Tuning the Toyota AZ

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Toyota AZ engine!"

The Toyota AZ great bases for a tuning project and with carefully picked mods like remapping, turbo improvements and camshafts you will substantially enhance your driving pleasure.

We shall review AZ tuning and highlight the optimum upgrades.

Just because particular upgrades are appear in lots of AZ projects it doesn't mean it is good, instead we will optimum upgrades that will give your AZ the best power gain for you spend.

Significant gains on the AZ can be made from cam upgrades. Altering the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the bhp and power output.

NB: Fast road camshafts commonly push up the power across the rpm range, you may sacrifice a little low down power but top end will improve.

Race camshafts, push up the top end band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

On a car used daily one should, ideally, try to match your engines power to your driving style.

You will never have ever thought a AZ Motorsport cam is a pleasure to live with when driving around busy urban areas.

Different AZ engines respond better to mild camshaft durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The engine timing and fuel pump and injectors also will make differences on the bhp gains you'll achieve.

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the bhp band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

Stage 1 modifications: Remaps/piggy back ECU, Fast road camshaft, Intake headers, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Panel air filters, Sports exhaust manifold.

Stage 2 modifications: high flow fuel injectors, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam, induction kit, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust.

Stage 3 modifications: Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Twin charging conversions, Competition cam, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression.

The AZ power trains are great to work on and thanks to their popularity there is a growing number of parts and tuning parts about.

Mapping will help fully realize the full potential of all the modifications you've fitted to your AZ.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but your results often depend much on the modifications you've applied and the condition of your engine.

It is the aim to any performance tuning job to get fuel and air into your AZ

Air Intake manifolds carry the air from the intake filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders.

Structure and flow characteristics of the Headers can make a large effect on to fuel engine efficiency on the AZ.

Commonly we find the air intake manifolds are ripe for an upgrade, although some car makers provide reasonably well designed air intake manifolds.

Increasing the AZ valve size, getting port work and head flowing will also increase torque, this will give you a greater torque increase on other modifications.

Turbo upgrades

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your AZ

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes significant power gains.

If your motor has forced induction upgrades are more reliable and most turbo engines use better components.

However most engines have limits

Discover these limits and fit forged components to cope with the power.

We've seen people spending a lots of money on turbo upgrades on the AZ only to suffer the humiliation of seeing the engine block explode on it's first outing after it's been enthusiastically driven.

Bigger capacity turbo units commonly experience low end lag, and smaller turbo units spool up really quickly but do not have the high rpm engines power gains.

In recent times the range of turbo units is always evolving and we now see variable vane turbo units, allowing the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end performance.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust gases into a couple of channels and flow these at differently profiled vanes in the turbocharger. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

You'll commonly see there is a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the AZ when considerably more air is being drawn into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting bhp at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large torque gains, although more challenging to configure. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Fuelling upgrades and mods

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so should increase the fuelling when you start extending past 20% of a torque increase.We would recommend you to be generous with your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when buying an injector, helps cope with injector deterioration and gives a bit of spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Exhaust upgrades and mods

Only look to upgrade your exhaust if the current exhaust is actually creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll see your flow rate is ok even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Please dont run with the largest exhaust you can find you'll slow the exhaust rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Typically exhaust restrictions are traced to the filters installed, so adding a faster flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Weak spots, Issues & common problem areas on the AZ

The AZ engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the AZ, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

The 2AZ-FE engine in the 2007-2009 Camry may burn excessive oil

History of the Engine

1AZ-FE

  • 145hp @6000 rpm 140 lbft  @4000 rpm

1AZ-FSE

  • 147hp 145 lbft of torque @4000 rpm

2AZ-FE

  • 160 hp @5600 rpm 162 lbft @4000 rpm
  • 158 hp - 170 hp Later versions were revised and had higher power outputs.

2AZ-FSE

  • 161 hp @5800 rpm 170 lbft @3800

2AZ-FXE

  • 211 hp @6000 rpm 190 lbft @4400rpm

For more information on Tuning your AZ engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our AZ owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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