CAMTuning's 2025 TRD Off Road Performance & ECU tuning build

[Pappy]

I'm continuing to tune local trucks and have an MT truck scheduled Monday, so watch out for those dyno #'s!

This was my truck. Cam came over to the house on Saturday after a club breakfast, and did a minor tune on my truck. Today, he did his dyno tune. I was pleased after the minor tune he did on Saturday. I was super impressed driving home this afternoon after the dyno tune. I can't wait to get the truck on the road for another adventure.

Sponsored

 

[CAMTuning]

This was my truck. Cam came over to the house on Saturday after a club breakfast, and did a minor tune on my truck. Today, he did his dyno tune. I was very impressed after the minor tune he did on Saturday. I was super pleased driving home this afternoon after the tune. I can't wait to get the truck on the road for another adventure.

So much fun hanging out. This was our first manual transmission truck and has really heavy larger tires so even the baseline on stock map was quite low but we woke it up!

 

[CAMTuning]

The torque is the killer.

Offset crank and iron sleeves will help prevent explody.

Open deck is certainly a decision on Toyotas end. They probably found with the offset crank they didn't need to do semi closed.

Subarus FA20 in the 15-21 WRX is also open deck, and offset crank. They're good till like 400ft lb before the rods bend. The explosion prone EcoBoom 2.3 in the Ford Focus RS had a bad headgasket part factory but I doubt the open deck and straight crank setup helped.

Maybe I'll pick up a wrecked truck engine and find someone to closed deck it and I'll stud it.
These rods are factory forged, so as long as the hardware (rod bolts) is good, they should be strong.

 

[omfg]

There's like half a dozen other vehicles that have been using this platform for a few years too. If you only care about the bottom end it won't matter what it came from.

 

[CAMTuning]

You make a great point. I will keep an eye out.

 

[Pappy]

This was our first manual transmission truck and has really heavy larger tires so even the baseline on stock map was quite low but we woke it up!

Is there a way to graph your stock baseline vs mine? Those 285/70's made a big difference.

 

[CAMTuning]

Is there a way to graph your stock baseline vs mine? Those 285/70's made a big difference.

It would not be a good comparison since it is an auto, but when we tune Zach's next week I will get stock numbers on his for you and plot vs yours.

 

[CAMTuning]

Calling all California residents:
Cobb received their EO and we can now ship to California. 15% through the end of the month as well. Check my site for packages, or message if you have any questions.

 

[CAMTuning]

It’s time for a long overdue update on the truck.

I’m just over 11,000 miles now, and the platform has come a long way since my last post in November.

Since then, I installed a custom high-flow catted downpipe and went back through the calibration. I also re-baselined the truck in its current configuration with the SXTH Element intake and intercooler and the rest of the supporting mods. Green=stock 91, blue=all mods+stock downpipe, red=custom catted downpipe from FAFRace.

As expected, gains are incremental at this stage. On 91 octane with the factory turbo, we’re realistically near the airflow ceiling. At this point it’s less about chasing peak numbers and more about improving how efficiently and consistently the system works:

• Smoother torque curve
• Quicker, more controlled boost response
• Better repeatability as temps climb
• Stronger midrange without artificial spikes

Every hardware change gets logged, validated, and adjusted properly. The truck continues to serve as my long-term development vehicle and my daily driver, which is intentional — real miles, real conditions, real data.

And for those wondering what’s next — the upgraded turbo is already in hand and ready to go on. The factory unit has shown us what it can do. Now it’s time to raise the ceiling.

 

[CAMTuning]

New turbo went in the truck this last weekend. Install was surprisingly easy compared to other platforms I've worked on. The shared oil feed/return line is nice. I did some road tuning on it right away, and performance was not a huge improvement.
I got it on the dyno to verify and did a total of 30 dyno runs dialing in a smooth boost curve (~21 psi tapering to 19-20)
These 91 octane runs are apples-to-apples with the previous stock turbo setup.

The new turbo does carry boost a little better up top, but the tradeoff was a noticeable loss in low-end response and only about an 11whp peak improvement over the stock turbo configuration. There's always a trade off in low end when you go to a larger turbo, but typically it comes with the reward of higher hp and torque in other regions of the powerband.

