Yep, it's in a Miata somewhere.
Like, for example, how the 1UZFE is one of the few road-going engines approved for use in airplanes. They are so reliable that people put them in frickin' airplanes! I can only think of one more which is the 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce engine that I forget the name of. But that, my friends, is serious credentials.
I have another serious credential to mention (that rhymes) but let's get the basics out of the way. It's a 4.0l V8. That's where the boring stuff ends. It was one of the first, if not the first, aluminum block engines used in a road car. This was huge when it came out. Well, the motor is still huge I guess but it weighs so much less than it should! Thank you, Toyota as Lexus. I love you.
Sorry, I got a little carried away. Like I would be able to in an airplane powered by the same engine in your LS400. If that's not unbelievable to you, how about this?
I'm lazy and you can verify this yourself but once upon a time, a group of engineers got together to see how much boost a stock 1UZFE engine could handle without blowing up. So they fit one with a big turbo and let it rip.
It was on stands, not in a car. This was purely a test of the motor's strength. 10 psi... Nothing. 20, still nothing so they go from 30 to 40 slowly and to their surprise, this engine is taking it. That's 40 pounds of boost my friends but the story doesn't end! Oh no! They hit 50 psi and the motor blew just above that.
Did you hear what I just wrote? A stock engine was able to handle 1750hp (if I remember correctly) or 50 pounds per square inch of boost from a large turbo. This doesn't mean it would have lasted forever like that but it's a great test.
THE 1uzfe in a... car.
After all of this, I still have something else and it's the most interesting and amazing to me.
In 2007, a man named David Courier and his company dissected the 1UZFE and the conclusion they came to is that it is closer to an engine built for racing. Indeed, with its oversquare design and 6-bolt main bearings, the engine was originally being developed by Toyota to be used in race cars in the GT500. That didn't happen so they put it in the LS400, SC300, and a number of high end Toyotas and Lexuses.
That might explain why the engine has hypereutectic pistons. I had never heard of these before but they're pretty interesting. They are alloy pistons designed to hold more silicone inside at normal operating temperatures. This slows or eliminates thermal expansion of the pistons.
If you just look at the components, you realize - wow, this is an engine that was way ahead of its time. The amount abuse it can take is enourmous. It's usually more than every other component can take. Toyota knocked the ball out of a park and outside of the country and hit BMW on the head - sorry about the black eye.
That's my ego speaking. And really, when you own this car, you feel like it would take a lot to get a better vehicle. I'm talking about the LS400, of course, but I love other Lexuses and Toyotas too. As a second car, I would probably get an SC300.
Teal SC300/Soarer? Yes, please.
I'm veering off topic so why don't we check out the specs for the LS400. The other cars may have +/- 10 hp or torque because they're tuned differently so I'm just going with this car. As an example, the 2000 GS400 with the 1uzfe makes 10 more horsepower and torque than the LS400 - big deal.
1990-1994 Lexus LS400:
10:1 Compression, 251bhp, 260 lb-ft torque
1995-1997 Lexus LS400:
10.4:1 Compression, 261bhp, 269 lb-ft torque. Lighter connecting rods and pistons. Now we're getting somewhere good. These years are the fastest LS400s because you can reach 159.9 mph with the car having no governor.
This year is faster from a standing stop as well and there's one dirty thing that happened. The cars got drive-by-wire next year.
1998-2000 Lexus LS400:
10.5:1 Compression, 290bhp, 300 ft-lb torque. VVTi (Variable Valve Timing) was introduced for slightly better mileage and gave the motor more power. Unfortunately, the drive-by-wire system they installed actually made the car slower.
In my humble opinion, the Japan-only Toyota Crown is an amazing car and it looks great.
I heard through the grapevine and yes, I know my references are just impeccable, that supposedly there was a Toyota MR2 Le Man's car with a 1UZFE built that never got to race.
My question is what kind of black magic did they use to fit this big V8 in a car that normally will only take the smallest V6 at maximum.
I think they were just using the racing thing as an excuse to put a badass motor in a luxury sedan and some sports cars.
To end, I would like to really just say thank you to Toyota because they gave us an amazing motor to work with. I think it has enough power for most people stock but it can be modified if you have mulah* to have a lot of power.
The reason I say you're going to need money is that basically the path of least resistance as far as getting more power out of this thing is turbocharging it or supercharging it. There's still some websites around detailing some of this, including a twin-turbo LS400 build. Google should help you.
There's no real bolt on mods for power and let it be so. Like I said, the car has enough power. It will spin the wheels very easily.
I hope you guys enjoyed a little bit of a different article and please leave your criticism as well as what you would like to read about. Less very long sentences? You got it.
* Money.
- Rokas Kirvelis
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