Tuning the Toyota 1ZR

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Toyota 1ZR engine!"

The Toyota 1ZR offer good returns when tuned and with the best performance mods like a remap, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will greatly enhance your driving enjoyment.

In this article we examine 1ZR tuning and show the optimum upgrades.

When talking about the best greatest for your 1ZR engine, we are going to focus on the upgrades that give the best power gain for you spend.

The cam profile plays a big part in the engines power output so cam upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake & exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen cam profile, so large bhp gains are on offer for cam upgrades.

NB: Fast road camshafts normally push up the torque through the rev band, you may sacrifice a little bottom end power but higher rpm power will be lifted.

Motorsport and race camshafts, push up the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

In a daily driver must carefully try to match your torque band to your cars usage.

I'd be gobsmaked if you have ever thought a 1ZR Motorsport and race cam is a pleasure to live with when in heavy traffic.

Each engine responds better to mild camshaft durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The ECU mapping and fuel pump and injectors also have a large bearing on the bhp gains you'll make.

Longer valve 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.

Best 1ZR Tuning Modifications & Upgrades

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

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

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

A remap will help release the full potential of all the upgrades you've fitted to your 1ZR.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the end result often vary depending on the upgrades you've fitted and the condition of your engine.

Shoving more fuel and air into the 1ZR engine is the aim to any engine modification job.

The intake plenum transmit the air from the air filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders.

Design and rate of flow of the Intake manifold can make a big difference to to fuel delivery on the 1ZR.

On popular production engines headers are in desperate need of motorsport parts, although some manufacturers provide reasonably well designed headers.

Fitting big valve kits, doing some port work and head flowing will also improve bhp, & more importantly will afford you increasing the bhp increase on other parts.

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 1ZR

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

When your car is fitted with a turbo upgrades are relatively easy and turbo charged engines are built with many forged and stronger components.

However you'll find engines will need better parts at higher power limits

Discover these limits and install better pistons and crank to cope with the power.

It's not unheard of tuners spending a lots of money on turbo charger upgrades on the 1ZR only to watch the engine block catastrophically fail soon after it's been completed.

Large capacity turbochargers commonly suffer a bottom end lag, and smaller turbochargers spool up really quickly but won't have the peak end power band gains.

Thanks to progress the range of turbochargers is always increasing and we commonly find variable vane turbochargers, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

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

It is not unusual that there's a restriction in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the 1ZR when loads more air is being drawn into the engine.

We note 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 performance gains, although more complex to get working. 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 need to pay attention to the fuelling when you start exceeding 20% of a bhp and torque increase.It makes sense to be generous with your injectors flow rate.

As a rule of thumb add 20% capacity when fitting an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and provides some spare capacity should the engine require 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

You may need to replace your exhaust if the existing exhaust is actually causing a restriction.

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

Sports exhausts can help increase the flow of air through the engine.

But if the exhaust pipe is too big, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of your flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Common exhaust restrictions are in the filters installed, so adding a freer flowing high performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Weak spots, Issues & common problem areas on the 1ZR

The 1ZR engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the 1ZR, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended. High oil consumption is an issue on higher mileage engines, always use the correct grade of oil or you will be asking for trouble.

Water pump leaks although uncommon do happen and high engine temps are generally down to a faulty or worn water pump, these typically last around 4 years and should be replaced.

The throttle body will get dirty and throttle position sensors are known to fail, these typically manifest themselves as a rough idle.

The timing chain tensioner can rattle and knock which is a sign it needs replacing.

History of the Engine

1ZR-FE

DOHC, 16-valve, 1.6 L  dual VVT-i. 122 hp (91 kW) at 6400 rpm and 113 lbft (153 Nm).

• Toyota Auris (ZRE151) (Europe only)
• Toyota Corolla (ZRE140, ZRE151) (Europe, Middle East)
• Toyota Corolla Altis (ZRE141) (Facelift; Asia only)
• Toyota Vios (China)

1ZR-FAE

DOHC, 16-valve, 1.6 L Dual VVT-i and Valvematic. 132 hp (98 kW) at 6400 rpm and 118 lbft (160 Nm) of torque at 4400 rpm

• Toyota Auris (ZRE151) (Europe only)
• Toyota Corolla (ZRE181) (Europe only)
• Toyota Avensis (ZRT270)
• Toyota Verso (ZGR20)
• Lotus Elise (2010-current)

1ZR-FBE

Flex fuel DOHC, 16-valve, 1.6 L Dual VVT-i and Valvematic 125 hp (93 kW) at 6000 rpm and 116 lbft (157 Nm) of torque at 5200 rpm.

• Toyota Corolla (ZRE170) (Southeast Asia only)
• Toyota Corolla Altis (E210) 2019-current (Southeast Asia only)

For more information on Tuning your 1ZR engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our 1ZR 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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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Toyota. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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