THE WORST JDM ENGINES OF ALL TIME 

What engines would you add to this list? 👀

As someone who owns an EJ257, a VG30, and a 3V, this video felt like an AA meeting lmao

I ended up buying a 3vze 93 toyota pickup with 200k that spent a few days at the bottom of a lake. Drained all the fluids, refilled them and used it as my daily/mud truck/rock crawler for years. That motor never gave me a single issue despite being bounced off the limiter almost daily. Maybe a factory freak??😅

I agree the vg30 is hard to work on, but when running 8s on a stock bottom end in the 1/4 it shouldn’t be on this list. No de/hr/vhr can do that

I had a 7MGE non turbo. The only problem I had was indeed the head gasket. Thankfully, it failed INSTANTLY . The engine didn’t even overheat. All I had to do was replace the head gasket. I didn’t even have to resurface the head. I torqued the bolts a bit tighter than the specs required and was good to go. I did the same with a customers turbo equipped version. Other than that, they were excellent engines. This was a self imposed problem by Toyota. They should have torqued the heads a bit tighter at the factory.

7M just needs a Hoonigan spec torque down with the torque wrench which is basically all of it. Delete the head bolts, get ARP studs, new head gasket, and SEND IT HOME.

Subaru diesel needs to be on this list.

The 3.0 in 4Runners does have a nasty head gasket issue but, rerouting the exhaust from manifold back resolved that problem for me. And using a Magna-flow cat, a Flowmaster muffler, and a twerk to the air intake system did a lot to resolve the power and fuel economy issues of my '95 4Runner with over 350k miles. Other than timing belt replacements @ 75k and general maintenance the motor is still running great

I've owned 3 Z32s and 2 had the VG30DETT. The cramped workspace was the only thing that bothered me.

Another RU-vidr spreading misinformation about the VG. If you’re a shade tree mechanic, just say it. Everyone with a VG upgrades the turbos and oiling is perfectly fine if you’re competent enough to keep a eye on your oil. But it’s okay, keep the value down so we can keep buying them 😂

i had a 3vze in a 95 4runner, tipped it on its side. whole passenger side block was flooded with oil. pulled all three plugs and it ran on 3 cylinders. never had issues after that

Subaru marketing: “this year’s model has a 25% increase in miles per head gasket.”

I've heard the head gasket issues on the 3VZ usually rears its ugly head after 300k+ miles, usually by then the frame has been disintegrated and it just time for a new car.

Dam i liked the VG engines. I had a pathfinder with a vg33e. It was incredibly smooth, never have me a problem, and had heaps of mid and low end torque. It had absolutely no top end however

Your Forgetting the Mitsubishi 6G72 V6 Twin Turbo, 3 times worse than the Z Twin Turbo V6

Nice video. I would've liked more information on each motor

The Toyota 2AZ-FE should be an honorable mention. Lots of class action lawsuits because of that motor.

“The 3VZ is a terrible engine” *Shows photo of 5VZ, one of toyotas masterpieces*

own a Vg in my Z32 and a few other issues that plague the early gen ones are the early style fuel injectors (which cannot take any fuel with ethanol or it'll clog up) plus that vacuum line nightmare.

My dad had an '06 base forester, he kept it bone stock, and stayed on top of maintenance like a *HAWK* and it *STILL* had head gasket and valvetrain issues. The EJ series really is cursed.

I have a 88 Pathfinder 2-door with VG30I and it can be ran very hard all day in the mountains and still drive me home but my favorite is my 86.5 D21 2wd with Z24I the truck is very light and the industrial forklift engine moves it plenty quick. Both are a joy to work on because of the abundance of space and are nearly indestructible if properly serviced. I spend more on bushings and Redline than anything else.

The 3VZE is absolutely garbage. If you want 4 cylinder power with V8 fuel economy it’s the motor for you. In addition to the head gasket issues you have super high exhaust gas temperatures at the cross over pipe for the exhaust. Not to mention the bucket shims for valve adjustments. I tried to give a 3.0 some love one time and even after rebuilding the heads, small cam upgrade, spending a ton of timing fixing the sad intake system and exhaust, electric cooling fan, big MAF, and tons of other small mods. It was still gutless. What’s worse is with, 5 speed, and only 30.5x10 tires highway fuel economy was luckily to be 17-18mpg. About what I got with a Yukon XL 4wd and a 400hp 6.2L.

