Tuning the Toyota 1ZZ

"Comprehensive guide to tuning and performance parts on the Toyota 1ZZ engine!"

The Toyota 1ZZ are popular engines and with the optimum sports upgrades like remapping, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will definitely increase your driving opportunities.

Our aim here is to look into 1ZZ tuning and provide tips on the optimum modifications for your car.

Just because particular modifications are popular with 1ZZ owners it doesn't mean it is good, so we'll best modifications that will give your 1ZZ the best power gain for you spend.

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

NB: Fast road cams usually boost the power over the rev range, you could sacrifice a little low end bhp but top end will improve.

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

A Competition camshaft will just annoy you whilst driving around busy urban areas.

You should ideally match your engines power to your usage of the car so for a car used daily stick with a shorter duration 1ZZ camshaft

Each engine responds better to more or less aggressive cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The ecu map and injectors and fuel pump also have a large bearing on the torque gains you'll make.

Altering valve durations can alter the torque 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, Intake headers, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Sports exhaust manifold, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft.

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

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

Mapping will help release the full potential of all the parts you've fitted to your 1ZZ.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but power output usually differs on the parts you've done and the condition of your engine.

It is the main goal to any engine upgrade job to feed more fuel and air into each cylinder

The intake plenum carry the air during the suck phase from the intake filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders.

Shape and flow rate of the Air Intake manifolds can make a noticeable difference to to fuel atomisation and engine efficiency on the 1ZZ.

Many mass produced engine intake manifold are begging for a performance upgrade, although a few makers provide well optimised intake manifold.

Big valve conversions on the 1ZZ, carrying out port matching and head flowing will also lift bhp and torque, the fantastic side effect is it will raise potential for increasing the bhp and torque 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 1ZZ

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 car is fitted with a turbocharger tuning parts are simpler to install and you'll see that turbo charged engines are built using many forged and stronger components.

There are weak spots for every engine, with some being over specified and some only able to handle stock power

Research these restrictions and install forged components to handle the power.

There are many mechanics spending a loads of money on turbo upgrades on the 1ZZ only to have the motor throw a rod soon after it's finished.

Larger capacity turbochargers tend to experience no power at low rpm, and little turbochargers spool up much more quickly but do not have the top end power band gains.

Thanks to new tech the selection of turbos is always moving on and we now see variable vane turbos, permitting the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp and torque.

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

You'll commonly see there is a restriction in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the 1ZZ when considerably more air is being pulled into the engine.

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

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large performance gains, although more difficult to install. We have this guide to 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 will need to look at the fuelling when you start exceeding 20% of a bhp increase.We would recommend you to over specify your injector capacity.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% to the flow rate when fitting an injector, this takes into account injector deterioration and affords you some 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

You should look to boost your exhaust if your exhaust is creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll find the exhaust flow rate is 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 balance the flow of air through the engine.

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

Typically exhaust restrictions can be located the catalyst installed, so adding a better flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

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

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

Regular oil changes are vital on the 1ZZ, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

The ECU circuit board is prone to crack, causing non starts,stalling or auto transmission shift problems.

History of the Engine

1ZZ-FE

1.8 L Multi Point fuel injection
120 bhp -130 bhp 122 lbf⋅ft  - 26 lbf⋅ft

After '99 VVT-i was added.

• Toyota Corolla CE/LE/S/VE, Fielder, Runx (Japan), Altis (Asia)
• Toyota Corolla Verso
• Toyota Allion
• Toyota Premio
• Toyota Vista and Vista Ardeo
• WiLL VS
• Toyota Caldina
• Toyota RAV4
• Chevrolet Prizm
• Pontiac Vibe
• Toyota Celica GT
• Toyota Matrix
• Toyota Avensis
• Toyota Opa
• Toyota Isis
• Toyota Wish
• Lotus Elise

1ZZ-FED

Thanks to larger intake Valves, MPFi & VVT-i power was 140 bhp @6,400 rpm and 127 lbft @4,400 rpm

• Toyota Celica GT
• Toyota MR2 Spyder
• Toyota Wish 1.8
• WiLL VS 1.8

1ZZ-FBE

• Toyota Corolla (Brazil only)

For more information on Tuning your 1ZZ engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our 1ZZ owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered.

We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which modifications were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our 1ZZ guides and tips are kept up to date.

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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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