Toyota ZZ: Everything You Need to Know | Specs and More

If you’re a Toyota enthusiast, you may have heard of the Toyota AZ engine. Toyota designed the AZ for great fuel economy, and it’s still in production today. But, unlike the AZ engine family, Toyota built the ZZ engine family for excellent performance. As a whole, the ZZ engine family includes a few different variants, each with its own pros and cons.

The ZZ engine family was the first four-cylinder engine family from Toyota to use both an aluminum block and an aluminum cylinder head, which saves a ton of weight. Their previous performance engine family, the 4A engine family, used a cast-iron block design. The ZZ engines are so good that Lotus used them in their Elise. While the Elise might not be your typical “supercar,” it’s still a testament to how great the ZZ engine family is.

Additional Toyota ZZ info on Wikipedia. If there’s anything you think we missed in this guide, drop a comment down below, and we’ll get it updated!

1ZZ-FE: Engine Basics and Specs

The Toyota 1ZZ-FE is rather obviously the first engine in the Toyota ZZ family. It’s a 1.8L with a 79mm bore, 91.5mm stroke, and a 10:1 compression. You can tell from those specifications alone that this engine is fairly torquey, thanks to the long stroke. Unfortunately, a long stroke can make it much more difficult to create high RPM performance, but the large amounts of torque help cover that up. Thanks to the high 10:1 compression ratio, the 1ZZ also provides great efficiency.

This engine features technologies such as multipoint fuel injection, VVT-i, forged connecting rods, and an optional supercharger for some models. The only models that received the TRD Supercharger kit were the Corolla, Matrix, and Pontiac Vibe. You can still find some of these superchargers used on eBay, but they’re getting harder to find by the day.

Toyota increased power output on the later versions of this engine through ECU tuning and a lightweight rotating assembly. Some versions of this engine are specifically designed to run on E100, which is a popular fuel in some South American countries like Brazil. For the most part, though, this engine is designed to run on standard quality gasoline.

• Production Run: 1998 – 2007
• Cylinder Block Material: Aluminum
• Cylinder Head Material: Aluminum
• Valvetrain: Dual Over Head Cams – Four Valve per Cylinder
• Stroke: 91.5mm
• Bore: 79mm
• Compression Ratio: 10:1
• Horsepower: 120 hp, 143 hp
• Torque: 122 lb-ft, 126 lb-ft

It’s worth mentioning that while total horsepower isn’t particularly high, it’s very well balanced with torque. Horsepower and torque are typically very unbalanced on small four-cylinder engines since most small engines focus on creating horsepower through a high redline. Because the 1ZZ uses a long stroke and a low redline, total horsepower is relatively low compared to something like a Honda B18C.

Cars That Came With the 1ZZ

The 1ZZ engine was equipped in various automobiles ranging from sedans, coupes, small SUVs, and mid-engined sports cars. Toyota put this engine in so many different vehicles because of its reliability and good performance, especially with the later ZZ engines. You’ll notice that most of these applications are fairly small. Their larger applications received larger engines with more horsepower and torque.

• Toyota Allion
• Toyota Avensis
• Toyota Caldina
• Toyota Celica GT
• Toyota Corolla
• Toyota Isis
• Toyota Matrix XR
• Toyota MR2 Spyder
• Toyota Opa
• Toyota Premio
• Toyota RAV4
• Toyota Wish
• Chevy Prizm
• Pontiac Vibe
• Lotus Elise

1ZZ: Known Problems

Just like the 2AZ engine, the 1ZZ does have a couple of known issues. The main being excessive oil consumption which many Toyota four cylinders are known for. The main components that cause this oil burning issue are the piston rings just like 2AZ, and the valve stem seals.

This issue was cured in the 2003+ versions of the 1ZZ. Other than the oil consumption, the 1ZZ is a pretty reliable little engine, according to owners online.

1ZZ: Tuning Potential

The first version of the ZZ engine, the 1ZZ, was really designed for economy much more than performance. With a turbo kit or Rotrex supercharger kit, you can get around 230 horsepower out of the little 1.8L.