had a zd30 patrol, with a remap and manual boost control to get rid of the terrible factory vacuum control they go very hard and awesome to drive with the vnt turbo

Why do so many hate the exhaust note of VQ's? I actually think they sound great with a good exhaust! But I would probably add the pre 2013 VQ37 for the front galley gasket oil leaks. Also if the push button start system in an Infinity fails you'll be out over 1000 dollars to fix it. And they seem to be more prone to this than Toyota and Lexus. Apart from that they make good power in NA form for the displacement. Too bad most VQs also require 93 octane gas. I would also add to this list the Toyota 2AZ-FE and the 2ZZ-FE? (The one in the last generation of the Celica.) One is prone to burning so much oil and the other had a weak oil pump from the factory and tended to grenade the engine from oil starvation at high rpm which is where the engine makes the most power. It also came factory equipped with PLASTIC fuel rails but Toyota later replaced them with metal ones. Ill also add the 1.8L engine in the 8th gen Civic for cracking the block and leaking coolant.

You said the 3vz-fe then showed a picture of the 5vz-fe.

If at all possible, a video about the best or most durable JDM engines would be super cool!

It's a tough call. Ive had a Nissan VG30 that did well, the single cam Accord engines ( F23 ) was alright, the Toyota 5M was oily but kept going. The Nissan Pulsar Turbo engine....maybe.

I have a 3vze and the vacuum lines everywhere doesn’t help the DIY work I do on it but it hasn’t caused me issues other than some leaking power steering fluid, the pump was bad and the pulley. And that’s pretty much it. I’m worried of the gasket because it’s a 28 year old truck but I’ve seen that engine at 376k miles and another at 285 so I’m not to worried about it.

Ej been on the market for decade.. more engine equal more problems..piston are junk you are correct but they are cheap to fix

As a subaru owner, ive always said it. Worst part about a subaru engine is the fact the Subaru builds them.

The VG30DETT fits into the Z31 with tons of extra space, but that's cuz it was designed to take a straight-6 and a couple different V6's. The Z32 has a tiny bay

As the owner of a 760rwhp/731ft.lbs torque(see linked video)1995 300 ZXTT, that I've owned since 96, I can attest to some of the problems you mentioned. Yes, the VG is a tight fit, but unless you are doing something major, everything you would do under the category, Routine Maintenance, is easily done as everything, including replacing the spark plugs, are right there and easily accessed. The "hardest" part is removing the five bolts, also easily accessible, of the balance tube and lifting it up out of the way, in order to access the number 6 plug. Moving the tube takes about two minutes. The bad news is, actually removing the engine from a stock Z IS a pain. Nissan WAY over engineered this car. It literally has brackets to hold up brackets. I guess that's what happens when you own the first, fully CAD designed car. And for someone who has never done it, it can, will be, a daunting task. If pulling your engine is on your list of things to do, I highly, HIGHLY recommend you have someone else help you that has done it before and actually knows what they are doing. Otherwise you may get so frustrated you end up kicking a big dent in the side of your Z. The good news is, once you do get the engine out, your Z KNOWLEDGEABLE buddy can show you what you can eliminate, things like the EGR valve and all its piping for instance. You will be shocked at the pile of "spare parts" you'll end up with, and how much easier it was to reinstall than to remove the engine. But, the key is, knowing how and what you are doing. Have I mentioned that enough? As you mentioned, the oiling system does have some problems. And I agree, 4.5 quarts of oil is not enough for a sports car. Also, the opening for the oil pickup tube sit only about a half an inch from the bottom of the pan. and it doesn't take much of hit to dent the pad enough to actually block oil from entering the tube. I've seem three instances where that has been the cause of the rod bearings being starved of oil. I personally have never seen a rod bearing oil starvation issues that was not related to a blocked, or almost blocked, oil pick up tube. But I have heard of another issue, not related to a blocked tube. This one gets back to the low 4.5 quart oil pan capacity. It just doesn't hold enough to insure the oil pickup tube opening will not be exposed to air when running on a twisty track. A Specialty Z, seven quart oil pan solves these problems and fits perfectly. However there is one more problem, that on its face, appears to be an oil system problem, but in fact has to do with the width of the rod bearing journals when the engine is highly modified to say 600 or more HP. Modern engines have wider bearing journals then older designs. So what happens is, the increased pressure placed on the rods and bearings of a highly modified engine will overcome the stock oil pressure and squeeze out the protective oil film between the bearings and the journal, causing a spun or seized bearing. However, the fix for this problem is an easy one. The oil tree has two pressure regulators on it. Shimming both with three small 1 mil thick washers will increase the oil pressure substantially. I routinely see cold engine start up oil pressures of 107 psi, and high power setting pressures of 90 plus PSI. More than enough to overcome the added forces placed on the rod bearings, keeping them well lubricated. But. its VITAL that you remove and block off the two ball and spring oil filter bypass valves located on the oil tree. The springs, despite being old, were never designed to hold those high pressures. If those valves are not removed and the holes blocked off they will stay open pretty much all the time, sending unfiltered oil throughout your engine and taking out every bearing within a few hundred miles. DON'T FORGET TO BLOCK OFF THE BYPASS VALVES! And never, EVER use any head gaskets other then the flimsy looking stock ones, sprayed on both sides with copper spray. Trust me on this one, I know from personal experience. All those expensive multi layered aftermarket head gaskets look impressive, so it's very easy to believe they will be much better, but they will eventually fail in this engine. My $200 plus Tomei multi layered ones failed on me shortly after installing my newly fully built engine, racing a Hellcat. But at least I won, by a lot. EVERY engine has its issues, and the VG is no different, but it certainly does not deserve to be in a video titled "The worst JDM engines of all time", THAT'S for sure. And it's winning racing history is proof of this. In 1991, a thousand-plus-horsepower, VG powered 300 ZX beast scorched a record-setting run at the Bonneville salt flats in its class. That record still stands today. You'll still find it on page 18 of the current Bonneville rulebook report: Blown Gas Modified Sports (/BGMS), August 1991, JUN Auto, 260.809 mph. To put this achievement in perspective, the owner of one of the first 2005 Bugatti Veyrons would need to shell out $1.5M, insert a special key while stopped, and go through a long pre-drive checklist to hit a top speed that was 7 mph slower than a VG powered ZX went in 1991. When PROPERLY built, by someone who actually knows what, and whatNOT to do, the VG is a very reliable, force to be reckoned with. Just ask the shocked Tesla Plaid owner I encountered on the highway a few months ago. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Zg4bh6wyYT8.html

