom an idea of what mods will net him power wise. My exhaust, PSI, and engine management are about to change.

[claytongozoom]

thanks navylife. you know your stuff no doubt man. now, my question to you and others is, have you tried any sort of short-throw shifter assembly or dropped any kind of different shifting mechanism into your Tc? I've been driving the car solid for the last 2 weeks and have to say there is a lot of play between the gears, i would really prefer to change this in the future, any thoughts suggestions. as always thanks guys, your experience and knowledge is always helpful

[navylife59]

Keep your seat moved forward further than normal to help in the clutch throw. A shorty shifter is definately a better deal. I have the TRD that works fine, but I don't think that it gives the quickest shift out there. I plan on giving mine a slight bend towards the radio to bring the geometry forward away from the center armrest that my elbow keeps smacking on 2nd.

[heyitspenji]

how fast is your car pulling to the wheel. i was just lookin at all your mods and my mouth drop`d. aha. keep it up.

[monkeyzz510]

im new to this but if u get headers does it make it smog legal?
and does intake and exhaust also?

[navylife59]

Change the header and your removing the factory cat, technically making your emissions illegal. I am willing to bet that just with the secondary cat you can still pass emissions testing and can argue with the inspection station that you have a cat in your system. Some of those bubbas out there don't even know what a 3-way cat system is. The are a couple of aftermarket headers out there with a cat in them.

[claytongozoom]

they just did away with emissions testing here in NE ohio

[ZiontC]

Have you looked into a nitrous kit?? Check out his guys 1/4mile time with a 55 shot of nitrous and compare it with any superchared tC 1/4mile time. Clicky clicky VS. TRD s/c and s/c with pulley