Anything past 230hp, and you’ll probably need a built bottom end because the 1ZZ bottom end isn’t very strong. Most Toyota enthusiasts won’t typically modify a 1ZZ but would rather swap in the 2ZZ, which is much more performance-oriented in the first place.

2ZZ-GE: Engine Basics and Specs

The 2ZZ is, rather obviously, the second engine in the Toyota family and remained as a 1.8L just like the 1ZZ. This new engine retained the all-aluminum block and head to save weight, but with the addition of many performance-oriented changes.

The biggest performance-oriented change was a decrease in the stroke by 6.5mm and an increase in the bore by 3mm. Other performance features include the addition of VVTL-i and forged steel connecting rods. This allows the 2ZZ to rev higher than the 1ZZ, and when combined with the increased compression ratio, the 2ZZ ultimately makes more power.

Toyota asked Yamaha to help with the development of the 2ZZ, specifically for reliability at high RPMs and peak power. The addition of VVTL-i was a big contributor to achieving such horsepower. It works like Honda’s VTEC system by using multiple camshaft profiles: one for low RPM and one for high RPM.

Lotus added a supercharger to the 2ZZ in their Exile 240R, which increased power to an impressive 240 horsepower. The standard supercharged Exige produced 225 horsepower.

• Production Run: 1999 – Current
• Cylinder Block Material: Aluminum
• Cylinder Head Material: Aluminum
• Valvetrain: Dual Over Head Cams – Four Valve per Cylinder
• Stroke: 85mm
• Bore: 82mm
• Compression Ratio: 11.5:1
• Horsepower: 164 hp, 182 hp, 192 hp, 221 hp, 243 hp, 260 hp
• Torque: 125 lb-ft, 130 lb-ft, 133 lb-ft, 159 lb-ft, 170 lb-ft, 174 lb-ft

Cars That Came With the 2ZZ-GE

The 2ZZ is a performance-oriented engine, and as such, it found its way into many “performance” Toyota vehicles. I put performance in quotes because the vehicles that use this engine aren’t exactly fast or interesting, excluding the Lotus Exige.

• Toyota Celica GT-S
• Toyota Corolla XRS
• Toyota Matrix XRS
• Pontiac Vibe GT
• Lotus Elise
• Lotus Exige
• Lotus 2-Eleven

2ZZ-GE: Known Problems

Previous Toyota four-cylinders we’re plagued with oil consumption issues, including the 1ZZ. The 2ZZ, however, isn’t really known for this issue. The main issue that has plagued the 2ZZ is oil pump failure. This issue is typically caused by accidental over-revving whilst downshifting.

This can cause a moment of oil pressure loss which will destroy the engine. Sometimes the oil pump won’t just drop pressure but completely explode, causing even more issues. This problem is pretty rare and is almost always caused by the driver accidentally over-revving the engine.

2ZZ-GE: Tuning Potential

Unlike the 1ZZ, Toyota designed the 2ZZ-GE for extremely high-performance applications, and thanks to Yamaha’s help with the 2ZZ, it massively outperforms the 1ZZ. From the factory, most 2ZZ-GE equipped vehicles make around 180 horsepower, which is pretty good considering it’s a naturally aspirated 1.8L engine. For reference, that’s around 100hp/liter, something that Honda has been long praised for with their small performance engines.

Many enthusiasts are claimed around 200whp (220-230 horsepower) with bolt-on aftermarket parts and a good tune. When big changes are introduced, such as aftermarket camshafts or cylinder head porting, over 240 horsepower can be reached completely naturally aspirated.

When you add a supercharger to the 2ZZ-GE, the potential power output skyrockets compared to a naturally aspirated 2ZZ. According to most tuners, the stock engine internals are unfortunately limited to around 300 horsepower. If you upgrade your 2ZZ with forged internals and an upgraded supercharger, it’s capable of around 400 horsepower.

That kind of power in a lightweight Toyota vehicle would be absolutely mental and would easily stomp almost any car on the road.