Installing Supercharger On My 97 Es

[sunman]

I've decided to take the plunge and got a 1mzfe supercharger for my 97ES with 140,000 miles. The car has been maintainted by myself and all maintaince done at regular interverals. I know it has been discussed a few times before but is there anything that I should know before taking the plunge. A few issues I know about are

1. Hood Clearance. I can take care of this at a body shop

2. Pinging - high flow injecters. Most probably from urdusa.com The kit runs 1000 dollars

3. Intake Manifold Problem?

I am not sure on the intake manifold but if it is a problem, Can i swap the camry unit to my car? I assume this and the hood clearance may be the reason tha TRD left the es out of the list of supported cars. If the supercharger does fit over the stock intake manifold, will this be ok then?

are there any other problems?

[SKperformance]

swapping a camry head will mean no more vvt.

The charger is not made for vvt which is the main problem as it has a different head design

[sunman]

does vvt really make that much difference to me? the charger is suppose to add 60hp out of the box on the camry. I am not sure the stock hp on a v6 camry but i believe mine is 180hp.

[SKperformance]

Then you would need to get a new ecu or you will be running in limp mode with no cams to adjust so you would lose more than 60 hp from the safety mode.

[Toysrme]

1) There should be no hood clearance issue.

2) Gadget's stuff works. You always pay bigtime for it, but he will treat you right.

3) There will be no lower intake manifold problem. Your '97 is the exact same engine used across the Camry platform. The 97-01 TRD supercharger is a direct bolt on to the revised '97+ lower intake manifold. (non vvt-i)

Hell for that matter it more than likely bolts to the vvt-i lower manifold also. AFAIK noone has ever compaired them. (Someone buy a '97 & a vvt-i intake manifold gasket & find out.)

vvt-i gives the 1mz-fe a broader powerband & lets OEM's ditch *BLEEP*ty EGR systems. In our case, they get drive-by-wire throttles which, tho suck for tuning, does get around the IAC/ISC valves & their habbit of sticking. (Which doesn't really concern me as they age, as without EGR the basic problemwas already solved. So they didn't need to do drive-by-wire. :D )

Valve trickery is a great thing to have.

Sunman

1MZ-FE 97+ 194bhp@5200rpm 209ft-lb@4400rpm

[sunman]

great then. besides the pinging, there is no real major issue then. I will use some of the split second stuff as well probably. I have known of Gadget several years ago when I had my tacoma. He helped me quite a bit with it way before urdusa.com

Since the unit will bold right on, why has Toyota left the ES out of the list of approved cars?

[Toysrme]

AFAIK TRD has never *directly* sold parts for any factory Lexus.

Why would Lexus want ES owners to have access to performance items? Not including the latest redesigns on the GS/IS/SC lines; Beforehand, if you could have checked a few boxes on a $33,000 ES300 (35K loaded) & add $2500 in parts that would give you a sub $37,000 ES that would stomp the *BLEEP* out of the rest of the $50,000+ stock carline performance wise.

The sales of the other cars would have dropped a good bit to many of the "luxury, but I need my right foot" buyers.

To add to that, the TRD superchargers have never been reliable. I'm sure someone @ Lexus realized that during the two, or three times every TRD supercharger went out of production (Before being 100% dropped) due to fueling issues that could not be solved cheaply enough for Toyota.

I've never cared for his choices in engine management, but like I said, he won't do anybody wrong. He knows his *BLEEP*, he's a nice guy & will go far out of his way to help about anybody.

[SKperformance]

Bacause they said the heads do not fit the charger manifold.

Straight form the horses mouth "they" being Nelson from TRD Canada

[Toysrme]

Cool. I jsut don't trust TRD, or Toyota's opinion all the time. I'd rather someone trustful find out first hand. The official stance also says that the 3vz-fe (92-97.54) / 1mz-fe (94-96) don't have compatible upper intake manifolds, but they do.

Not arguing, but if it were me & I was looking into doing something regarding the upper intake on a vvt-i 1mz, I'd get a set of gaskets side by side.

They're too much like the people at Autozone, or Lowes. They either don't know crap, they listen to someone else that doesn't know, or they read something that doesn't specify either way & someone forms a conclusion. (I'm not any better in this case, like I said, I don't know if they do, or not.)

I just think their answers have never been up to par with knowing what can do what.

[justin97]

Cool. I jsut don't trust TRD, or Toyota's opinion all the time. I'd rather someone trustful find out first hand. The official stance also says that the 3vz-fe (92-97.54) / 1mz-fe (94-96) don't have compatible upper intake manifolds, but they do.

Not arguing, but if it were me & I was looking into doing something regarding the upper intake on a vvt-i 1mz, I'd get a set of gaskets side by side.

They're too much like the people at Autozone, or Lowes. They either don't know crap, they listen to someone else that doesn't know, or they read something that doesn't specify either way & someone forms a conclusion. (I'm not any better in this case, like I said, I don't know if they do, or not.)

I just think their answers have never been up to par with knowing what can do what.

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i didnt think the 97 had vvt-i? at least i dont think mines does?

a charger would be fun :)

[SKperformance]

It doesn't have VVT-i it has VVT no "i"

[justin97]

It doesn't have VVT-i it has VVT no "i"

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so my car has no intelligents.. didnt know it had vvt either, i doesnt say it anywhere.

[sunman]

Update : The supercharger is on it's way now. I will attempt to mount it next and keep you guys posted. It will be another 6-8 days before I can try it though which will give it enough time to arrive to my door.

[dcfish]

Update :  The supercharger is on it's way now.  I will attempt to mount it next and keep you guys posted.  It will be another 6-8 days before I can try it though which will give it enough time to arrive to my door.

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Don't forget to post pix of the install, It should be interesting.

[Toysrme]

Expect right at 190whp @ 4psi. (It'll very about 5whp).

This one has your basic ugprades:

6psi, basic upgrades, fuel tuning & the (now discontinued) Bosal headers.

3.0L Supercharger install

If you have anything more than general / tuning questions, your best bet is going to be to swap between here & Solaraguy.com.

[sunman]

That's pretty much what I expect but I will be doing a fuel system upgrade to get rid of the pinging I anticipate with this unit. That will come from Gadget at www.urdusa.com

[sunman]

I spoke with TRD USA and they told me the supercharger install should be ok except the ECU may not be willing to adapt to it. They not tested it in the lexus. But it should bolt on! Now the problems begin. Since I got the supercharger alone, I still need the idler plate and pullies. I have the OEM DAYCO part numbers for the pullies and I have pics of the idler plate. I can order the pullies but TRD or Toyota NO LONGER carries any more parts for this supercharger. Parts are getting rare now. There are sources for all the bolts though which I will order soon. Where the heck will I get this idler plate now! IT's made from aluminum.