RAV4 engine

Author
Discussion

cyberface

Original Poster:

12,214 posts

258 months

Saturday 1st October 2005
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I've finally got pissed off with the Smart and swapped for a 2 door RAV4 with the 'VVTi' engine as our 'pootling-about' car.

Of course, having picked it up this afternoon, I now want more power :)

I'm not up to speed on Toyota engine nomenclature - anyone here know the engine in my RAV4? It's a 2.0 VVTi engine developing 147 bhp, however on pants-feel it's tuned for low-mid range torque and doesn't rev freely, it's also redlined at 6500-ish.

Is this the same engine as in the Celica (not the 190) and the Lotus Elise? If so, is there a supercharger conversion available? Presumably absent this, I'm looking at engine transplants (turbo jobs e.g. GT-Four motor?). I love superchargers so that'd be favourite.

I'm not too bothered about 5 bhp here and there with induction kits, etc. - if I'm going to mess with the RAV it's getting 100 bhp more :)

Mr E

21,628 posts

260 months

Sunday 2nd October 2005
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Don't think it's the 1zz/2zz lump from the silly car.

Probably a 3S block by the sounds of it.

New Rav 4, or a pre loved one?

cyberface

Original Poster:

12,214 posts

258 months

Sunday 2nd October 2005
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Gazboy - is it really that bad?? Goes OK as far as I'm concerned, though as I don't know what actual block it's got I have no idea whether it'd take well to forced induction.

Mr E - it's a 2003 NRG model i.e. 2.0 VVTi.

If it's essentially the engine used by Lotus then there *is* a supercharger kit.

Incidentally I'm not talking about Fensport-esque power outputs, I'd be happy with 250 bhp / lb ft i.e. what you'd get from most standard 2 litre turbo installations, nothing too mental. Just enough to make the RAV a bit of a Q car

GTS Turbo

246 posts

226 months

Sunday 2nd October 2005
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you want the rav4 that got the beams engine, good for 200bhp they also put the beams in the late rev5 MR2's

tuttle

3,427 posts

238 months

Monday 3rd October 2005
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My mum had a SWB Rav4 for a few years.I always felt the 2.0ltr lump was quite torquey, as is.The main downfall with fun driving for it was the horendous(sp?) almost vertical windscreen, you can really feel the *parachute effect* fighting against acceleration.
'Fraid I have no ideas for engine conversions though.

cyberface

Original Poster:

12,214 posts

258 months

Monday 3rd October 2005
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Gazboy said:
There doesn't appear to be many tuning options for the 140bhp lump, even supercharging barely gets above 200bhp.

any way I can find out which one it is? Will the engine code be printed in any of the documentation?

If it's a weak engine then supercharging / etc. will be out of the question, but if it's the beams (?) motor then presumably I can swap induction / chip to get more?

(theoretically the best bet is ripping it out and throwing a Fensport special in but that sounds like big money and impossible insurance to me)

GTS Turbo

246 posts

226 months

Wednesday 5th October 2005
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you'll know if it's the beams, it'll be a red top but you'd probably notice if it was just by putting you're foot down

System-G

420 posts

231 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
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I doubt very much that it's a 3S block.

Give the guys a shout at TTE (the guys behind Toyota F1) as they do all sorts of performance kits for Toyota engines. From Yaris's to Supra's including the Rav4 (Not sure on the exact engine variant though...)

www.tte.de/

HTH

>> Edited by System-G on Sunday 9th October 00:03

cyberface

Original Poster:

12,214 posts

258 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
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I've just had the Toyota sports exhaust fitted. No idea re: power increase (assuming none) and hoping for a decent noise... it's actually pretty tame. Looks very impressive (2 fat perforated pipes) but I like to back up the bark with the bite.

Got the exhaust at a seriously cut price (the sale was an unholy mess, due to the salesman I was dealing with being a pathological liar and ended up being fired a day before I was due to pick up the car. Of course, when I came to pick up the car, half the detail I had agreed was incorrect (no service history, for example) so a bit of horse trading was required...) - for the record, Toyota dealt with this very well and I have no bad feelings regarding the eventual sale. Just one bad apple (fired salesman), unfortunately the poor substitute sales bloke who had to deal with me once I found out what had happened must think I'm some mentalist aggressive nutter. Not the case of course, just was pissed off about being lied to.

