Inside BMW's Greatest Engine

bmw might have built one of the best all-round engines ever it's tunable reliable and you'll find it in everything from the one series to the x7 this thing can fit in a hatchback and power one of the monstrous suvs that bmw seem to love making some people are even comparing it to the famous toyota 2jt an engine well known for its ridiculous reliability and ability to withstand serious power when it was in the mark iv supra which according to the internet can do no wrong so why is this being compared to one of the most iconic engines ever and what engineering makes this thing so popular let's get into it so the 2jz the engine from that car that was in the movie franchise that so many of us love and this b-58 engine in the new one series what makes them so similar the basic similarities are that they're both inline sixes they're both three liters and they're both turbocharged despite coming from different manufacturers you'll also find both engines in a supra so i also controversially turned to bmw to develop the new inline six for the fifth generation of the supra after an almost 20-year wait toyota got a load of stick for not making their own engine from scratch but when it comes to straight sixes bmw is a pretty good choice a lot of the comparisons to the 2jz have come from the b58's ridiculous tune ability video games movies and the internet have given the old supra a reputation for being insanely over engineered and endlessly tunable and any mx-5 owner will tell you that not all cars come tunable from the factory if you stick a big single turbo in the engine bay and do nothing else you're going to have pistons and valves jumping through the bonnet by the end of the street and this is one of the reasons that the b58 is being compared to it as it's proving to be a tuna's dream for a start the version of the engine in the supra is rated at 335 brake horsepower by toyota but independent dyno runs have shown that it actually makes around 370 brake horsepower that's similar to the old one as well seeing as the original claim was 276 brake horsepower because of some gentleman's agreement but it's well known that they're easily pushing out over 300 brake horsepower and in case that's not enough for you then around 500 brake horsepower is easily attainable with a few bolt-on breathing modifications and a remap these engines are even pushed to over 700 brake horsepower without touching the bottom end and that's mad 17 year olds all over the country could be taking a pretty normal one series adding an intake and exhaust and maybe a turbo and they're getting towards 500 horsepower so what makes it so strong and so tunable the bottom end is a good place to start and it's the part of the engine under the most stress and with the most movement going on you can put as much power and torque through any engine you want but if your rods have been skipping leg day then they'll be departing the block and making a swift ascent to the stratosphere trust me on this you don't want the hole in your bottom end to strengthen things up the b58 crank is forged and even though the pistons and rods aren't they're still pretty beefy and there's also something called a crank girdle something that the 2jz also has which strengthens the block by tying the main bearing caps and bulkheads together also like the 2jz the b58 squirt oil directly onto the bottom of the pistons to keep them cool the use of a twin-scroll turbocharger is also the reason why it's so easy to get great performance gains without ripping everything apart like anything turbocharged considerable gains can be made with a simple remap and you'll easily reach 400 brake horsepower with the b58 quite a unique design feature is that there's a water to air intercooler inside the intake manifold and after the throttle body and unless pushing for those huge horsepower figures it's more than adequate and it's obvious why the comparisons are being made there are elements of the b-58 that are over-engineered so did bmw and toyota design this thing with tuning in mind i'd say it's more with an eye on reliability despite some similarities more than 20 years separate the engines so they're bound to be some differences when you take a look a little deeper the advance of technology in engines means that the b58 is a lot more complicated than the old 2jz electronics control and monitor things like the throttle the intake cam lift and even the thermostat the b58 is also chain driven rather than belt driven and it uses a single turbo charger rather than a twin turbo and the 2jz was actually a really heavy engine weighing in around 200 kilograms because of its cast iron block the b-58 on the other hand uses the cast aluminium block and weighs under 140 kilos it's a modern engine so it also uses a lot of plastic parts like the intake manifold and even the cam cover the old engine has been around a lot longer so there's a good gauge of how reliable it is compared to the b58 which has only been around for about five years or so so the 2jz has rightfully gained a reputation for being bulletproof whether it's keeping it standard or pushing it up over 800 brake horsepower without cracking open the engine it's been tested in pretty much every way possible that also means that a lot of people have been working on these engines for years and know them inside out any kind of failure has already happened and been learned from that's then helped by the colossal catalogue of aftermarket parts available to squeeze more power out of it it's almost unfair really to compare the bmw engine just yet despite proving to be overall reliable and tunable so far will all those parts be able to do it for thousands of miles and years of abuse only time will tell but you can't help but think that all of those extra electronics might make it less dependable in the long run if you sift through all of the praise it hasn't been completely plain sailing for the b-58 it has had a few small reliability issues nothing worthy of a huge recall but something there nonetheless some engines have had problems with oil filters disintegrating leaving unwanted debris in the filter housing and that's not good but as mentioned before it is used in a huge range of cars so it's not shocking to see a few small problems but what is almost more impressive is that the b58 is the base for much more than just standard road cars it's actually used as the base for the current m3 and m4s engine now with the name s58 and as it's an m engine bmw improved a lot by using forged pistons and rods two high-pressure fuel pumps and twin turbo chargers the end result is a base power figure of just over 500 horsepower the engine is also used in bmw's m4 gt3 race car again under a different name the p58 and it's actually quite similar to the one found in the road car with the same cylinder head crankshaft and connecting rods but despite the b58 being so good the super crowd weren't best pleased that it's a bmw engine powering their new car but i think toyota made the right choice in turning to bmw for the super engine yes it would have been nice to see a 3jz but imagine how insanely expensive it would be for toyota to create a brand new straight six just for this car and even if they did who's to say that it would be anywhere near as good as the 2jz was they'd have to design it to meet all the right emissions targets and still be a worthy engine for the fifth generation supra the expense of doing that would probably have made this car impossible to build if you enjoyed this video you should check out this other video about koenigsegg's tiny electric motor and i'll catch you in the next one

Channel: OVERDRIVE

Views: 909,643

Keywords: Driven Media, Driver61, Scott Mansell, Automotive, Cars, Car Media, Driven, Driving, Racing, engineering, car, cars, design, aerodynamics, b58, bmw engine, bmw reliability, tuning, turbo, power, best bmw engines, bmw engines, supra, toyota supra, 2jz, Fast and Furious

Id: 0ZwMhgg8COQ

Length: 6min 56sec (416 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 18 2022