A few months ago, we brought you Real Street Performance’s test of the new Dart 2JZ block. It made over 1,800 horsepower without missing a beat, and did so without a lot of the work that would normally go into the OEM block to seal that kind of cylinder pressure.
Also, they used some other parts that normally wouldn’t be recommended for this kind of power level. Since this project was more of a science experiment than anything, it wasn’t enough to just say, “Yep, it made it and didn’t break. Cool.” No, the team at Real Street Performance wanted to get all up inside their 3.5-liter creation and inspect the parts for any signs of distress.
A quick recap of the engine. Starting with Dart’s new Iron Eagle 2JZ block, Real Street immediately maxed out the block’s bore size at 88mm, which is a full millimeter larger than the stock block can withstand. A long-stroke Brian Crower forged 96mm crankshaft, with BC forged HD H-beam connecting rods and thin-ring forged 2618 pistons hanging off of it.
Even though the 2JZ will spin to the moon, physics still plays a big role in whether it’s happy there or not. Turns out, a heavy rotating assembly with a wet-sump oiling system might not be the best combination for a high-RPM 2JZ.
The cylinder head was sealed with stock-diameter 11mm head studs and sealed with an OE-style multi-layered steel head gasket. Something that wouldn’t ever be done with a stock block, but with the stronger Dart 2JZ block, is possible. The Real Street team was joined by Mark Mazurowski of Mazworx for the teardown, to find any possible evidence of things not being happy. After all, they had a lot of “let’s see what happens” parts in this engine.
Seeing a little bit of a coolant-pressure increase on the 1,800-horsepower pulls, the team pays extra close attention to the deck of the block after pulling the head and gasket, since this application wouldn’t normally only get 11mm studs and MLS gaskets. However, the really interesting part was the pattern they found on the rod bearings, which resulted in a call to Clevite’s Dan Begle (a name you should be familiar with as an EngineLabs reader). Begle basically confirmed their suspicions that they were spinning a heavy rotating assembly really fast, with an oiling system that wasn’t totally up to the task at that RPM.
If you’re at all interested in the finer details of the teardown, we highly suggest you watch the video in its entirety. The two Marks talk about some of the cooler parts they were testing (like the new Dart 2JZ block), and the process of tearing down an engine is always relaxing to watch — for us, at least. Spoiler alert: all the parts they were “trying out” held up well, and the points of concern were more or less expected. The best part is that Real Street isn’t done with testing yet, and the next step is the 2,000-horsepower mark.
