1GR-FE (Single VVTi) Dyno Testing by OTT

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We're a bit behind schedule, but I promise it's coming!

 

I decided to put it on the books and make it official, October 6th we'll have the Single VVTi testing done and have some additional testing done on a dual VVTi 1GR, so lots of data coming.

 

Alright!! We've got the testing underway and a little ahead of schedule as I was able to clear some time from my busy calendar due to completing some other, unrelated projects a bit earlier than anticipated.

Lets set the stage as I'd like to highlight the importance of maintenance before getting into the meat and potato's and showing you the results you're likely here for. In full transparency, this wasn't something I was planning on covering as part of this test, but in hind sight I think it is perfectly fitting as the age of these trucks continues to grow. As you guys can recall (see bolded from quote above) we wanted to revisit the dyno after performing some fresh maintenance on the truck prior to the upcoming testing. Also in full transparency, that's been the major hold-up in getting this testing completed. But anyhow.. I think the the findings today really highlight something I've been a proponent of, but many take for granted. MAINTENANCE... Lets dive into some numbers and work through what we've found.

This thread was created back in Mar of 2022 when we released the details on our 2G Tacoma 4.0L calibration. The truck then had 76K miles and was what one would consider "well kept/maintained". A very good example of a used, but cared for 2G. Maintained about like every other Tacoma would. Regular oil changes, 2 plug changes, and filter changes as needed.

You can see our findings in the 1st post, but I'll reshare them below. They're rather typical numbers, about what one would expect from a 2G Tacoma.

(RED = Stock, BLUE = OTT) *pre-Maint.*

So, Lets fast forward 1.5 years and put 13K more miles on the truck putting some fresh oil in the engine, drain/refill transmission, some fresh transfer case and differential fluids, new OEM NGK Plugs, and a fresh air filter (STP) the same truck topped off with the same Maverick 91 octane fuel we ran on the previous test while also conducting the test on the same dyno. The results were shocking, but not by anything our tune did..


(RED = Stock, BLUE = OTT) *post-Maint*

Stock vs Stock w/ Fresh Maint. See the difference?


(GREEN = Stock pre-Maint., RED = Stock w/ post-Maint.)

And for the real kicker.. The same graph as above, but with the truck tuned pre-maintenance.


(GREEN = Stock pre-Maint., RED = Stock w/ post-Maint., ORANGE = Tuned pre-Maint.)

The above really highlights something that I think is glossed over with many folks in the community especially those seeking more performance form their trucks. We're now in an age where these trucks are very tunable with an abundant aftermarket, and plenty of people willing to take your money to tune the truck and make no mistake (I'm one of them ). But, the consumer really should take a good hard look at the graph above this paragraph. What many would consider a well maintained, drive it anywhere reliable, low-ish mile Tacoma, I wonder how many would find it surprising that you could find your truck gaining more power from general maintenance and up-keep than a tune?!?! What's my point here? Before visiting a tuner (any of them), you really should spend your money performing the maintenance your truck probably could use. Your truck will thank you, and your tuner will likely as well. Not only that, it'll maximize your enjoyment from the investment of cash you've just spent. Because lets see what happens when you go from a "unmaintained" stock truck to a "maintained" OTT Tuned truck.


(RED = Stock pre-Maint., BLUE = Tuned post-Maint.)

Those are some impressive gains. Something any owner would undoubtably "feel". But alas, I'll climb down off the soapbox. Lets get back to the regularly scheduled content of 1GR-FE (Single VVTi) dyno testing. For our planned testing, you can see the quoted post above. We've elected to test products and configurations against the OEM calibration to eliminate any potential bias our tune may/may-not induce, and the figures posted here would be applicable to anyone with the OEM calibration, not just OTT's. We'll share select parts/combinations on the OTT calibration if there's something that would benefit the public from seeing. Here's what we were able to accomplish today:

Alright. That wraps up what we knocked out to get this round of testing underway for you guys. Hopefully you all find this helpful. If there is anything bolt-on wise that you'd like tested please reach out to me direct via PM here. If it's something you'd like to send us to test we'd be happy to include it and return the item(s) at the conclusion of testing. Up coming you guys can look forward to us testing the Red Bullet VVTi Solenoids, Anderson Engineering Intake Manifold Spacer, URD Cam-Gears, 70mm T4R Throttle Body.

We may have to put the exhaust on hold. We have it in our testing inventory, however the factory hardware on the exhaust is showing it's age and I'm not sure the OEM exhaust manifold studs will survive the attempted nut removal. Not wanting to turn this into a huge R&R ordeal, we may elect to hold off for the exhaust testing until a later date when we're in a better position to perform said repairs if they become necessary. Just want to keep you all posted!

 

Fantastic!

I've never wanted to change my spark plugs so bad. Even though they aren't even due... (78k)

I just let another member drive my OTT 2015, you might have another customer soon!

 

Thanks for everything you do! Did you clean the MAF sensor during maintenance? I do mine every oil change.

 

Alright guys.. Long day on the dyno today testing. We have been getting hammered pretty hard by the 4Rdunner community for some actual dyno testing to be performed on something other than premium fuel. So we purposefully went to the dyno to demonstrate the output our calibration is able to produce on 87 Octane fuel. While we had the 4Runner on the dyno, we also wanted to test a 76mm TB on that application, and picked up a newly released aFe 76mm TB (Part Number: 46-39102)

The above Part Number comes with a brand new aftermarket TB (made in Taiwan), Throttle body spacer/adapter, hardware and a gasket. Everything you need to bolt the unit on. No issues with the installation. It was performed on the dyno between runs. But more about that on the 4Runner forum if you're interested.

