im lost why is this thing not making power what are your thoughts

[slider4life]

ok guys I have bought an ae86 trueno jap spec about 3 months ago it already had a built motor in it I dont know alot of the specs on the car but this is what I was told it has

16v bigport full rebuild(smallport block and oil squirters)
toda piston
toda valve springs
toda high lift camshaft
Finandaz adjustable cam gears
toda under bucket shim kit
toda conrods
metal head gasket
blacktop itb
billet sp tech trumpets
sard fuel reg
toda flywheel
Exedy clutch
jubiride extractor
2 1/4 straight through exhaust
wolf ecu

Now ive pulled rocker covers off and the only markings I can find on the cams are toda type R from the research ive done I think there a high lift cam either 256 or 264. It makes power around 4000rpm.

ive also done a comp test and came up with 201 203 205 209 psi
car runs ok blows a little black smoke here and there

Now the car makes 116hp at the moment, it wastuned by efi evolution in coffs and I dont think he was the greatest tuner as I had genuine toda cam gears on it but he made me change them to finandez ones as he said mine were fake as the lines didnt line upso he was convinced they were shit. I Iooked on line and all the toda gears seem to be the same.

now the car was tuned previously in melbourne not sure what power it made though. Then the guy I bought it off got it re tuned at pitts in qld and it made 115hp I then had it tuned at efi and it made 116hp

This thing struggles to skid in the dry and just bogs down it revs all the way to 8500 well it dosent miss or splutter.

I would have thought with this setup id be looking around the 140rwhp mark

have you guys got any idea on what I could look at next im thinking of binning the wolf v4x and going a haltech sprint 500 maybe its the ecu????????

[Jimmee1990]

The thing that doesn't sit so well with me is it's supposed to have Toda con-rods, and every other for sale ad I've seen for this car states the same. There is no such thing though, so without pulling the whole motor down and starting from scratch you're never really going to know what it does and doesn't have internally. You could have a standard 10.2:1 comp small-port bottom end that has had the block and head faces shaved a bit, and if the cams are fairly mild in lift which at 256-264 degrees for Toda R they will be the compression tests at 200-210 psi sound about right to me. I agree with you that it should have heaps more power than it currently does though if the mods stated are true, and considering it's been with three different tuners for very similar results it can't just be a tune issue.

Something is up with this engine in my opinion, one of the reasons why I didn't buy it personally when I was in the market for one. I don't have any previous experience with this car and not having seen it in person I can't give you a definitive answer, just my opinion.

[slider4life]

Thanks for the input jimmee Im just in two minds weather to scrap this motor and put a 20v in it or keep persisting with this thing suely it couldnt be too much its not like the motor runs rough or anything

[Jimmee1990]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the motor itself, just that it doesn't seem like it has the internals that it's supposed to.

[maxhag]

I think this is the car that john84ie bought and sold on...... He asked me about it when he bought it, and when I drove it, it was as you said. Not inspiring to say the least, for the "spec list" it claims....
I told him to get it retuned, but he sold it on before that happened.....

[bunki86]

are the cams timed in ? how far are you revving it, where does power drop off ?116 isnt totally horrible, you could have 10/15hp up ya sleeve but i dont think much more than that.

[Thistles]

it could b lots of thing but certainly if timing isnt done rite shed b sluggish or dead it may rev up to a million revs but get ther slowly u no..u cod try go to a GOOD RECOGNISED tu er n get ur cams etc all times up properly..black smome could just b fuel check ur plugs and c what ther like would giv u an indication..she could hav standard sized replacement toda pistons and 256/264 cans wit mild lift so you wouldn b lookin at a whole heap of power on top of standard bit it shod certainly b fit and healthy..
if ur gonna stick with the car cross things off the list make sure ur timing is all set up properly first i spose cuz if u dont think ur last tuner was any good chances are he didn do a super job setting up ur cam gears!!is the car easy to start when hot/cold?

[johl]

Please spell things properly and use punctuation and spacing. That was painful to read

The next thing I would do is hold the motor up with an engine crane and then drop the cross member and sump. At the very least you should be able to get an idea of what crank, rods and pistons are in it. And its easier than pulling the head off

[SprinterTRD]

A tuner can only get what the engine hardware allows. The fact that all the tuners only got around the same HP indicates that thats all its going to get. Simpy changing the ECU will not miracously gain 10-15 HP

It may need more attention tuning in the midrange to make it drive better but the fact that its a big port so dont expect much. I bet someone got rid of the TVIS as well


Possibly shifting the cams around gain/move the HP, but your cams are not much biger than standard I would say the figure you are getting is about right for the setup you have.

The GpA engines had much bigger cams, 323 duration with 11mm lift, peak torque is at 6000 RPM and around 200hp at 10K rpm

What fuel are you running?

[Matt]

The compression tests is about right for a 11:1 engine. I'd check cam timing and go from there