Geeking out my daily driver…
I‘m a bit of a “car person” and as such, I have two cars. One is a hobby and is a 1998 Toyota Supra RZs with single turbo conversion and about 600hp. My other is just my daily driver.
So as it turns out, having one modified car is not enough for some people. Once you get used to power of a single turbo Supra, it’s difficult to settle for anything ‘normal’. My main issue really is that I hate changing down gears when going up hills. My daily driver is fine on flat roads but as gutless as on the hills.
With that in mind, I’ve decided that my poor little daily driver is getting a few ‘upgrades’. So what is my daily? It’s a 1996 Toyota RAV4 powered by a beasty naturally aspirated 2.0L 3S-FE. The car itself is immaculate inside and out and was a great find 10 months ago when I bought it.
Here’s what it looks like now:
The plan is to turbo-charge the motor and run about 7psi max safely. Most people think the poor little 3S-FE will pop at 7psi, but others have done it so I’m confident it can handle it. Things will be happening in two stages.
Stage 1: Prep the fuel system to handle boost. This means installing a new ECU and wideband O2 sensor for tuning.
Stage 2: Install the turbo, manifold, fuel injectors, etc.
The best part is, I’m hoping to do the whole lot for less than $1500. 
Here’s what’s happening:
- Aftermarket MicroSquirt ECU (DIYPNP N76P)
- Innovative LC-1 Wideband O2
- T3 Turbo (‘el Cheapo eBay job) w/ internal WG
- T3 Exhaust Manifold
- Custom dump
- DENSO 320cc Fuel Injectors
- Some random intercooler (still looking for one)
So far I have the ECU built and ready to load firmware onto it. I’m using the DIYPNP ECU from DiyAutotune.com which comes as a box of parts that you have to solder together yourself. It took me about 4 hours to solder the mainboard and then about another two to come up with the pinouts and wire them to the board.
This is the state in which the ECU arrived:
Here it is with the mainboard all built and the controller module mounted on top:
Wiring the Denso 76Pin PCB module to the mainboard:
All done and tested with my trusty multi-meter and ready for the lid to go on:
The finished product. I even bothered to put the sticker on it:
Pinout Wiring maps. Yay!!:
The pinout wiring map probably took the longest to come up with as like any jap-spec car, documentation on wiring is a bitch to find. I eventually found a generic 3S-FE engine repair manual in case anyone wants it (PM me).
Now that the ECU is built, I need to load some firmware onto it and do some internal diagnostics to make sure it detects all the circuits I have put on the mainboard (like knock sensor, 3-wire IAC, MAP sensor, etc).
So at this point I’m waiting for the LC-1 and some vacuum hose to arrive so that I can install the sensor and run a hose from the existing MAP sensor to the ECU. Then it’s just a matter of plugging it in and tuning it. Once it’s tuned, stage 1 is done and I can start collecting parts for stage 2.
More t/k.