I own a mk3 Supra and it has a 7mgte. Needless to say it was knocking in 1 month of me owning it and now it’s getting a 2JZ swap 🤦‍♂️

Ah the zd30.... Inline four not inline six...

I really don’t understand why so many people have issues with their EJs… mines got 228k of almost daily abuse and I’ve never touched it. I have a NA sohc Subaru that’s got a wicked set of cams on literally stock EVERYTHING but exhaust and still no issues.

I had a 3VZE in my 94 Pickup, lasted to 210k miles before it cooked an exhaust valve where I then proceeded to keep driving it for another 8 or 9 months on only 5 cylinders to save up for a motor swap. Oh and the rear main was blown out so it couldn't hold oil right, it has a horrendous exhaust leak which was only made more noticeable by the dead cylinder just passing fuel right through it (rip that catalyst you will be missed) and I wanna say at one point when I first got the truck and knew fuck all about cars I let it overheat due to basically no coolant at all being in the system at that point cuz why should I need to watch those gauges right? Ohhhh the memories. The truck has a supercharged 5VZFE in it now (coincidentally the engine you showed for the 3VZE and also one of Toyota's very best engines because you basically can't kill them), I respect the 3.0 for putting up with my blatant abuse and mishandling but the 3.4 is frankly what the 3.0 should have been in the first place, it fixed every single issue present in the 3.0 while also being a better, more well-rounded engine.

Zd30 was a 4 banger bro and I owned one can say the injector pump are really the down fall of the di but the crd zd30 can make some good power

I had a VG33 in an XTerra. The rest of the vehicle broke around the solid VG. It was a bulletproof engine housed in a pile of shit ... when aliens find our destroyed planet in the year 5000, they're going to find a bunch of random VGs strewn about

Being an aircraft engine is not an excuse for the ej's to be overcomplicated and shit. The 1uz was an aircraft engine, those are legendarily reliable and capable.

I have Forester SG with EJ25 as a daily hard work car, but yes, I love working on my car, so I love my car when its work, but when it didnt work I love it too 😂 and of course my second car is Outback 2,5 SOHC, because one of my car must work everytime

I have a ZD30 from the grenade era of production. It is over 300000km's and is still going strong and it's the non intercooled version.

