just got a 96 le, where do i start for a funner drive?

[ambrosius]

Ok so ive had this 96 2.2 camry for a few months and have been upgrading its appearance but everything under the hood is stock. I want to make it faster and funner but dont know what would be the best add for my ride. What single component would give me the most bang for my buck at this point??
any feedback would be appreciated

['_']

You will get the best bang for your buck by starting out with the suspension. Springs/struts and a RSB to be specific.

[eyeball96]

You have wheel locks on your steelies?

[angel_rolla]

looks good. did you paint the hood, trunk, mirror by yourself? if i were u, i'd start with suspension upgrade. btw. there's a trd rear swaybar on ebay right now for $130 shipped.

[bigbird]

start with suspension, as they have said. spring/strut combo and the TRD RSB.

Gen 3 Suspension Options

you can spend a ton of money on the motor and get no where. an intake will sound great though.

[PhatRoyale]

instead of adding anything, why not start with removing what you dont need?

it will definitely pep up your car

[AmericanAirFan]

Nice car, is it a V6 or a 4 banger? I know with my ghetto 93 5 speed manual 4 bangin CAMRY if I add 100 pounds on top of just me being in the car she won't accelerate as fast as when it's just me (it gets bad when my dad is in the car with me). So every pound counts IMO, start there by taking out unnecessary weight. I actually just took out my bad spare tire hopefully the reduction in weight will help a tiny bit

[TheKevin]

more fun, not "funner" LOL

stickier tires and rear sway bar.

[Albuynp Ryeno]

those lexus lug nuts wont properly hold your stealies in place. You need acorn lug nuts or lexus rims.

[CrawlingEye]

Originally Posted by bigbird

you can spend a ton of money on the motor and get no where.

I don't know about that, but where you spend your money will be crucial. The biggest bang for your buck on a 5S-FE is cams. Certainly not the easiest thing to swap, but certainly the most noticable difference. 5S-FE's use very anemic stock cams with very little lift and very little duration. It's one of the reason basic "breather" mods essentially are otherwise worthless. It doesn't matter how much air you're letting in or letting out, because when you don't have a head that can make use of it, what's the point?

[bigbird]

Originally Posted by AmericanAirFan

Nice car, is it a V6 or a 4 banger?

Originally Posted by ambrosius

Ok so ive had this 96 2.2 camry for a few months and have been upgrading its...

Originally Posted by CrawlingEye

I don't know about that, but where you spend your money will be crucial. The biggest bang for your buck on a 5S-FE is cams. Certainly not the easiest thing to swap, but certainly the most noticable difference. 5S-FE's use very anemic stock cams with very little lift and very little duration. It's one of the reason basic "breather" mods essentially are otherwise worthless. It doesn't matter how much air you're letting in or letting out, because when you don't have a head that can make use of it, what's the point?

well youd know better then me on that. as long as the cams are a good hp/dollar then id agree. but the single best bang for buck item on ANY camry motor is always a nice shiny new manual tranny

[ambrosius]

yeah, its a four banger. those lug nuts and locks were on the car when i got it. i just took off the hub caps and and cleaned em up. any other ideas on how i can free up some more weight?

[CrawlingEye]

Originally Posted by bigbird

well youd know better then me on that. as long as the cams are a good hp/dollar then id agree. but the single best bang for buck item on ANY camry motor is always a nice shiny new manual tranny

Yup. There's plenty of options on cams too. You can have custom grinds done by plenty of shops. Mine were done at Oregon Camshaft. The webcams are pretty expensive for what they are, and offer no customization... They're a pretty good "off the shelf" item.

Beyond that, there's TED as well.

[JCamry94]

The mr2 NA guys depend on cams heavily as a first upgrade due to the lack of efficiency in the head (as crawlingeye mentioned).

The 294s that those guys start off with seem alright, but I have yet to find a set for less than $500...

"There's plenty of options on cams too. You can have custom grinds done by plenty of shops."

I need to find out where, cause I can't find anything other than these "off the shelf" cams.

Any reccomendations?

[CrawlingEye]

http://www.oregoncamshaft.com/
call and speak with ken (the owner). that's where my cams were done.
if you mention my cams, he may recall them though it's been a while.

for what it's worth, to maintain a near-stack base circle, a late model 3sfe cam core can be used to grind.