Very happy that the dealer sorted everything out to mutual satisfaction in the end. It was Motorline in Tunbridge Wells - I assume this isn't against the PH name'n'shame rules since I'm praising their professionalism given a difficult internal problem. Nice work guys.


Anyway back to the engine. It's willing enough and kept up with my cousin's Audi A4 3.0 V6 everywhere until he could get above 70 mph. However that ain't enough for me.

I'm starting to get the impression that the long-stroke 2.0 VVTi is not the best starting point (unlike the 1.8 engine in the Celica which goes to 190 bhp at stratospheric revs).

Immediate crazy idea is swapping the motor for the Celica GT-Four turbo 4-pot. This quite clearly has serious performance potential, though my project aim is simply to get 250 bhp and 250 lb ft in the Rav4. The Fensport 850 bhp specials sound cool... but I'm not spending more on mods on my Rav than mods on my 993 (which comes first mods-wise, and I've got an intercooler upgrade planned for that).

Anyone here know - or have links to sites/forums that know - whether I can drop a GT-Four engine into the Rav4? Issues IMO should be limited to mounts, exhaust manifold and engine management. The last will probably be the trickiest... there's plenty of room in the Rav4 engine bay. I'm assuming here that the Rav4 transmission is engineered up enough to take 250 lb ft. I'm not looking to go further, just want a fun Q car (it's really my girlfriend's but she knows what I'm like)

Also, are second hand, decent nick, GT-Four engines available on the market?

I'd really appreciate some link to a Toyota engine spec primer - I don't know the engine model codes, specs and which ones are best for tuning. Most of the Jap Chat threads mention engine codes like 3S-GTE which mean nothing to me (I'm a porker nut). I'd really like to know which motor is which.

For all I know, the motor in my Rav is a long-stroke version of the Celica 1.8 with inferior parts. If not, and the crank is really safe to 8000 rpm, then I'd consider new induction gear and ECU. If it's a cheap version, then I'd rather get the GT-Four engine and program it for a nice fat 250 lb ft curve from as low as I can make it.

Someone here must know!!!! Please help!

cyberface

Original Poster:

12,214 posts

258 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
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LA & Gazboy - many thanks!

I will have a dig for that supercharger conversion, however that standard GT4 engine is pretty much at the sort of power I want, so financially it'd make more sense just to drop one of those in.

Need to find someone to do it for me... don't have a garage or anywhere near the right tools to attempt it myself...

andy mac

73,668 posts

256 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
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Gazboy said:
Ask Fensport to do it! Hell they turned a diesel fwd Corrolla into a GT4 engined 4wd Porsche slayer!

Porsche slayer? Friggin everything slayer!!

Mr E

21,628 posts

260 months

Monday 10th October 2005
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Gazboy said:
Ask Fensport to do it! Hell they turned a diesel fwd Corrolla into a GT4 engined 4wd Porsche slayer!


Was a 1.5 litre 4wd automatic corolla originally. It's now the starship enterprise.

cyberface

Original Poster:

12,214 posts

258 months

Monday 10th October 2005
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Gazboy said:

andy mac said:

Gazboy said:
Ask Fensport to do it! Hell they turned a diesel fwd Corrolla into a GT4 engined 4wd Porsche slayer!

Porsche slayer? Friggin everything slayer!!

Oh

that's probably a bit more than I need... it'd eat my tuned 911 alive FFS, I'd need to get me a RUF before wanting to take that on

Simple engine transplant seems the best bet. Do all these jobs require full-on management swaps, or does Toyota do a Ford-like multi purpose ECU that can be reprogrammed to suit different tunes of the same basic engine?

Mr E

21,628 posts

260 months

Tuesday 11th October 2005
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I'd just take the ECU from the doner engine to be honest. And that's where the fun will start.

Wiring.

YarisSi

1,537 posts

245 months

Thursday 13th October 2005
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If you look on the japanese trd website. They now have it fully translated. You can find out lots of information on there. They also have lots of toys.
Si