If you’re a car enthusiast who has not heard of the Supra…where have you been? As we all know, these JDM vehicles equipped with the legendary inline 6 2jz engines can take a tremendous amount of abuse making upwards of 800 ponies while not skipping a beat. But how exactly can this be? Easy…Quality parts and over-engineer it the Toyota way.
As per the “gentlemen’s agreement”, (basically an agreement between manufacturers in Japan to limit power of engines to around 300hp) the mk4 supra came out of the factory making around 280-320 hp depending on it being bought in or out of Japan. However, the 2jz engine in the Supra was built to handle 2 or even 3 times the horsepower that it was rated for.
An engine block made for abuse:
The large chunk of metal that is at the heart of the engine is the engine block. So if the engine block is made of quality materials that’s a good sign. The 2jz engine came with a cast iron engine block with a “closed deck”
“Closed deck” means the space around the cylinder of the block is completely closed and there are no coolant passages right next to the cylinder like some other engine blocks. There are only coolant passages further away from the cylinder. So basically there is a good hefty chunk of just solid cast iron around each cylinder which prevents the block from cracking or warping and enables the engine to take massive amounts of boost without destroying the engine.
Cast iron as the engine block is great in terms of strength however it does take more time to dissipate heat. That’s why the cylinder head was made of light aluminum which is great at dissipating heat so the excess heat from the iron block can be cooled down sufficiently from the aluminum head.
Over-Engineered to last beyond a lifetime:
If you want an engine to withstand insane power without causing massive destruction, one essential factor is lubrication!
Engine oil needs to get to all the essential components of the engine all the time while running so the internal components do not have metal to metal contact and can dissipate excess heat.
The 2JZ-GTE engine took extra precautions by adding extra oil "squirters" at the base of the cylinder along with the top so that the piston gets sufficient lubrication on its way down as well. Along with that, Toyota made sure the 2JZ had high capacity oil pumps to provide a surplus of oil to all the areas that need it.
Other Engineering:
Besides oil, a few other components that made this 2JZ “over-engineered” were high-capacity cooling systems, forged steel crankshafts, heavy duty crankshaft bearing caps just to name a few.
The Supra's that came to the US did not come with VVT (variable valve timing) however people did not mind because these 2JZ without VVT were “non-interference” engines. In other words if the timing breaks for some reason while the engine is running the pistons will not go slamming into the valves causing catastrophic engine damage like in other vehicles that have “interference engines.”
That’s why for interference engines it is extremely important that the timing belt is changed at the correct interval otherwise the belt without warning can snap and cause massive damage in the engine.
So to sum it up in simple terms… even if you tried to destroy this 2JZ-GTE engine, it would challenge you to try again and again and again until you finally surrender and give this legendary engine the recognition it deserves. The JDM masterpiece.
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