This is my first post here, but hopefully not my last.
This thread is ancient and I apologize if the necro breaks any rules (couldn't find a rules thread or sticky), however I'd like to post a very relevant albeit very late reply to this thread, in the hopes of providing a positive and maybe more inspiring conclusion to this story for anyone who walks in my shoes.
I read this very thread posted by GRRM a few years ago, and while I loved going through it and while honestly I couldn't even change a headlight bulb at that point in my life, the ending left me feeling pretty disappointed, but I had that it's what I have so it's what I'll work with attitude and wanted to prove them wrong.
TL;DR: I made a Camry into a race car. It moves good. It turns good. It sounds good. It hasn't blown up. Not a dig at GRRM or the editors or guys who worked hard on this article, they just had really unfortunate luck (and it wouldn't make sense for them not to post the results they had gotten, blowing 2 engines like that makes it hard to not believe it's an engine issue, it made me believe it was.)
Backstory: Abut 3 years ago I decided I wanted to make my car (99 1MZ-FE Non VVTi Gen 4 Camry) handle corners better because although it was a couch, the body roll was abysmal. I started out with basic replacement parts figuring stuff was worn out, figuring out how to turn every wrench and bolt as I went. After I finished restoring the original parts with aftermarket Chineseium, the car was certainly more comfortable to drive but it was still lacking what I was looking for.
I'm a 20 something male nerd who grew up in the era of MIN-MAX, and so I started searching around on the internet for people who had modded their Camry. This is still one of the first Google results that pop up when you search that for modding gen 4 Camry. So I read through the articles and build and pictures like the rest of us, and was thrilled to see a Motorsports publishers' team doing something with such an old commuter car. However at the end I was extremely disappointed by the engine failures, and came to the conclusion that the car and build would forever be limited by an unreliable engine, so I threw in a mod here and there, but nothing too crazy because of this fear that I was going to make the car capable enough to starve the oil pump, always in the back of my mind due to this article.
About a year after that, and about a year ago, I've decided I'm just going all in and making my Camry into a race car screw the consequences, engines are available locally for cheap and I was now confident enough in my wrenching abilities to pull and reconnect an engine if I broke mine. At this point I wasn't super concerned about the engine anymore, because over the past year of small mods I had ran it up to redline thousands of times (still do a dozen times a day, it's my daily - That's what this thread is about right? Working with what you've got. )
At this point I was really sure that the engines used in these articles had pre-existing issues, because my engine was purchased with the car over 100,000 miles ago and has been abused like nothing else since then. Uncountable brake launches, Thousands of pulls through cloverleaf onramp sweepers holding wot revving 5k+ rpm for 10 seconds straight while the tires are at max lateral G, I was even confident enough last fall to haul it out to its first autocross event; going balls to the wall down slaloms while banging off the rev limiter for 15 seconds straight, more sweepers, more abuse, etc.
This was about a year ago, with the biggest mods being done basically just a big rear sway bar and some stiffer springs. After my first autocross event in the Camry I realized I had a lot more work to do. So I started dreaming, and burning benjamins. Got my first real taste of wrenching on a car.
Skip past a lot of frustration, time, but not that much money; and queue up to today.. I'm "almost done" (haha no) making my Camry into a rice car.
I've still abused the car every day of it's life for the year in between that last autocross event and today, but while steady increasing how much lateral G the car can handle. At ths point my ORIGINAL 1MZ-FE w ORIGINAL A541E 4 Speed auto are showing no signs of dying and make more power and put it to the ground better than they ever have. I plan on driving it to the drag strip Friday night, then to and back from an autocross event this Saturday. I have no doubt the 1MZ will take whatever beating I give it. It hasn't complained the last ten thousand times.
Here is the current build. Small upgrades are planned, but likely will be staying NA except maybe No2 if I get bored.
Engine/Trans: 1999 Gen 4 TMMK Camry Factory NA 1MZ-FE Non VVTi Engine linked with factory A541E 4 Speed A/T. 313,000 (abusive) miles.
Intake/Exhaust: DIY Short Ram Intake, OBX Longtube Headers, OBX Y Pipe with no Kitties inside (PETA Certified counts right?), Stock 2.5 tailpipe & Muffler with extra drainage.
Weight Reduction: Firewall to tailgate down to the sheet metal delete: Passenger seat/mounts/safety equipment, rear seats/mounts/belts, carpet, insulation, sound deadening (Swear I pulled out 60-80 lbs of this crap, took me an entire day with a chisel and acetone and filled 6 plastic trash bags full of what felt like bricks) , no trim, no glovebox, no roof liner, airbox system delete (it's like 20+ pounds including the sound stuff! ), weather guard/splash panel deletes.
Suspension: 10kg/6kg Ebay Special Coilovers with Camber Plates (suprising value), Moog Camber Bolts all around, Stock Camber Top Hat Inserts, Whiteline FSB/RSB, Godspeed Adjustable 1" Dia Links, Ghetto 3M WW Motor Mounts, Polyurethane in every suspension bushing, Rear IRS Balljoints deleted for Poly Inserts (they're unpredictable, multiple inserts that rotate freely around a single axis are not), Solara Front Strut Bar.
Brakes/Wheels/Tires/: Front: ES300 Dual Caliper Swap W 30% larger EBC yellowstuff pads - Rear: Stock v6 Calipers with Hawk HPS pads - Ebay blank rotors, 16x6.5 wheels, 215/45/16 Falken Azenis 615k+, -3 F Camber, -1 R Camber, +3.5 Caster, -.25 Toe.
Misc: 2 QT MANUAL VALVE ACCUSUMP - Yet to be installed (waiting on a part).
The car rotates flat and insanely quickly, Accelerates like a bat out of hell compared to stock. The 4spd auto trans v6 gearing and throttle/trans line tweaks combined with shorter tires, a quicker intake, and better flowing headers and much better flowing y-pipe gives me a torque range that is super wide and 100% torque any time I go WOT above 20mph. In my anecdotal experience the v6 drivetrain is the strongest part of this entire platform, the playdoh chassis and stock suspension are the limiting factors.
In order to race a 1MZFE you should have oil surge protection, and you must not have sludge clogging oiling any oiling pathways or the accumulator won't do anygood (My guess this is what happened to GRRM with used and unknown engines), but in my experience my non sludged engine is still doing fine without one - I've had a great time making my Camry into a racecar, and even banging off the rev limiter along a 1000 foot slalom 3 times in an hour gave the engine no trouble without an accumulator. It's worth noting I always run at least 1-1.5 quarts overfilled. I wouldn't dare try that with the current suspension mods and tires though.