BlackWorksInc
New member
That's actually a fair assessment, if I get bored I may dig up the comparisons of sub-5.0l Cast Iron Block/Aluminum Head V8 engines I did when I spent way too much time in one of those "V6 vs. V8" threads.
Basically the 2UZ-FE is not a speed queen, nor is she a powerhouse; but what she does do good is straddle the line of solid construction, reliability, mild complexity (i.e. Single VVTi, Electronic Throttle, some more modern touches without going too crazy such as BMW's leaky/occasionally operating VANOS and Valve-tronic systems or GM's really weird deal with V8 cylinder heads; hell I'll even throw in the very powerful Hemi engines... well they are powerful when they're not wiggling valve seats like toddler with their first baby tooth or other issue they have.) From the very beginning the 2UZ-FE was designed specifically for the Land Cruiser application where a high torque, low power band, very reliable engine was needed in a global vehicle that needs those features (granted the majority of mall crawling LC100's in the US are not entirely representative of the Land Cruiser marque), not a "F1 Car Inspired Race Engine" like the 1UZ-FE in the old LS400; people forget that V8's come in many flavors and not all of them are "Let me burn my tires out at the stoplight to impress this chick, but not really be able to tow a trailer" sports car engines (not that I don't like sports cars). People tend to forget that the V8 is liked by many fleets and work vehicles because that low end torque is easily achievable, where as to make a V6 get that low a torque band and have enough speed to get out of it's way requires a bit more technology and tweaking.
The 2UZ-FE makes a decent amount of power over a wide, low torque band and is mated to a fairly well geared drivetrain to take advantage of that. It's no numbers queen (and lets be honest here, why are we looking at HP in a work engine? it's a fairly good 300ftlbs engine) but she does pull hard when you need it. I did chuckle a bit on the 330 goof, but it doesn't surprise me because the main benefit of VVTi is not so much producing MORE power as it is giving you a wider band to play with that power; the ability to adjust the valve timing in various places lets you tweak the torque band a bit so you can get that power lower and higher without suffering from that cool sounding, but very power-inefficient "V8 Cam Lope".
The low numbers are probably more of Toyota being conservative in their engine design vs. pushing it too far and decreasing the reliability. I genuinely rarely hear bad things about the 2UZ-FE in terms of reliability besides bent connecting rods from the old supercharger kits (which is sort of something Toyota probably shouldn't have made thinner than their 1UZ-FE brethren in the grand scheme of things, but if you're gonna boost an NA engine you need to build it up regardless if you want reliable and significant power improvement) and the once in a blue moon dingbat who ran their timing belt too long and it snapped or somehow managed to overheat the engine and toasted it.
Post Note-
I was surprised to see that the 2GR-FKS in the new Tacomas actually puts out a bit less power (both ft.lbs and HP) than the older single or dual VVTi 1GR-FEs in the J120/J150 platforms. I want to say that the torque band is much peppier though than the 1GR-FE's and while the 6spd is a bit confused on how it wants to transmit power in the higher end and at take-off; it does feel like it has a bit more pull than previous engine. Time will tell I suppose.
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