The SMZ ..Steve Millen twin turbo 300Z had 365 h.p. but the crappy oil pump was the problem

Nah, the VG30DETT is fine, just get smaller hands. Although I agree the oil pan is ridiculously small.

Even though that's all true, I am still very in love with the Toyota 7M engines, they just deliver what you want in such a beautiful way you cannot deny it. But yes I became an expert at head gaskets, even when you torque the head down right the head simply still will have issues no matter what you do, just get used to it, you will be replacing head gaskets on that every 3 years

Used a 5VZ-FE picture initially on the beginning of the 3VZ-E bit

i got a 3vz sitting on a stand in my garage. Can confirm, is a gutless turd engine and incredibly leaky but the one thing I could always count on is that it starts every single time. I just ended up spinning a bearing because I didnt install a gasket on my pickup tube to oil pump. Lol.

how good is the b20 from the crv from 1997 to 2001

Dude, who or what are you looking at on your left hand side? Its hilarious

Shoutout to an RB20 From experience here are the pros Easy to work on Sounds like an RB26 or 25 with the right turbo setup The Cons? No power It be FBO & tuned & still not outrun a lightly modded new age Motor Expensive for major repairs If you need items like a new block or head or oil pump and other components that are vital and also it’s a timing belt too :l

Hondas L15B and L15C. Pistons are thin, Connecting rods are thin(when compered to other 1.5l engines from honda in the past like the D15) Suffers from oil dilution

Anyone know what head gasket maintenance looks like?

As a Nissan fan it's hard to see 2 engines in this list lol. But we usted to have 2 Nissan Patrol (I live in central america), both with ZD30DDi (ZD30CRDi had more power, but same problems). And they both went off. Bad placement and desing for the intercooler, even worse boost preasure regulator, too small radiator, Automatic versions have the same problem as the auto frontiers and xterras when the tranny oil mixes with coolant, EGR and excesive crank ventilation. But I must admit the suspension and chassis are very solid. And depping on who you ask, it sounds kinda good. A better engine is the TD42 (maybe you can feature it in one of oyur videos :D ) , but they didn't brought too much of those here.

The Zd, EJ, 7M, Vg, got a few still running in original state up to this day. Never rebuilt. Key is maintenance. And that's in the tropics region, where it's very hot and humid. All are very good engines.

When you first talk about 3vz-e you have a 5vz-fe image which is an incredibly reliable and more powerful motor.

VGDETT was cool if you didn’t tune it and my cousins 94 4Runner lasted until 400k so the 3V is also cool in my book for an underpowered daily

that 9/11 beard

The usdm ej motors a pretty trash for hard use or tuning but the jdm ej’s where pretty solid, mainly because the jdm motors had forged internals, why Subaru cheaped out on us motors.

The vg30 is very east to work on lol...

A look into the hyundai/kia tah v8 series

No mention of d17 from Honda civic 2001-2006 known head gasket issues

Funny he didn't mention the BOLT ON crank counter weight on the VG30

The 3vz is bad but the revised version, the 5vz, is amazing

I have a fairly new WRX STI, so far it’s very good

Ej25 is a grenade waiting to blow

Honda d17. Prone to head gasket failure, and had zero tuning capability due to its tiny rod size.

The v6 yota engine is absolute trash power of a 4 cylinder mpg of an 8.

lol, DONUT has not clue wtf they are doing building engines, poor poor choice of reference....

Honda's longitudinal 5 cylinder G25 from the Acura Vigor.

VQs get way too much hate An RB26 needed two turbos to make 330hp, a VQ37 can do it NA. Also, the EJ205 is rock solid, mine had 283k miles when I sold it. Never did anything to the motor.

