NST Toyota 4AG AE86 Tri Flow Camshaft Dyno Testing

NST Toyota 4AG AE86 Camshafts & Cam Gears

NonStopTuning is proud to announce our collaboration with Geoff Bardal and Colt Cams. Hours of testing on the dyno, street, and track has led to the development of the new line of Toyota 4AG Tri Flow Cams, now proudly offered by NST for the Toyota 4AGE and 4AGZE. Available on www.NonStopTuning.com.

The most common problems generally encountered when traditional performance camshafts are installed are the loss of bottom end torque, poor idle quality, and computer problems. This phenomenon has become more prevalent with high-revving, multi-valve engines. When an engine is optimized for HIGH-RPM power, the LOW-RPM power will unfortunately have to be sacrificed… or will it?

What if someone could make a performance camshaft that could make better power both at HIGH-RPM and LOW-RPM, without the use of a variable lift cam system?

Tri Flow Camshafts manage to do just this for virtually ANY multi-valve engine. By staggering the opening times of the two intake lobes, a swirling effect is created in the system. The principle behind this design is to open the intake valves progressively. Opening one valve first allows the fuel to travel across the chamber at a greater velocity due to the smaller venturi action, it then helps pull in the second charge at a faster rate.

In turn, with the larger cam, the engine has better vacuum at idle since there is less overlap. Throttle response is greatly increased and power delivery is better across the entire power band. Geoff’s theories on the “Tri-flow” have been proven time and time again on many different engines. The NST dyno testing has proven the theory, and now it is time to let the 4AG community see and enjoy the results.

August 2008…

So we had this particular car (AE86 Corolla) in our posession for about ten days. A couple days of driving around town BEFORE installing the new Colt Cams Tri Flow Cams provided a very good idea about how this particular car ran and behaved. A few days of driving around town after the Tri Flow Cams testing provided the driving impressions listed bellow.

Our friend Lawrence’s car was a very close to stock AE86, with 225,000 miles. The only mods the car came with were an intake and a gutted, straight through, exhaust. The engine had never been touched, the head had never been removed, and this was the first time the valve covers had even been taken off. In short, this car was unmolested.

The car put down 98 max whp and 89 max wtq for our baselines. We ran a total of six baselines with this car, three stock runs and three runs with NST Cam Gears set at zero degrees. All six runs yielded very similar numbers.

We installed the Tri Flow Camshafts and ran several more runs. All in all, roughly eighteen runs were made on the dyno to try all possible combinations. Cams were advanced and retarded in a wide range of combinations. You will find the final set of runs plotted together in the charts bellow. These cams are 100% drop in cams, and made optimal gains for us with the cam gears set at zero degrees. Yes!!! You can drop these cams in, do nothing else, and still make more power than stock!!!

Compare the BLUE (OEM) lines with the RED (TRI FLOW) lines…

Compare BLUE (OEM) lines with RED NST 4AG TRI FLOW CAMSHAFTS

Compare WHP at 7000 RPM, 105 MPH. Tri Flow Cams add almost 15 WHP here…

Compare WHP at 7000 RPM, 105 MPH. Tri Flow Cams add 15 WHP

Compare WTQ at 7000 RPM. Tri Flow Cams add almost 11 WTQ here…

Compare WTQ at 7000 RPM. 4AG Tri Flow Cams add almost 11 WTQ

Traditional cams take away power and torque in the low range in order to add power closer to redline. As you can clearly see, these Tri Flow Cams make power throughout the power band. No giving up power down low in exchange for small gains at the very top. These cams really do provide the best of both worlds.

The following charts show baseline (pink/purple/magenta line) plotted along with Tri Flow lines while we tested with NST Adjustable Cam Gears. Even when the Tri Flows were not dialed in for maximum gains, the Tri Flow HP and TQ curves are noticeably higher than the baselines.

NST Toyota 4AG AE86 Tri Flow Camshafts

Proper dyno testing and dyno charts should show you dates, times of day when dyno runs were made, outside temperatue, humidity levels, max power, max torque, RPM, speed, and SAE numbers. As you can see, the NST charts clearly display all of this data.

For those who want the technical specs on the Tri Flow Camshafts…
Tri Flow Intake Cam Primary Lobes are 268deg 8.33mm lift
Tri Flow Intake Cam Secondary Lobes are 261deg 8.28mm lift
Exhaust Cam Lobes are 268deg 8.33mm lift

Driving impressions? The car runs and behaves SO well with these cams. Idle is very steady and consistent. Even after spirited driving, the car idles beautifully and all gages show stock-like readings. The OEM ECU is doing a very good job of running these cams and providing management. The tone of the engine is now much more aggresive and the car has a nice growl as you climb to redline. Throttle response is much improved at any given RPM, in all gears.

Simply put, these Tri Flow Cams are AMAZING. Thank you Geoff Bardal and Colt Cams!!!