(engine roaring) - Supra, ever heard of it? (engine roaring) For 25 years now, it's been JZ this, and JZ that, but what is so
special about that 2JZ engine? (techno music) First, a little background. Toyota makes a whole family of inline six cylinder
engines called JZ's. How Toyota names all their engines is actually really interesting. You should look that up sometime later. But we'll talk about what we
need to know for the 2JZ GTE. Anyway, there are three 2.5 liter inline six engines called 1JZ's, and there are three three
liter variants called 2JZ's. So there's the first reason
why the 2JZ is pretty popular. The larger displacement of three liters simply means more horsepower
than a 2.5 liter engine. And who doesn't want more horsepower? I want more horsepower.
(man screaming) In the late 1980s and early '90s, bad car accidents were
getting out of hand in Japan and everyone there thought
that speed was a major factor. So Japanese domestic market automakers made an informal promise to each other that they wouldn't sell any cars with more than 280 horsepower. It was called a gentleman's agreement, and it was ignored by
everybody pretty quickly. Much the way Nolan repeatedly ignores his gentleman agreement to
pay me back for monies owed. - [Eddy] Hey, hey, Bart? - What's up Eddy? - [Eddy] What about the RB? - RB, yeah dude, I love Arby's! You go get me a Big
Montana, I'll keep rolling. Look, everybody knows,
speed doesn't really hurt, it's the sudden stops that get you. At the same time, automakers all promised not to jump into a horsepower war, the exchange rate was really
favorable for the end. If you're an econ kinda car nerd, check out James talking about the LS- - 400!
(air horn blaring) - But in Japan's recession, it wasn't a big stretch
for Toyota to spend a lot of money on an engine development
and quality materials. So that's what Toyota
did, and as a result, they ended up with some overbuilt engines that could easily make
over 280 horsepower angle. They were built so well, they could make double
or nearly triple that without having to do
significant engine work. The Toyota 2JZ GTE engine is the most notorious example of this. At its core, the 2JZ GTE is a twin turbo, three-liter inline six cylinder engine with an iron block and an aluminum head. So, 2JZ, three liter inline six. G, performance wide-angle
valve dual overhead cam. T, turbo charged, E,
electronic fuel injection. Those are all very good things to have if you wanna make more horsepower. Both fuel injection systems and turbos are pretty easy to tune and upgrade. And since it's an inline six, the primary and secondary
forces that are generated by the movement of the pistons cancel out, making it a naturally
smooth-running and balanced engine. It also leaves extra
space in the engine bay to get your hands dirtier
and install bigger turbos. If you wanna know more about
all that stuff I just said, check out our episode on
inline six versus V6s. American market Supras were
sold with bigger fuel injectors, stronger turbos, and
different cams than JDM cars. That helped them make 320 horsepower at 5600 RPM, and 315 foot
power of torque at 4,000 RPM. In it's stock form, the 2JZ
uses a sequential turbo setup. The first turbo spools up around 1800 RPM, and then the second turbo starts
making boost around 4,000. This kind of setup reduces turbo lag, but to make the biggest
horsepower numbers, tuners swap the twin turbo
setup for one big turbo. And that sacrifices the spool up time, but a bigger turbo can make more boosts than two smaller ones. And that helps the engine make peak power. Making more power is pretty dang easy. The upgrade to a better flowing intake, better flowing exhaust,
a big single turbo, bigger front mount inner cooler to replace the stock
side mount inner cooler, higher flowing external waste
gate, bigger fuel injectors, fuel lines, fuel pump, and an ECU tune. If you're gonna make huge power, you're gonna need a strong engine. A lot of times, if you wanna unlock the hidden potential of an
engine, you gotta get in there. We enforce a bunch of
stuff, swap out some cams, replace all your valves
and gaskets, and you know, time consuming dirty, dirty stuff. The fact that Toyota
over-engineered the 2JZ is the main reason that it's so easy to bolt up a huge turbo
and make 800 horsepower. The cast iron engine
block is, well, cast iron. Which is really heckin' strong material. The block also has a fully-closed deck, and that means unlike
some other inline engines, the area around the cylinders
is completely filled in, except for some coolant passages. And that gives the block extra strength, and really keeps it from cracking when it's running high, high boost levels. The engine's crank shaft is made out of ultra-strong forged steel, so it can easily deal with
all those extra forces caused by making more power. The seven main bearing caps
that hold the crankshaft in place as it spins are
also massively strong. You see where I'm going with this? Straight out of a Toyota factory, the 2JZ can take a licking. Engines that are built
using more modest components would have to be torn down
to upgrade all the components that could fail under
higher stress of more power. I mentioned earlier that the
cylinder head is aluminum, which is lightweight. It helps dissipate heat much more quickly. The pistons are also cast aluminum, and they have slightly dished tops. That gives the 2JZ GTE engine
a lower compression ratio than the last popular 2JZ
cousins in the family. And while sometimes lower compression can mean lower performance, a benefit of lower
compression from the factory is that it makes it easier to
safely run more turbo boosts. Another unique feature
of the 2JZ GTE is that there's oil squirters in the
lower halves of the cylinder. They spritz a bit of oil on the bottom of the piston to keep them more lubricated and reduce friction. There's over twice as
many lubricating ports in the 2JZ compared to some
of it's newest competitors. At high engine speed, that helps keep the engine temperatures a bit cooler and help keeps the pistons lubricated so they don't break down. Jeez, check out our video on engine oils to absorb more info on that. (light drum music) Man, that's gotta be it,
that's so much stuff. No wait, there's more! (children cheering) This engine's also got
a high capacity oil pump and a cooling system, do
you see where I'm going? The engine is made to
withstand mind boggling abuse. (engine roaring) JDM Toyota's got
variable-valve timing in '98, but the US didn't. You wanna know more about valve timing? Check out the video on V-Tech. Turns out, people are just
fine with the Non-VVT2Js because it's a non-interference engine. So, if you're running at 6,000 RPM and a timing belt breaks,
a non-interference engine means the pistons won't
smash up into your valve. With variable valve timing, it doesn't always know
that the belt broke, so the piston still driving up, the valve might be pushed down to open and, kaboom, you got a bent valve. The non-VVT2JZ is not a valve bender. Which means if the belt
breaks or you skip a tooth, you don't gotta get inside there
and replace all the valves, which is both pricey and time consuming. So why all the love on the 2JZ GTE? It was a beautifully designed, over-engineered cast-iron behemoth that, because of it's inline design,
is somehow still elegant. It feels like the engineers designing it took into consideration
every possible condition that could damage an engine, and they designed around all of them. They created a nearly
bulletproof inline six, and people love it so much that there's immeasurable
aftermarket parts forums in assistant if you wanna
start working on one. We're all jazzed up 'cause
there's some cars coming off the line in the last few years making ballpark 800 horsepower. There have been 2JZ
reportedly boosted and tuned at six, seven and, yeah,
even 800 horsepower with stock internals, and even more when you swap out them jugs. 2JZ engine, subscribe to Donut, guys. It's how we get to do such
awesome stuff for you. Means a lot. We got new merchandise in our store. Go to shop.donut.media
and check out this video from James on the Supra. You know him from behind the camera, check out Eddie in front
of the camera, en prostato. Follow us on Twitter and
Instagram at Donut Media, and follow me at BidsBarto. Don't tell my wife I
2JZ swapped everything.
i don’t think i’ve ever actually learned anything from these videos.... they’re trying to joke too much in an attempt to appeal to wider audiences