and air intake (one of those injen short ram intakes,

Cold air intake or not? Why did you buy it?

 

Yes, cold air intake. Specifically this one

I bought it because I've read several reviews that state it improves performance and gas mileage

 

I haven't got it yet... Just read a bunch of reviews on autoanything and amazon saying the difference was night and day and it's a wonder such a simple upgrade could bring so much improvement. I'm still in time to cancel it if you call it snake oil though. I guess I was so amazed at the reviews that my consumer-trigger-finger just clicked buy on amazon :S

 

I'd do more research and get opinions here before buying, especially since you don't have any experience or understanding.

 

Damn! I was looking forward to getting a bit of extra power ... Thanks for setting me straight though

 

Also, what other performance upgrades would you recommend? I'd like it to corner better, and also get some more acceleration from it.

I'm forever amused at people who get a mid range family car and want it to be a sports car, but here goes:

Step one: Buy 83-87 Tercel Wagon with the 1.5L 3A
Step two: drive it for a long time over mountains and what not
Step three: Drive the V6 Camry again and be amazed at the power, the steering, the brakes, the everything!

It's all perspective I mean I love my Tercels but the Camry (even in a wagon) is a friggin sports car in comparison! Heck my I4 2001 Camry was a beast compared to the Tercels.

 

I'm forever amused at people who get a mid range family car and want it to be a sports car, but here goes:

Step one: Buy 83-87 Tercel Wagon with the 1.5L 3A
Step two: drive it for a long time over mountains and what not
Step three: Drive the V6 Camry again and be amazed at the power, the steering, the brakes, the everything!

It's all perspective I mean I love my Tercels but the Camry (even in a wagon) is a friggin sports car in comparison! Heck my I4 2001 Camry was a beast compared to the Tercels.

pretty much buy a sports car to get more power. the camry is a grocery getter that will put a smile on your face (at least my 1mz does) at wot but it is what it is. enjoy it for a good long time.
tony

heh, yeah I know. I knew I'd get that response from someone (if not everyone). So no performance upgrades then?

One thing to note is I live in Chile, where the 2.2 liter Camry is regarded as a sports car and is priced similarly to a corvette (around 50.000 USD). Since I don't have 50k to spend on a sports car (or any car) and got this as a gift from my dad, I just wanted to know if I could push it a little further. No harm in asking right?

 

pretty much buy a sports car to get more power. the camry is a grocery getter that will put a smile on your face (at least my 1mz does) at wot but it is what it is. enjoy it for a good long time.
tony

 

so the 2001 v6's don't have rear sway bars? my 93 and 94 did/does.
tony

 

so the 2001 v6's don't have rear sway bars? my 93 and 94 did/does. tony

sorry, answer was too short but in general our gen4/4.5s understeer at the limit naturally as we are front engine + front wheel drive. the thicker your sway bar or tension it provides will usually give you more grip in that axel. in an understeering setup, you want more grip or balance in the rears to equal out the understeer effect in fast corners and make the car more "neutral".

or i guess if you really like understeering, boost up your front sways lol
here are some more knowledgeable members on sways, i just stick with springs & shocks mods.

As far as I know, TRD and Whiteline makes aftermarket RSBs. TRDs are expensive since they don't make them anymore. Whitelines are here: http://www.whiteline.com.au/product_detail4.php?part_number=BTR39&sq=22933

silent runner has put his contribution where it counts, for himself and for the gen3/4 community with a lot of labor, research, testing and funds into the electric supercharger setup. read up on his threads, i doubt you will find anything like it.

Now if your serious, you can look-up whiteline sway bars, put in different springs, do Solara strut braces, and build a fine handling Camry.

 

You can do performance upgrades to this car, but you have to be a hardcore nut to do so, or you have to want to do it, because nobody expects that an old Camry should be able to do something interesting on the road, and thats your gig.:wink: (me) Then you have to have some combination of large amounts of money, determination, and/or mechanical knowledge yourself. Otherwise... forget, put a cool stereo in it and some nice wheels, and drive it for another 100k.

Now if your serious, you can look-up whiteline sway bars, put in different springs, do Solara strut braces, and build a fine handling Camry.

If your even more serious you need to talk to speed shops about spending many thousands of dollars, looking for a TRD Supercharger to rebuild and put on the car, or do a custom turbo charger installation. We have a fellow:"Tony the Tiger", that built a 700hp+ 1MZ-FE.

If you go that far, you will have to look into retro-fitting a 5spd manual transmission to handle that power output. Very complex, expensive and hard to find the parts for. LSD's from Mr2 Turbo models and all...

In the end, with a hopelessly in-efficient 4spd automatic, tied into a little 3L V-6, you have few if any options for any significant amount of extra acceleration. My little car, (a 93LE-V-6, auto), just showed its tailights to a Ford Focus ST (the guy was laughing like crazy at me with my mini-poodle, braced for the launch), up to 50mph, where I lifted for the speed limit, running off my Phantom electric supercharger.

