Piper Cam Set (2) – 2ZZ – BP285 (Stage 2)

Description

Specs: (Small cam lobe / Large cam lobe)

What do these numbers mean? The 2zz starts out with fairly big cams. The aftermarket cams add lift and duration to increase performance from the midrange up. Ultimate power gains are pretty similar between MWR and Piper; the difference is in the small lobe, where Piper went pretty conservative for a good idle and MWR went bigger to maximize gains in the 2zz’s notoriously soft 4000-6000rpm midrange.

Installation is easy, taking only 2-3 hours for someone familiar with these engines. We recommend checking valve clearance but it usually does not require adjustment. Use the OEM recommended valve clearance and torque specs during install. Timing is simply set using the stock timing marks, no degreeing is needed.

If you are running a stock naturally aspirated engine and stock ECU (tune) you’re much better off with the stage 2 cams.

If you have a built engine, ported head, high compression, revving to 9k, etc, you’ll probably want to run stage 3 for maximum power.

Supercharged? Stage 3 tends to work best with no penalty in the midrange.

Turbo? We often stick with a stage 2 cam for turbo builds since there is less need for huge duration and you don’t generally need to rev as high.

**You MUST run upgraded aftermarket valve springs with *any* 2zz aftermarket cams to avoid coil bind. MWR springs are the best choice for those revving to 9000 or less. Ferrea dual valve springs work great to 9500+ but cause significantly faster valve and seat wear. You can optionally upgrade your retainers to titanium and while you’re at it, replace those problematic stock 2ZZ valves with MWR’s superior stainless steel valves or Ferrea stainless/inconel valves.

Reading the graphs: Green is horsepower, blue is torque. Both are measured at the wheels, horsepower is corrected via the SAE standard but torque is uncorrected. The solid line is the first of the two parts listed, the dotted is the second ie. if it says dog vs cat, dog would be the solid line and cat would be the dotted line. Got it?

Piper Stage 2 Dyno Results

You can see here that the stage 2 cams, even with the stock ECU, provide a huge improvement in power delivery around the VVL engagement point making the 2ZZ a much more drivable and responsive engine. Idle is good and low end torque does not suffer.

Add tuning (Power FC ECU in this case) and gains are even more impressive.

We work very hard to make sure test conditions don’t vary but I think this one is a case of the stock ECU being run while the car was a little on the cool side and the PFC being run when the engine was a little bit hot. The PFC will have a little more advantage than you see here.

Important instructions – read this before install:
VVT UNLOCK FAQ