10 second gen2 camry wouldn't be impossible. It would require extensive modification & an engine swap, but gen2's are lightweight.
Your dad is... Well wrong. v6's never stopped coming from Japan. The '89 2vz-fe was the last v6 without o2 sensors Toyota made. Maybe he meant that.
You can always swap the E-153 M/T from a 92-93 Camry, or a 97+ Camry / Solara. It's fairly stout. A good clutch & it handles 400-500hp without problems.
The engine itself has *the* funkiest factory Y-pipe of all time. If you throw out cruise control, and move the battery to the back, it would be the easiest Toyota v6 to turbocharge, simply by tapping the funky y-pipe.
The y-pipe sucks tho... It needs to be replaced if you're not putting a turbo on it. It's going to be expensive... Exhaust / performance shops are going to pee their pants when they see the work they're going to have to do!
The 2vz-fe is also the only Toyota v6 with really, really restrictive headers. So it has a little more to gain with a set of headers. Check Australia, they're more Toyota parts to be had down there. I know someplace down there use to make 2vz-fe headers.
All Toyota ECU's run overly rich. You can install a piggyback to lean out the mid-upper rpm range. Always 10 horsepower to be found somewhere in there.
If you get a Y-pipe made, and you have no emessions testing, get rid of the Cat convertor. Another easy 5-10hp to gain from loosing that restrictive hunk of metal.
You can get the heads ported & polished. That can be fairly big money, and loose the car for a week, but nothing else N/A will give you as big a gain.
Any cam trick is going to cost out the wazoo. Forget it.
Avoid any intake modification. It's a waste of money. Simply put... You don't have 3hp to gain with a perfect intake, or 3hp to loose with a bad one. The stock intake is all ready CAI, if you want it louder, remove the resonator.
A Cat-back exhaust also has no power to give you. The factory system isn't very restrictive.
n2o is always a cheap way to add power. A 75 wet shot oughta be nice. If you're running over a 75 wet shot, you need a bigger fuel pump, and injectors / extra injectors.
You can swap to a later 3vz-fe with custom mounts, A 1mz-fe if you want all the OBD-II re-wiring, the 3.4L 5vz-fe simply won't fit in the engine bay. Inches too tall.
You can also do a direct swap to a 3s-gte. That's gonna be the easiest way to make 300hp.
Read on ToyotaNation.com also. A couple of 2vz-fe guys doing some modding. Jetspeed finally did his E-153 M/T swap.
For stuff you can do right now without any money.
Adjust your AFM
here, and adjust your transmission kick-down cable for a sporty feel
here.
I forget if the 2vz-fe has ACIS (Varriable intake) or not. If it does, I can show you how to change it so it activates much earlier. Get some pictures of the passanger side of your upper intake manifold, the front of the entire upper intake manifold, and a few closeups of the vacuum hoses on top of the throttlebody.
