Tomei Powered: The Engine Internals Specialist
Tomei has been making JDM engine internals since 1969. Every serious RB26, 2JZ, or SR20 build eventually uses a Tomei oil pump, cam set, or Expreme Ti exhaust.
Tomei Powered: The Engine Internals Specialist
While other JDM tuners chased flashy body kits and dyno records, Tomei Powered quietly became the most important engine internals supplier in Japan. Founded in 1969 in Saitama, Tomei has spent 55+ years making cams, valve springs, oil pumps, cranks, and exhausts for nearly every Japanese performance engine.
The Oil Pump Story
Tomei's most legendary product is the RB26 oil pump. Stock RB26 oil pumps fail at high rpm on tuned engines. The OEM gear drive develops a failure mode at 8,000+ rpm where the pump runs dry and starves main bearings. Tomei developed a heavy-duty billet oil pump with revised gear geometry in the early 1990s. Today it is mandatory on any RB26 build making over 450 hp. Without a Tomei oil pump, the engine will eventually spin a bearing.
Similar Tomei oil pump upgrades exist for SR20DET, 4G63, and 2JZ-GTE.
The Cam Catalog
Tomei makes cams for nearly every JDM engine:
- RB20/RB25/RB26 (Procam, Poncam, Ponkan variants)
- 2JZ-GTE and 2JZ-GE
- SR20DE and SR20DET
- 4G63 and 4G63T
- 13B rotary (Pro Port intake ports)
- B16A/B18C/K20A Honda
- 3S-GE and 3S-GTE
The Tomei Procam catalog has cam profiles for both street (Poncam) and race (Procam) applications. The Ponkan variant is an intermediate grind for daily-driven high-rpm builds.
The Expreme Ti Exhausts
Tomei's Expreme Ti titanium exhaust line launched in the 2000s and became the standard full-titanium aftermarket exhaust in JDM tuning. Ultra-lightweight (Expreme Ti systems save 8-12 kg over OEM), perfect fitment, and a characteristic titanium gold tone on the tailpipes after heat cycling. The Expreme Ti R34 GT-R system is one of the most copied designs in the global JDM aftermarket.
The Parts Philosophy
Tomei's approach is incremental improvement from deep engineering. A Tomei cam is not dramatically different from OEM in profile. A Tomei oil pump looks similar to OEM at a glance. But the tolerances are tighter, the materials are better, and the parts were developed through decades of dyno testing on the exact engines they're designed for.
The Demo Cars
Unlike Mine's or Top Secret, Tomei never built famous demo cars. The company's marketing was entirely technical — Tomei would publish dyno charts and part comparisons rather than Option Magazine cover shoots. The approach made Tomei less famous to casual JDM fans but beloved by serious builders.
Why Tomei Matters
Nearly every serious JDM engine build in the last 30 years has at least one Tomei part in it. The RB26 oil pump alone has saved thousands of engines from bearing failure. Tomei's catalog is so deep and so engineering-focused that other tuners routinely use Tomei parts inside their "complete" engine builds — a Spoon Civic has Tomei valve springs, a JUN Supra has Tomei cam gears, a Mine's GT-R has a Tomei oil pump. The industry runs on Tomei internals.