Photo: Chuckles Garage
We'll never get bored of Toyota 2JZ engine swaps. There's just something that appeals about an icon of a JDM engine that'll happily accept as much horsepower as someone cares to squeeze out of it. But even by most measures, Scott Birdsall's team at Chuckles Garage in Santa Rosa, California, might have made the meanest swap of the year just before Christmas.
Sitting in front of us here is a mid-1990s Toyota pickup truck modified to compete in land speed record racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats Speedway. Though it looks like a purpose-built race car, the remaining chromed door handles indicate this truck was just a normal daily driver at some point long ago. Well, whichever of the plethora of gas and diesel engines that could've been under the hood of this truck from the factory has long since been regulated to the recycling center. In its place is a three-liter 2JZ-GTE straight six whose diminutive size still qualifies it for its class at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
With forged connecting rods and pistons, a billet crankshaft from Brian Crower, BC Stage 3+ camshafts, and Platinum Racing Products ignition coils, this little 2J showcases exactly why tuners won't stop obsessing over these engines from now until the heat death of the universe. Add on a Garret G45-1500 turbocharger, and you have an engine capable of jetting 1,300 horsepower to the tires. For some context, that's roughly the same amount of power a high-end World War II fighter plane used to make back in the 1940s.
From every angle inside this engine bay, there are high-quality engine parts, like the beautiful billet fuel pump drive with its mechanical fuel pump, shining away like fine jewelry on Rodeo Drive or 5th Avenue. All this power is fed to a 6XD sequential transmission that rows through the gears with an effortlessness that pays dividends out on the unforgiving Bonneville Salt Flats. Moving to the interior, we see that almost nothing remains of the life this truck once lived, as with the exterior.
Where there were once cloth seats, a mediocre stereo, and some drab grey headliner now sits racing spec bucket seats, a racing spec steering wheel, and a full set of digital gauges courtesy of Haltech. This display is flanked by another digital readout on the dashboard courtesy of iDash's DataMonster product line. All in all, this is the kind of land-speed racer truck that defines its class through its ability to make people's heads turn wherever they see it. With that in mind, it should come as a shock to nobody when the Chuckles Garage team takes this truck past 240 mph (386.2 kph). Oh, did we mention they slapped it together in just 90 days? There's your bombshell for you.
With forged connecting rods and pistons, a billet crankshaft from Brian Crower, BC Stage 3+ camshafts, and Platinum Racing Products ignition coils, this little 2J showcases exactly why tuners won't stop obsessing over these engines from now until the heat death of the universe. Add on a Garret G45-1500 turbocharger, and you have an engine capable of jetting 1,300 horsepower to the tires. For some context, that's roughly the same amount of power a high-end World War II fighter plane used to make back in the 1940s.
From every angle inside this engine bay, there are high-quality engine parts, like the beautiful billet fuel pump drive with its mechanical fuel pump, shining away like fine jewelry on Rodeo Drive or 5th Avenue. All this power is fed to a 6XD sequential transmission that rows through the gears with an effortlessness that pays dividends out on the unforgiving Bonneville Salt Flats. Moving to the interior, we see that almost nothing remains of the life this truck once lived, as with the exterior.
Where there were once cloth seats, a mediocre stereo, and some drab grey headliner now sits racing spec bucket seats, a racing spec steering wheel, and a full set of digital gauges courtesy of Haltech. This display is flanked by another digital readout on the dashboard courtesy of iDash's DataMonster product line. All in all, this is the kind of land-speed racer truck that defines its class through its ability to make people's heads turn wherever they see it. With that in mind, it should come as a shock to nobody when the Chuckles Garage team takes this truck past 240 mph (386.2 kph). Oh, did we mention they slapped it together in just 90 days? There's your bombshell for you.
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