MWR stage 1 cams 2zr-fe - Heads Up

[tmontague]

Hey all,

I know I've been MIA for the past year or so. A 4 and a 2 year old, house reno's and a new career will do that to you. I have still occasionally been lurking the forum but am hoping to post a bit more this summer.

Anyway on to the point of my thread - I recently installed stage 1 cams from MWR as I plan on running their cams and long tube header on the track this year. It is reportedly good for about 10-12 hp. Based on real life dyno results from just the long tube header, this seems like a realistic number. The the cams also will help the power band at the high rpm range which is where my car lives now pretty much all its life.

As most of you know my yaris is now a fully stripped out (<2000lbs) track rat that only gets driven 25 minutes on public roads to get to my local road course.

After I installed the cams my car lost all compression and would therefore not start. It was obvious during cranking that there was no compression by the sound the starter made. I hand cranked the engine over before this to ensure timing and clearance was good. I could feel a lack of compression but there was no binding. When compression was checked only cylinder 1 had 20 psi all others had zero.

I have the FSM and was certain timing was perfect. After about 10 times times of removing the valve cover and cams (and minimal help from MWR) I narrowed it down to the intake valves being held open by less than a tenth of an inch. I actually could not measure any compression on the intake springs but I could feel the rockers were more snug than on the exhaust side which did not have an issue.

Take note that I did bleed down all the hydralic lash adjusters (aka lifters) before hand as this can cause this issue if you do not. MWR was convinced I had the timing off or the cams were somehow different, and I was convinced they did not grind down my intake cam enough. Both parties were wrong as it turns out my head apparently had slightly different clearances then any other 2zr that has run their cams.

MWR did offer some insight into what could be the issue, but it was mostly brief, often one word answers with an undertone that it was likely due to my error that it wasn't working. This is based on no one else having had an issue with their cams. In reality there is a very small sample size here as these are not really a hot item nor is the 2zr a highly modified/tuned engine.

I was able to fix this issue by removing the lifter shims on the intake lifters that are sent by MWR. Long story short, make sure you bleed down the lifters and if you cannot wiggle the lifters by hand when the cam in stalled back on the heads, then you do not have enough clearance. Fix this by removing the shims.

I havent taken the car out on the street yet and stretched out it's legs so I cannot report back on any performance change. I will be ordering their long tube header when it becomes available mid April and will put the car through its paces then.

To be frank, I wasn't very impressed with MWR's customer service/communication compared to many other performance companies I have spoken with in the past. To put it on a bit of a spectrum they were minimally available and helpful whereas other companies have been very willing to work with and speak with me to solve an issue, without any undertones if it likely being a fault of my own.

I get it, there are a lot of people who install these parts and don't have a lot of experience wrenching cars and do make simple mistakes while blaming the company. However, it becomes apparent pretty quickly if someone knows what they are doing or not when you get into discussions with them.

Giving the bare minimum support is not a great feeling from a company that you are giving 4 figures to for car parts, but they are the only company in this space so it is what it is. I have purchased many products from then before and they are good at communicating on that end. It was specifically the product support side of things that leave a lot to be desired. They are not available by phone because the individual is working remotely? This seemed strange to me and would have solved a lot of frustration much quicker.

I essentially spent hours and hours of my time to troubleshoot and identify a potential compatability error on their product and in return I was offered nothing for this trouble. A simple offer to cover the shipping of my core ($25USD) would have even been appreciated. They now have the knowledge of how to fix this problem for any future customers and I am out the endless hours of time.

It is what it is, I'm still loking forward to track testing the set up.

I plan on posting pictures of the insides of my 2zr with 190k km on it and it's past 3 years being absolutely thrashed on track using 0w20 QSUD or PUP oil. I will say that Toyota engines are darn reliable especially is cared for.