Home to the most technologically advanced culture, Japan is home to several of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers. High standards of quality control, reliability, affordability, and efficient engineering have made Japanese manufacturers a dominant force in the global automotive market. In this article, a comparison will be made between Japan’s modern engine design methodology of using high-revving, smaller-capacity turbocharged engines, and the American tradition of using low-revving, large-capacity naturally aspirated engines. Japan’s most technologically advanced performance engine, the 2JZ-GTE, will be compared to America’s newest high-performance engine, the LS2. The Toyota-built 2JZ-GTE engine is a 3-liter (2,997 cc), dual-overhead-cam, inline-6 ​​powered by twin sequential turbos and is found in the Supra. Manufactured by General Motors, the LS2 is a 6-liter (5,967 cc), 8-cylinder (V-configuration) pushrod engine found in the Corvette.

When comparing performance engines, the main thing that matters is how much power and torque the engine produces, right? Err… well yes, and no. There are many factors to consider when comparing motors. First though, let’s do a side-by-side comparison of the horsepower and torque figures for each engine. General Motors’ LS2 makes an impressive 400 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 530 Nm of torque at 4,400 rpm. Toyota’s 2JZ-GTE makes a modest 320 horsepower at 5600 rpm and 440 Nm of torque at 3600 rpm. From inspection of these figures, it appears that we have a clear winner. The LS2 makes more power and more torque, so why do I think the 2JZ-GTE is a top performing engine? An important factor lies in the size of the engine, the LS2 is exactly twice the size of the 2JZ-GTE, but the power and torque figures are not even 25% larger. Why the high level of inefficiency?

The problem with the LS2 is that the engine has several fundamental design flaws and is based on outdated technology. The LS2 is a pushrod design, technically speaking this means it is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft below the pistons and uses pushrods to drive the lifters or tappets on the cylinder head to drive the pistons. valves. Pushrod engines are old technology, having largely been superseded by overhead camshaft designs in Europe and Japan.

Pushrod design is plagued with several problems. First, pushrod engines have limited ability to accelerate compared to overhead camshaft designs. This is due to their greater rotational mass, susceptibility to valve “float”, and the tendency for pushrods to flex or break at high rpm. The LS2’s redline is 6500rpm, compared to the 2JZ-GTE’s higher 7200rpm redline. Second, pushrod engines have limited valve flexibility. Most pushrod engines only have two valves per cylinder (like the LS2). Overhead cam engines, however, often use three, four, or even five valves per cylinder for greater efficiency and power. The 2JZ-GTE has four valves per cylinder, making a total of 24 valves for the engine. The LS2, with its two valves per cylinder, has a total of 16 valves for the engine.

In the form of twin sequential turbochargers, perhaps the 2JZ-GTE’s biggest innovative feature compared to the LS2 is the use of forced induction. Because the 2JZ-GTE has a low compression ratio, it allows the turbochargers to work. A turbo charger is a device that compresses the air flowing into the engine. The advantage of compressing air is that it allows the engine to put more air into a cylinder, and more air means more fuel can be added. So you get more power out of each explosion in each cylinder. Turbo charging is perhaps the most efficient way to get power out of an engine, both small and large.

By using turbochargers in smaller capacity engines, Japan has been able to create extremely lightweight, high-revving engines that are easily retrofitted and have excellent fuel economy. Simple modifications to turbo cars allow for big performance gains, especially when compared to naturally aspirated engines. As an example, the 2JZ-GTE with an aftermarket exhaust, front mount intercooler, and taller boost setup makes significantly more power than the LS2. If one spends more money, the gains can be huge. Extracting power from a naturally aspirated engine is a lot more work. First of all, if you’re looking for big power, you really need to open up the engine and do internal modifications for extra power, unlike a turbo engine that can be effortlessly modified, without opening up the engine. Power is often extracted from naturally aspirated engines by modifying the camshafts and doing work on the engine head. These modifications are expensive and significantly alter the ‘street friendliness’ of your car. Namely producing rough idling, tendency to stall and poor fuel economy.

With all the praise I’ve given the 2JZ-GTE, it might seem like the LS2 engine is an underperforming engine. This is certainly not the case, one need only look at the stock power figures to realize that straight out of the car dealership this engine is seriously fast, with neck-breaking torque. Its design may be dated and its fuel consumption low, but there’s no question about it. If you’re looking for the V8 to rock a lot of Aussies long after, then you’ll definitely be happy with the LS2. The LS2 is very ‘street friendly’ with 90% of its torque available right at idle. This equates to effortless towing, overtaking and pure adrenaline every time you hit the throttle. Also, the LS2 has some advantages over the more advanced 2JZ-GTE engine. The LS2 is a much less complex engine, and as such, when something does go wrong, it’s much easier to identify the cause and fix the problem. Furthermore, because the LS2 is naturally aspirated (unlike the 2JZ-GTE), there is much less stress placed on the internal components of the engine, and therefore I would expect a longer lifespan than the 2JZ-GTE.

With fuel prices at an all-time high today, it’s important to make sure your engine has the optimal balance of performance and fuel economy. Once again, the 2JZ-GTE outperforms the LS2. This is due to the capacity of the engine, the Toyota being 3 liters and the GM engine being 6 liters. With exactly twice the displacement, unsurprisingly, the LS2 uses more gas. However, this does not mean that the 2JZ-GTE has good fuel economy. Unfortunately, power comes at a cost, and the two engines discussed aren’t cheap.

The 2JZ-GTE has numerous clever design features, which contribute to its strength and robustness as an engine. Two of its most advanced features are the use of sequential turbos and VVT. VVT stands for Variable Valve Timing and is an advanced technology in overhead camshaft engines where a mechanical device is used to switch between a “small” cam for low to medium revs and a “big” cam for high revs. This allows for good drivability at low revs and excellent high-powered acceleration at high revs. However, the main engineering feat of the 2JZ-GTE is the use of sequential turbos. Having two turbochargers allows for a small primary turbocharger to kick in early and give great low-rpm boost response and then a secondary turbocharger to gradually kick in further up the rev range for incredible peak power. By having this setup, it allowed Toyota to create an engine with phenomenal response across any rev range and also opened the way for some serious mod potential.

To conclude, size definitely doesn’t matter performance wise because it’s all about engines. Japanese performance engines are using new technologies like turbo charging and VVT to get phenomenal power and torque figures similar to engines twice their size. The 2JZ-GTE from an engineering and technical design perspective is far superior in all respects to the outdated technology featured in the LS2.