For context, the E30 comparison isn’t apples-to-apples because the earlier run was on the stock downpipe with the stock turbo, while the current setup is new turbo + high flow downpipe.

I didn’t design or spec this turbo myself — I worked with a turbo builder to try something different on the platform. That’s part of development. Sometimes the data confirms an improvement, and sometimes it shows the OEM setup was already very well matched.

My suspicion right now is that the turbine side may simply be a bit too large for this engine’s displacement and operating range, which hurts response and area under the curve even if it carries boost slightly better up top.

I’m obviously a little disappointed in the performance, but I’m glad we did the testing before ever promoting a turbo upgrade. This is exactly why I test combinations on my own truck before recommending them to customers.

I also think it’s important that when new hardware gets introduced on these trucks, real dyno data is shared so people can see exactly what the changes are.

Real development means putting the parts on the truck, running the tests, and sharing the results — good or bad.

Stock turbo will be back on within the next couple of days, and I'll decide what direction to go next.

Dyno charts below.

91 on stock turbo vs new turbo

E30 on stock turbo and new turbo (stock turbo was still on the stock downpipe). With more time I could have smoothed this torque curve, but the gains were going to be underwhelming so I just stopped here.

 

[tipsyjam]

Was your new turbo like the one by turbokits that has the same housing size as oem but larger compressor and turbine wheels? Or, was your turbo a different design altogether?

Just curious because the turbokits one seems like it is being sent out to customers already and it would be interesting to know if, at the moment, it is best to hold off on installing it or something similar (i.e., "larger" turbos) before other supporting mods and tuning are available.

You mentioned the turbine side design maybe being suboptimal for this testing. I have also seen other mods in development for the intake side of the engine. Things like the turbo compressor inlet elbow, boost tubes, and throttle body inlet elbow seem to be categorized as restrictions or things that can be improved upon.

Do you think it is worth it to look into optimizing the intake path in this way to maximize the amount of air mass into the cylinders? As in, would this increase in air density allow the engine to pump enough air through it to get back into the optimal turbine operating range for your new turbo with larger turbine? Assuming no choking of the flow from the pressure the compressor is producing. Or, did you mean that the problem is simply in the new turbo design at this point?

 

[AmbyBomb]

It's somewhat surprising that the turbo might be too big given that EJ series Subarus and Mitsubishi Evos could run fairly large turbos without the same lack of power.

 

[izzy]

It's somewhat surprising that the turbo might be too big given that EJ series Subarus and Mitsubishi Evos could run fairly large turbos without the same lack of power.

EJs are almost all oversquare. T24A is 87.5mm bore and 99.5mm stroke (very undersquare) valves can't be as large as a oversquare engine with a large/wide piston face. It's hard with those smaller valves to fill the combustion chamber at higher RPMs, so when you have a smaller turbo, you get the benefits of the quick spool of the twin scroll that can fill the cylinder quickly at low RPM, but runs out of breathe at higher RPM. Bigger turbo doesn't really solve the next bottleneck which is probably the head.

4G63 is undersquare and yeah, always gains a lot from porting or swapping heads later 2nd gen flowed more.

T24A is a tractor/truck engine at it's core. I guess the next thing to do is port and polish and then ? aftermarket heads if someone does it.

 

[CAMTuning]

Quick update: while reinstalling the stock turbo today I discovered the upgraded turbo already has compressor wheel contact with the housing and noticeable shaft play after less than 20 miles of use.


That obviously shouldn’t happen, and it likely means the turbo wasn’t operating correctly during the dyno testing. For now the stock turbo is going back on while I sort this out with the manufacturer.


This is exactly why I test combinations on my own truck before recommending anything to customers.


I wouldn't assume the turbo combination couldn't work since today's testing was not valid.

 

[CAMTuning]

It's somewhat surprising that the turbo might be too big given that EJ series Subarus and Mitsubishi Evos could run fairly large turbos without the same lack of power.

true. I have a 72mm on my subaru!

Sponsored