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It's time for an ICONIC ENGINES episode on Toyota's rev-happy 2ZZ-GE engine.
The 2zz engine started it's life in 1999, building on the base created by the 1zz-fe engine just two years before. But the engines share very little with each other. The 2zz engine is the performance variant of Toyota's zz engine series, which was made as a replacement for Toyota's very popular and successful A series of engines. The A series spawned the legendary 4age engine among others, and the 2zz can be seen as the spiritual successor to the 4age. But if we compare the 2zz-ge engine to Toyota's older performance four cylinders (2tg, 18rg, 3sge, 4age), we will see that the 2zzge is different from all of them in that it has an all aluminum engine block, compared to cast iron blocks found in the older engines. Cast iron blocks are great and almost never go wrong, and Toyota as a car manufacturer usually prefers simple, beefy, high-mileage resistant engineering solutions that are very unlikely to develop faults. Cast iron blocks are one such piece of engineering and this explain why Toyota was slower to abandon them in its four cylinders compared to many other manufacturers. But times were changing, and Toyota had to make a more modern, lighter engine, and so the zz series of engines got an all aluminum engine block.
The 2zz came during an interesting time for Toyota, but one that can be described as somewhat sad for car enthusiasts. The mr2 mk2 (sw20) had turned from a turbo powered monster into a, perhaps better handling, but much tamer naturally aspirated car that was the mr2 spyder (zzw30), the legendary supra was also almost finished with it's production. The Prius hit the market in 1997 and over the next decade on so Toyota would be focused on developing the hybrid system and making it's cars cleaner and more fuel efficient. But Toyota wasn't ready to give up the sports car just yet and the 2zz engine really reflects the spirit of the times. It was fuel efficient and clean but also really sporty, fun and rev-happy.
So what about the specs? When looking at the specs of the 2zz engine it's very useful to look at it side by side with the 1zz engine. The differences between the 2zz and the 1zz reveal why the 2zz performs better, makes more power and revs higher. Although, upon first glance, the engines look very similar they are in fact very different, down to their bore and stroke. The 2zz has more bore and less stroke. This means it's better at revving higher, and also has more space for bigger valves so it breathes better and makes more power. This also means key parts between the 2zz and the 1zz are not interchangeable. You definitely can't take a 2zz head and put it on a 1zz block. The differences continue in the rest of the engine. The 2zz has very light internals, forged connecting rods and light cast pistons with a special low-friction coating. The variable valve timing between the 2zz and the 1zz is also different. The 1zz engine gets a more modest version that, in essence, only affects cam phasing. The 2zzge vvtl-i system is much more advanced and affects both cam light and cam duration on both the intake and the exhaust cam. Incidentally, the 2zz was Toyota's first engine to receive the vvtl-i version of Toyota's variable valve timing technology.
All of the differences between the 1zz and 2zz add up and the 2zz makes on average 50hp more than the 1zz depending on the particular engine, vehicle, market and tune. The 2zz-ge highest factory power output amounts to 190hp, while the 1zz highest stock power output is 130hp. So the 2zz makes more power than the 1zz, it also makes more torque but only marginally more, with the difference in torque being less than 10 Nm. This is of course due to the fact that the 1zz has more stroke than the 2zz engine.
So what are your options when tuning a 2zz-ge engines? Well there's a bit of sad news on that one as the 2zz-ge doesn't really have a stage one. The 2zz is sort of already "tuned" from the factory and your typical bolt on mods won't really do anything, and will often result in a power loss rather than a power gain. That being said, the 2zz is a great swap into older, lighter, more analogue Toyotas. The Toyota Celica, Matrix and the Corolla were already getting heavy by the end of the 90s. A 2zz in an aw11, ae82, ae92 or even an ae86 makes sense. It's lighter yet more powerful than the older engines so the results are usually very fun! the 2zz is also a super popular swap into the mr2 spyder. But how do you get more power from the 2zz? Do what lotus did and bolt a supercharger onto it. Supercharger kits are still available for the 2zz. What about a 2zz turbo? You can do that too, but you will need new internals or a brand new engine as step one, and turboing some of the older Toyota engines is actually a bit easier.
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