To the 1GR-FE Single VVTi stuff!! We got just about everything tested that we had originally set out to test. The only things we were not able to test were the exhaust (as previously mentioned) and the cam gears. Unfortunately we were just running out of time as we were performing these installs on the dyno to keep everything as consistent as possible. The time it takes to install them on a hot engine was just not in the cards unfortunately. We will revisit the cam gears and exhaust and other modifications to find the simple bolt-on modifications you guys can do that actually improve performance.

Today we re-baselined the vehicle, installed the Red Bullet VVTi Solenoids, OEM 70mm TB and URD spacer/adapter, and Anderson Engineering intake manifold spacer. Some interesting results! Lets dig in a bit..

Up first was the Red Bullet VVTi Solenoids (https://www.redbullet.net/product/tacoma/39?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=3) that we wanted to evaluate on the otherwise bone stock 2014 Test Mule. As a reminder, unless otherwise noted, we tested all products on the OEM calibration to eliminate any bias. The truck was filled with 91 Octane fuel from a local Maverik station. Temperatures were monitored (Engine, IAT, and Transmission) and maintained between runs.


(RED = Stock, BLUE = Red Bullet VVT Solenoids)

I attempted to do some additional logging with TechStream to log the Commanded VVT and Actual VVT angle to plot and provide some data on if these VVT solenoids actually have altered the oil flow to the camshaft phasers, but TS would not log these PIDS for some odd reason. This was the part of the testing I was really looking forward too, but technology was not cooperating with us today. After seeing the results of the testing, I'm a bit less concerned as I don't think these solenoids do in fact alter the oil flow through the phasers (at least enough) that affects output or that the Integral and Proportional correction doesn't compensate to bring the the actual cam angles back in line with what is commanded. To be perfectly honest, these performed about like I expected and I'm not personally surprised at the outcome.

Next up we bolted on the URD spacer/adapter (https://urdusa.com/urd-throttle-body-adapter-70mm-for-1gr-fe-4-0l-v6/) and fitted a OEM Toyota 70mm TB from a 2022 T4R.


(RED = Stock, BLUE = 70mm TB and URD Adapter)

This one was actually a bit surprising for me. The OEM intake manifold on the 1GR's is 70mm despite the OEM throttle body being a 65mm design. The URD spacer maintains a constant diameter with no gimmicky "vortex generator" like the aFe spacer/adapter. Even with the OEM airbox, charcoal filter, and air filter, and OEM snorkel the TB showed a fairly impressive gain above 4000RPM. I believe we paid $120 or so for the TB at a local wrecking yard. So cost effectiveness of this mod alone, on an otherwise stock truck might not be there, I think with future testing and other incremental mods, a 70mm TB and URD adapter might make sense if you find yourself wanting some additional high RPM HP. This is one that will stick around and we'll do some future testing with an aftermarket intake options. Stay tuned for that..

Up next for the day was the Anderson Engineering intake manifold spacer (https://www.aesinnovate.com/product-page/2005-2015-toyota-tacoma-v6-4-0l-intake-runner-kits). For this test, the OEM TB was refit back to the vehicle.


(RED = Stock, BLUE = AES Intake Spacer)

We were not at all surprised to see the low end/midrange torque improvements from this spacer. Longer runners produce more torque is a pretty universal observation when doing induction resonance tuning. So there was no surprise there. What we were a little surprised about was the fact we did not get any high RPM output roll off due to the additional runner length. It seems the lower RPM nature of the Single VVTi 1GR and it's intake manifold design do not suffer from a little extra length like an application that has a broader RPM operating window. It was a pleasant surprise to find the additional torque available at all RPM's. This is also a modification that will stick around and be used in future evaluation. In fact this spacer was left installed as the truck was pulled from the dyno! We'll have more to report on this, along with other parts combinations in the near future.

Thanks for following along! We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback for what we should add to the list for future testing.

 

My butt dyno must be a little off I didn’t notice anything with the Red Bullets and lo and behold there was 1.17 gain in HP. Did you happen to put all the mods together and do a grand finale?

 

That'll be coming. Today's focus was determining the individual affect of each part. We will revisit and conduct more "combo" testing in the near future.

Truth be told, even though the gains on the individual bolt-ons are minimal, it's fun testing and I think the right combination of parts will yield a pretty substantial improvement over stock. The $ to gain ratio is still going to be a hurdle for most as the cost of most of this stuff far exceeds any reasonable $ per HP ratio. But folks buy coil packs, solenoids, throttle body spacers (for the stock throttle body) and other, to put it bluntly, gimmicky modifications that will not improve the performance of the vehicle and often times make it less reliable/dependable than it was stock. So it's my hope/intention that these tests and the ones to come, will help establish a path folks can take to make a meaningful difference and actually get something for their money.

 

Big high five for doing this Justin! Pretty incredible what you're doing and it'll answer a ton of questions for the community and benefit everyone.

 

Love reading this kind of testing.

 

Thanks as always for the great knowledge drop, @JustDSM !

Eagerly awaiting cam gears! With and without tune!

 

It'll be coming soon. Wrapping up something very big for the 3G community at the moment and we'll get back after the 2G stuff here shortly. If it'll help hold you over, we'll have some 2G ProCharger results this weekend.

 

Do you have links to your 4Runner/FJ/3G dyno threads? Would also be interested in reading those!

 

4Runner stuff here. Depending on the year, single VVTI vs dual VVTI, the dyno data is somewhat applicable across platforms (2GT, FJ, T4R).

https://www.4runners.com/threads/overland-torque-tune-ott-by-overland-tailor.27827/

 

This thread is awesome.

 

Am I reading their wrong or does the 70mm throttle body also result in a significant loss of HP & torque below 2,200 rpm?

 

That’s the torque converter flashing as I go to WOT and start the pulls at slightly different RPMs. Nothing related to the TB or adapter.