Toyota GR-FKS engines

7GR-FKS - This one for example, was used in prado and the mini bus.

What I found interesting is that, this engine came out also in 2015, was put in Land Cruiser Prado 150, makes me think that they literally made 2nd version of it for the USA, which our
2GR-FKS. Prado 150 too dropped its 4.0 L V6 in 2015, and went 3.5 V6 same as Taco did.

However the Prado 150 dropped that V6 in 2020 again and went Turbo diesel, since we have no Japanese diesels here, Taco kept the V6 here.

I assume it was used in Sienna, Lexus, Camry etc since Toyota over here does not really produce as much SUV/Truck vehicles as across ocean.

Then you look at 1GR-FE 4runner engine, which was used in both LC and the hilux. Tundra previously.

Then we go to V35A-FTS ( Current gen Tundra and Seq ), same thing here. They launched this engine in J300, but diesel so no engine failures for land cruiser.

Previous big fat tundra V8 3UR-FE was also ancient land cruiser engine, but again was diesel.

I guess I am happy to see that these engines were thought out in Japan, since they seem to be lining up trucks here and across, rather than just having Toyota USA make the decisions for USA models. Which is prob what happened with the T24A-FTS. But we will see!

However, the new taco & engine , T24A-FTS bad news here. Its not in any of the Eurasia models, only for Taco & USA, I guess this is where I would draw the line , not paying over 50K for something like that. I am not booing at any 4th gen owners, but just something to note.

 

I'm struggling to understand your point.

 

My point is that, until new generation Toyotas, we were paying money for real Toyotas. The newer they get, the less touch they have with actual Toyota Motors.

 

I don't buy the "German engineering" or "Italian engineering", whatever else country engineering. It doesn't really matter where it's designed or built. The 2GR-FKS was designed in Japan but the engine management was all done in the US. The 2GR-FKS was assembled at the Toyota Huntsville Engine Plant.

Back in the 90s, Japan was killing it with the engines in many of their flag ship cars. Engines that were producing 100hp/liter without forced induction. In contrast to the US at the time, we had "performance" engines like the 5.0 mustang making only 43hp/Liter.

Times have changed and now US manufactures are making more efficient engines. The last year of the NISMO 370z was making ~90hp/Liter while the mustang is now right at 100hp/Liter both normally aspirated.

One thing I really like about the T24A-FTS is the turbo. I live at ~7000ft and regularly drive above 10,000 feet. On occasion, I get up to 14k and I have trouble holding 2nd gear on minor hills with an empty truck on stock tires. The T24A-FTS doesn't have this problem. Even if I had a v8, it would still struggle with the altitude.

 

I would agree in general that current TOYOTA offerings have become far too Americanized, i.e. too damn big and expensive.

 

are you saying there isnt a different in the engineering between cultures/ countries?

 

It's just marketing garbage. For every example of good German engineering, there is a bad one. The same goes for the US, Italy, etc. Even China has some examples of amazing engineering e.g. DJI, and Lithium Iron Phosphate blade batteries. With all that said, I recognize that China has high IP theft, and more than their fair share garbage.