Edited Entry 1 (posted previously in 2010):
My car is a 2000 w/ 113k on the body, 39k on my 2zz swap, stock 5 speed, PFC, intake, HF Cat, exhaust, unfortunately it has a customized, stock (pre-cat gutted) header. I have my rev limiter set at 8500 RPM, and currently have lift set to engage at 5500 RPM (although I think I am going to try 5700 after advice on another post). I now have new tires all around. I am running stock 04 wheels all around with brand new Bridgestone Potenza RE040's. My suspension is all stock. I still don't have a "proper" tune, but I am starting to wonder if this one will work, if not long term, at least for a while.
This car is amazing so far! I can't wait to get it on one of my curvy road mini road trips (Southern Ohio, which will hopefully come Monday), then on to the Dragon in June or July or maybe both. I am fairly young at 27, but I have been around the car business a lot, and have owned 30 (mostly sports) cars including 2 Vipers (00 coupe, 04 Roadster), 2 Boxsters (05 non S, 08 LE S), 4 Corvettes (C6 conv, C6 coupe, C5 conv, C5 coupe), 03 Mustang Cobra Convertible, 05 350z Roadster, 2002 stock 1zz Spyder, 91 MR2 Turbo, 93 NA MR2, numerous miles on S2000's as dealer demos, etc. So I feel that I have a pretty good knowledge base to put together a 2zz "road test".
First gear acceleration is very smooth throughout, but does seem to have 3 distinct levels. There is the getting going stage (Idle to around 4000 RPM) where the gearing and light weight make the car feel quick and sporty, but nothing like what is coming (here the car feels quite similar to a 1zz Spyder with a few bolt ons). Then from about 4000-6500 RPM the car seems to hit a new level feeling fast (this is where the acceleration feels comparable to a 350z, which I owned right before this car). Then this car becomes undeniably very fast from 6500-8500 RPM (here it actually feels a bit faster than my 2008 Boxster S that I had to give up in September 09). With my stock 5 speed and stock 04 sized rear tires I have to shift into 2nd at about 44 MPH (although I probably end up shifting a little short of 44 MPH, maybe 42 or 43).
This is where I begin to lament not paying a premium for a car with the 6 speed swap. With my 4.312:1 rear axle ratio, and 1.904:1 2nd gear ratio (down from 4.529:1 and 2.05:1 on the 6 speed) my car slows noticeably for a few moments in 2nd gear as I drop to 5000 RPM at the shift. While 5000 RPM felt like 350z territory in 1st gear it feels a few paces slower than the z until around 6000 RPM. From 6000 RPM on to the limiter it feels on par with the aforementioned Boxster S.
Overall I would guess that my car is very similar to a stock Honda S2000 when it comes to acceleration statistics (0-60, quarter mile, etc.). I feel this is due to my 2nd gear ratio, in 1st gear this car feels a decent amount faster than an S2000 to me. Overall it's 1st gear acceleration feels very similar to my 2008 Boxster S. Once I shift into 2nd though, I am sure the Boxster S would slowly walk away.
Third through fifth gears all feel great, and have very good spacing. I don't track my car so I never hit lift in these gears, but they always feel right in normal driving. That is with one huge exception, this car needs a tall, cruising 6th gear. This is where you would expect me to once again wish I had the Celica 6 speed, but I am not going to. The Celica 6 speed would only reduce my 70 MPH cruising RPM by 232 RPM, which would be nice I guess, but hardly a huge difference. This car needs a 6th gear with a ratio of around 0.6:1. Or I would be fine if the current fifth gear ratio of 0.815:1 were replaced with a 0.6:1 ratio. That would create a huge gap between 4th and 5th gear, but that would be fine with me as I would just use gears 1-4 for normal driving, and then use 5th for highway cruising. This type of change would drop 70 MPH cruising RPM on my car from 3501 RPM to 2876 RPM, which is huge, and would not only increase fuel economy, while reducing wear and tear on the engine, but it would also much more importantly make highway cruising much more enjoyable by reducing engine noise greatly.
As far as driving dynamics outside of acceleration go I will report that I have yet to notice the extra weight of the engine change the way the car handles. As far as handling limits go this car seems to be just like a stock 1zz. I do however feel that the extra power will make those capabilities much more apparent, but I will post about that in Part 2 after I take a curvy roads mini road trip.
Fuel Economy has been impressive thus far. On the way home from getting the car (150 miles mostly highway) I got 38 MPG!! The tank I am working on currently has been mostly short drives near my house, idling, testing out the lift, with a few 15 mile commutes mixed in. It appears that I am pacing for around 25 or so MPG on this very aggressively driven tank, which I also consider very strong. I would predict that my fuel economy will end up being right around 30 MPG in mixed driving with a split of around 24-26 in city and 36-40 on the highway.
Stay tuned for part 2 which will focus on how the extra power changes the car's driving enjoyment on curvy roads along with anything else that I can think to add after more driving. Thanks for reading, and I hope this will be helpful to all especially those who are considering the swap, or like I was (and did), considering buying a car that already has the 2zz swap finished.