tooter 2.7 intake manifold spacer...

That's awesome I always have loved model trains. I have o guage trains.

 

Same here!
I've been a total train freak since I was a little kid, and have a little bit of O gauge from the late '40's and early 50's.

 

You know Mr. Rogers?

 

awesome.

 

Dang, a setback...

When I removed the stock intake manifold, I neglected to unplug the line going to the camshaft position actuator, and snapped it off. You can see the little cylinder with the top missing...



I glued the top back on hoping that the two metal prongs would reconnect, but no dice. It's got no electrical continuity.

Other than that, everything else is done and ready to run.

I even started it up and used the OBD code reader to confirm, and sure enough P0010 "camshaft actuator circuit". At least I know exactly what needs to be done. Get the part. Put it in. It installs in about 30 seconds and I'll be ready to hit the road.

 

Here's the engine with the spacer completely installed and everything connected...

 

I was sitting on the fender with my feet inside working on the engine.

 

When we drop wrenches, they politely land on the ground and don't rattle.

By the way, are those longer studs flexy or still rock solid?

 

Greg, did you get enough spare cable for the throttle body plug to reach the socket when you unwrapped it, or did you end up having to lengthen it?

It looks good, be interesting to see what you first impressions are when you drive it.

PS, 1/8th scale, now that's cool. I'm not a model railroader, but I am a train nut and an amateur rail photographer...

http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=55026

 

I freed up what slack I could by gently opening up the loom and then wrapping it back up, and then removed the loom from two of the harnesses so as to move it to the right to get the rest. If you look closely, you can see where the loom is shifted one inch to the right at the throttle body...



At a critical junction, the #3 coil wires go to the left, while the throttle body wires go to the right. So it was important to get the position just right so that there is no strain on either set of diverging wires. I'll eventually need to find a way to offset the supports, but for right now, it's fine.

It's ready to go.
The engine starts right up, idles just fine, and doesn't throw any other codes except the actuator code, so all I need is the part...

...and I'm good to go!

I bet that's lots of fun! I'd be a train photo hound too, except there aren't any railroad tracks anywhere close to where I live, so I had to build my own.

 

Rock solid, because the studs and flange nuts are compressing a stack of machined true surfaces. I still need to deal with the two bottom studs which do not line up with the holes in the manifold, so I installed two 2 inch long Corolla throttle body studs so that the two lower legs of the manifold rest on them. They keep the manifold from dropping down and putting strain on the flange.

You can see there are still issues to be resolved. And that brings up an important point:

This is NOT a bolt on part.

You need to creatively deal with a lot of repositioning issues. Many of which are really easy like flipping over hose brackets and repositioning wires.

And good news on the throttle body coolant hoses, they did not need to be changed out, just repositioned. They're fine and there's no strain on them.

So the two issues yet to be resolved are the two bottom manifold supports and the loom supports at the throttle body. Not too bad for installing a completely nonstandard part on a relatively complicated engine.

 

Sooooooooooooooo have you driven it ......

 

Hahaha that's the ultimate test. Lol

 

You missed this posted above.

I'm locating the part right now, and if a local Toyota dealer has one in stock, it installs in about one minute...

...and I'll be driving it today.

 

Hey tooter, I have also been following this thread with great anticipation (and I don't even have a 2.7). I like fabrication and innovation.
Anyway, for shits and giggles, when you drive it before taking it to the dyno, write down your butt dyno results (you don't have to post it here to avoid possible embarrasment).
After the actual dyno test it would be interesting to see how close you were based on just your butt feel.
Good luck with the rest of your endevour.

 

I certainly will... and will post my impressions right here even if it's embarrassing.

I live in a canyon and drive up and down the same hills every day. Since grades never change I have a pretty good feel for engine torque and should be able to tell if there is enough difference to be detectable. If I can't feel any difference, then the part didn't work and the project failed.

Making the intake runners 12% longer is a pretty drastic manifold modification so the difference should be felt, one way or the other.

I also keep gas mileage records, and will be really interested if the average changes.

After all, this is basically an economy part and not a high performance part. The 2.7 is a slow turning low end torque "industrial" engine, so I'm looking to enhance that quality.

 

It's running...

...and I drove it around all day.

Ok, here's my subjective "butt dyno" impressions:

3,500 rpm and up it feels sluggish like there's nothing more there. In the higher rpm range, it's like the engine is saying "What's the point?" or "Keep moving, nothing to see here.".

However, in the low rpm range it's feels like driving a tractor.

And this particular phenomenon is not subjective. When you take off the engine will not die. I was slipping the clutch normally from a dead stop dozens of times in traffic with no gas pedal with the engine rpms dropping down to 400rpm and it never died once. I was actually able to get it to die at 300rpm in reverse while backing up from a dead stop in a parking lot, so that's the threshold. And remember this isn't a low geared 4x4. It's is a 5 lug street truck with 3.31 rear end gearing, where just 3,000rpm is 90mph on the freeway.

The engine feels like a small block V8 between 1,000rpm and 2,000rpm, and that quality fades away as you go higher in the rpm range.

So to sum up... It feels to me like the engine gave up top end horsepower to gain bottom end torque. My Taco is used as a work truck so I'm an economy driver, and these characteristics are exactly what I wanted.

After driving around today (93 miles), I filled up (always till it clicks off and adding gas to the next even amount) to check the mileage. A mix of stop and go city traffic and freeway driving got 28.0 mpg. It's way to early to tell because you need a series of fill ups to get an accurate average... but that's a good sign that the spacer sure didn't hurt the gas mileage.

I'm going to keep driving it normally, and just let everything settle in and let the ECU learn the new operating parameters before it goes to the dyno shop to get some numbers. The baseline dyno runs were done in 3rd gear starting at 1,500rpm, so I'll be doing these runs in exactly the same way so as to have an accurate comparison.

 

Cant wait I could have a 4x4 tractor that's near Impossible to stall. I rarely go over 3-3.5k rpms anyways.

 

First of all, congratulations on making it all the way from idea to reality. If nothing else, that in and of itself is a fine accomplishment. Second, sounds like you may have created a way to turn the 2.7 into a real towing machine. The torque curve will tell the tale, but if you get as big a jump in the bottom end as it sounds like you have, this might just make pulling a 2000 - 2500 lb trailer a practical thing. And I'm like camojared - anything above 3000 is unused territory for me anyway.

Thanks for keeping us up to date!

 

Anything after that sounds way to much like the neighbors civic! Lol