The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Toyota
I keep hearing Toyota engines don't like endurance racing. Is there a common failure, or is it failure by committee? I have a co-worker looking to get rid of a scion TC. It is tempting but not if I'm going to have to become a Toyota engine rebuild expert
Scion TC? That's all like KACKAO!
I've not seen many issues in Class B with Toyota.
Class A.......well, everything eventually has issues in Class A.
.....
BOOSH!
Toyota is a big company with a long history so saying their engines have trouble in endurance racing is too sweeping a statement. 20/22R...yeah, they blow up. Many of the Camry V6's have had challenges (blown headgaskets).
The 2.5 in the TC is likely straight out of the base Camry. Bet if you keep it cool, put a rev limitter on it and keep it cool, it will be as good as any engine. So find out where they make power and then were they are just making more noise...that crossover point is your rev limitter. Then keep it cool. Serious...don't rev it to the moon and cool everything you can.
Honestly, Honda engines have a worse reputation in Lemons overall. That said, a team of Toyota US employees that run/ran a Corolla FX16 and a first gen MR2 are the only team to use my engine hoist to pul three engines in the same weekend.
Toyota is a big company with a long history so saying their engines have trouble in endurance racing is too sweeping a statement. 20/22R...yeah, they blow up.
The 20/22R engine is all about RPM management, They don't make a lot of power but if you manage the RPM's and use good internals they will last and are super easy to work on, harder to find used replacements these days though.
So find out where they make power and then were they are just making more noise...that crossover point is your rev limitter.
It took us 3 years, but once we finally ran our '99 Camry V6 powered MR2 on the dyno, and made some fancy graphs in Excel, we realized that we should be shifting at 5300 RPM instead of 6300 (fuel cut), so now we only go past 5300 on long straight aways in 5th gear. Lots quieter, saves some fuel, win-win. Should have done it 3 years sooner.
I think we got ~25 races on our first junkyard engine. It's still in the car, it finished the June Gingerman race, and while it passes the Autozone "block tester" test, I think it has a leaking head gasket. We shall see. We do run 10 quarts of oil which might be the reason it hasn't chucked a rod.
Having a Toyota thats now exploded twice in 6 races and has been sitting in my yard for over a year because i dont know what to do with it, they splode. now i will say my little 1.5 is at 6k rpm the whole time with a 6 speed but it makes 100hp and it has to or its just not fun for me. Now getting used engines my 5efe is junk, Toyota people dont change oil the engines are absolutely disgusting when you rebuild them. Even a full rebuild only netted me 4 races before rod 1 left the building with no oil pressure issues at all. my oil pant holds 7 qts of oil to help also. The easy to get corolla right now has aluminum cylinder walls and theyre coated, once the coating wears thats it its done. this happens around 150-200k where every rolla is about at thats for sale. Thes 1zz were not meant to be rebuilt. If my memory is correct the 2.4 in the camry and tc are not this way. I could see this being a viable engine with proper oil and cooling and last. it has much more power so you dont have to kill it to be fun.
Toyota is a big company with a long history so saying their engines have trouble in endurance racing is too sweeping a statement.
Bet if you keep it cool, put a rev limitter on it and keep it cool, it will be as good as any engine. So find out where they make power and then were they are just making more noise...that crossover point is your rev limitter. Then keep it cool. Serious...don't rev it to the moon and cool everything you can.
I agree, and IMO just about any blanket statement is usually wrong. Keeping pretty much any engine cool and not revving it to the max will drastically extend it's life.
Honestly, Honda engines have a worse reputation in Lemons overall.
This is my 11th season in Lemons, and my 10th one running a Honda. I keep hearing Honda engines are know for blown head gaskets, yet we've never had that issue. Turns out if you run an oil cooler, ARP head studs with a OEM MLS gasket, and don't rev it to the moon, they hold together for a long time.
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