Having messed with the 2.3L turbo Ford in the Merkurs for a while the idea of a straight six has presented a project.
I have a 1965 Ford Econoline van, they come with 170 cid straight six's.
There are a lot of choices shopping the 2jz gte online.
What is the most desirable engine model for modifying and increasing horsepower, and is
there a best automatic transmission and how much would it handle.
Manual trans is not a good option, these are nearly mid engine vehicles, the radiator
sets over the front axle and the drive shaft is short. The driver sits in front of the engine so that is a
long way to run linkage, they had four speeds in them on the tree but it has to be a side shift tranny.
It would be a cool 800 hp popper.

 

Welcome to CL.

800 HP in that? Are you kidding? Even with the wimpy standard engines back then, those 60s-vintage vans handled like s***, and were often a rollover waiting to happen.

 

I had a 62 pickup, re-arched the springs, added a leaf, and some 8" wide low profile tires it handled pretty darn good. Better with
a dirt bike in the back.
It also had a front sway bar. No reason to bad mouth their handling, it was a little light on the back but leaf springs and straight
axles aren't all bad.
Aside from that, why would the suspension be left stock?
So back to the question
what is the best 2jz gte to starts with and auto trans info?
It would make a great gasser, I have a Frankland Quik Change to put behind the straight front axle.

 

Agreed it would need suspension work.

On the engine, IMO, it's hard to fault the 2JZ GE in-line 6 that came in the old IS300/GS300/SC300. I owned one myself. Strong, reliable, smooth, quiet, almost bulletproof if not abused, able to take a lot of mods and turbo/supercharging boost (though I was not into mods myself). This engine was almost worshipped by some of its owners. The only downside I found to it is that, even stock, it sucked premium gas like a V8.

 

Do I want the vvti engine or non-vvti?

 

I'm not enough of an expert to answer that in your specific case, but here is a good forum-discussion that might be helpful:

http://my.is/forums/f114/03-300-2jzg...n-vvti-446432/

 

Thank you, that is what I have been looking for. All I know is the 2jz is cheap horsepower that I've been wanting
to look into. There are a lot of people working on them so there is no reason to start from scratch.
I have a couple of short box early Chevy pickups that would good be recipients also.
Any of these vehicles would be great fun in the 300 to 400 hp range.
The van has the best patina.
Thanks again.

 

^ I wouldn't say the 2JZ is cheap horsepower. It will cost A LOT more $$$$ to build compared to something like an LS based GM V8. Great thing about those cast iron 5.3 Chevy truck motors, they made millions of them, find one in your junkyard, put a big turbo on it, you can tune the stock computer, boost it till you blow the whole thing apart. Then go back to the junkyard, find another one of those cast iron 5.3 V8's, they're like $500, boost it till you kill it again. Seriously, they're good for 500-600hp without taking off the heads. Much cheaper to build than a 2JZ IMO.

Although I get the appeal of the 2JZ if that's the only thing that will fit in your mid-engined van. Might be kind of tricky to run a front mount intercooler though, would require a lot of custom piping, heat might also be an issue with the big turbo in that cramped engine box sitting between the driver and passenger.