I thought this stuff would catch on like wildfire 2 years ago when I started working on my install, but it seems that the technology I found, was wayyyy... ahead of the adoption curve for aftermarket companies. Really quite a pity that this is the case, but maybe the legal environment has gotten really scary or something?

I sent one copy of this system off to southern California for another guy to test, but then he got his dream job, and this stuff is pretty low on his priority list. :frown:

 

I got the Injen SRI for my '98 and '04. Can't notice anything except the additional of the noise


Honestly unless you want to spend a lot of money and affect reliability of stock, I'd just upgrade the suspension. Suspension is something you'll make daily use of in cornering and stopping. My '98 has upgraded suspension (eibach springs, front strut brace, and TRD RSB) from the previous owner...and he was not into racing/speeding. He just wanted the car to handle better on the freeway on his daily trips home from work and added some minor stuff (the SRI and exhaust - NOT a fart can). Sounds nice and handles well enough to not feel like a boat while not uncomfortable. This all while keeping stock reliability for the most part.

 

crazymike, I have owned a 2003 Avalon (1mz-fe engine) for the past 5 months, and these are the things I did that very much improved it's power and acceleration:


1. Seafoam the engine. Let the brake booster vacuum suck the Seafoam into the intake manifold. This immediately quited down the engine and it ran with more power.
2. Seafoam the tops of the pistons. Let the Seafoam sit on them overnight. Be careful with this! Remove Seafoam from cylindars before reinstalling spark plugs
3. Clean MAF sensor
4. Clean throttle body
5. Replace air filter
6. Replace spark plugs with Denso spark plugs. There is a special tool to get the back plugs out without removing the throttle body and air plenum.
7. Remove front valve cover and make sure your engine isn't a sludged engine. If it is sludged, I'll tell you what to do next.
8. Run premium gas for a quite a while.
9. Clean idle air control valve (IAC) as this gets gummed up and doesn't work right.


All these things improved the power and acceleration of my car. It runs great now. Gas mileage improved by about 3MPG. Before these improvements, the car ran very sluggish.

 

OK turbo looks like it'll be more money and risk than I'm willing to put into the car, so I'll look into upgrading my suspension. What springs / solara struts would you recommend?

Thanks!

 

thanks endzone for pointing out the basic tune-up/maintenance items that need to be done - along with cleaning/testing the 4 parts of the egr system inc vsv, replacing the pcv, and changing all the fluids and associated filters - before discussing upgrades. that was a pretty good list.
tony

p.s. put the rest of the can of seafoam in the tank too.

 

Thanks mcgowaw, I'll add that to the list of things I need to do ASAP

 

Also, please note, some of the ram air intakes, not sure which ones, won't allow you to pass smog when you go for the test, so do not throw away your old/current ones. You'd need to swap to it before smog test each time.

 

Now there's a responsible suggestion - especially from a resident of San Diego.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2011/apr/27/san-diegos-air-pollution-among-worst-nation/

 

Yeah I already cancelled the intake. No sense in switching it if I won't see any benefit.

 

I've got whiteline front and rear sways, eibach sways, and tokico hp blue struts (kyb would be fine and cheaper). It really improved the handling. I'm also using the heavy duty sway bar links for the front and the adjustable for the back. I'd really recommend at least buying the adjustable links if you're going to go aftermarket--the other brand I tried were too weak and didn't have enough threads to hold the nut tight enough. I snapped one off in a tight corner right after installing it. At least I got a refund?

You can also do the front control arm bushings and the steering rack bushings. They do tighten things up a bit. I was very satisfied with mine, but I'm sure starting w/ the rear sway bar and springs / struts will be very satisfying. Some people say getting 17" rims and some performance tires helps a lot too, but I couldn't tell you about that....my wife won't let me spend anymore on my camry this year >.< Maybe she'll let me do my exhaust headers and cat-back for christmas? 0

 

thanks for the clarification o_loung1.
tony

 

I forgot to mention ultra racing makes a couple braces for the Camry too. I've got all of them on mine. Really helps to stiffen the chassis. But be careful when ordering the strut brace. Pm me if you want to know what the part number is the one that fits for the 01 v6.

 

As for the braking system, consider upgrading to dual piston front calipers, from a 95-96 V6 Camry. It should improve higher speed braking, though at the expense of pedal travel.

I've done it to my Solara. All you need is the caliper, pads, and caliper bracket from the 96 Camry, the rotor should be the same.

 

As for the braking system, consider upgrading to dual piston front calipers, from a 95-96 V6 Camry. It should improve higher speed braking, though at the expense of pedal travel.

I've done it to my Solara. All you need is the caliper, pads, and caliper bracket from the 96 Camry, the rotor should be the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIHQ-3eNw4g

This is whats great about some of the oldies coming back and keeping the community working on those little good things you can do.:wink:

Those twin piston front calipers are a rare piece, from a special ABS upgraded system that was offered for only those two model years. They are compatable with many later years of Camry's, front braking systems, but they dis-appeared for a long time, until better braking in family sedans was appreciated.:smile:

 

thanks speedkar9, that's definitely next on my list.