I had a 3v-ze in a 88 4runner and well its the worst toyota engine ever. low compression (half the engine brake power of a 22re) broke 2 fans, on the first the flange on which you bolt the fan just seperated from the water pump shaft.... dropped the coolant remove timing belt, replaced the whole fan assembly (radiator included because it got pretty beat up and was leaking) some time later same story but this time the shaft broke in half behind the flange in the middle of nowhere. Got some misfire issue, overheating issue, starter, alternator power steering pump, head gasket ..... now i have a 650000km tacoma with a 5vze and it's by far my favorite toyota v6. This engine can take anything and all the little gremlins from the 3v, the 5v got rid of them. Way better than the 3vze, and way more reliable than the 1gr-fe

Any engine's reliability will be affected as soon as there's tuning in the mix

the Mitsubishi 6G72 3.0 V6, it isn't a bad engine by any means, infact i had a 2001 stratus coupe with that engine, you can beat the piss out of it and it just keeps running, HOWEVER, it is prone to oil burning and oil leaks, the owners manual even stating its ok to lose about half a quart every 2k miles. also because these engines are usually packaged in small engine bays in FWD configuration, then engine bay gets very hot, hot enough to the point that the plastic radiator vans start to melt, mine melted at the bearing and stopped spinning, and the guy i sold it too had a similar issue with his eclipse GT. and the oil leaks tend to be so bad, that you can literally smell the cars coming. but again all those faults aside it is a very durable engine, just much like the 300zx, requires alot of time and experience for pretty basic stuff.

Supercharger on the 7m was also rubbish

Worst by far 13b RENESIS found in the RX8 Could add 1mz-fe for it's oil sludge, nearly all Mitsubishi engines of the 80s and 90s for their hopeless valve stem seals. Also SR20DET for sounding like a diesel tractor (jk it's actually a pretty good engine and come to think of it, the 3S-GTE might actually sound worst)

I have a 7MGE Cressida that blew it's head. Rebuilt head. Got a loose rod. I need to go in and do that rod, would be worth it. Single bearing build.

The toyota is 2.4, obviously! A guy with a golf that drove like Jerry the race car driver had a prob. Said it was lifter. But I thought the turbo 2.? Were straight on valvles?

The 4G63 in base form is not that great as they often burn oil due to piston/ring issues

Don't forget about the Toyota diesel 2L-TE. Hot garbage that cracks heads

You’re about to upset a lot of people 🤣

WTF Blasphemy there is no way Sugoi Desu Kawaii Japan would ever make a bad engine!!!

All 89 to 95 3.0 V6 Toyota engines will blow head gaskets..I fixed mine and it ran over 440.000 miles

Nothing about Mazda and their rotary time bombs? Least reliable JDM engines ever!!!

You forgot the 3MZ-FE

Yamaha V8, bad balancing shaft baring. If replaced with a morse beafy one it is almost bullet proof 😅

7:29 engine in the pic is the 5vzfe not the 3vze

I guess the 3vze made it on the list

3vz should be on the list but not number 1

All the 7m guys watching(me included) are just sitting going “yea sounds about right”

Ka24de out of the hardbody and 240sx... gasket, oil issues and leaking.. but great on performance...

Sh!ts on the 300hp by a 3.0l Nissan VG. Meatrides the 300hp 3.0l Toyota 2jz. Seems legit.

I rather have a ej207 vs 4g63 crank walk , head gaskets

Didn’t the RB had oil pressure issues

You kinda did the EJ dirty, even you made a comment on it but i guess it didn't quite click. There's a TON of issues with the EJ's, but there's also A TON of EJs. IE headgaskets where really only a problem on the EJ251/253, so to paint all EJs as heaving HG problems is unfair.(lets be real though, thats exactly what happened) I also wouldn't use donut as a great example, they 2-wheel towed a subaru and the next ep went "wow, the gearbox exploded, these cars are unreliable." They killed those engines. also blew up both the 350z's if i remember correctly. kinda to the point, boostedbois have killed a ton of K's and cletus has killed how many LS's? you wouldn't say those engines are bad, would you?

Zd30 only works good if you delete the egr

The Subawu EJ series is all crap, and complete money pits! The Toyota 3VZ (3.0L) is probably the worst Toyota engine ever; however, in contrast the 5VZ-FE (3.4L) engine may be one of Toyota's greatest 6V if not their most reliable! This was Toyota's greatest come-back of an engine. I've seen some 5VZ's with over 350,000 to well over 450,000 miles! I have a 1999 4runner with over 350,000 miles, and the compression numbers are outstanding! I do take care of my vehicles though. There are just too many Subawu's on the road Wu-hoo!

People build the 7m to 1500 HP with about the same effort as a 2j

Do worst German engines ever next!

Honda D17

I have been impressed with Chrysler 3.3 &3.8 engines! Not transmissions.

My mom owns 3vz-e in her 1999 4Runner, She has 278k miles and next to no issues on this engine, she bought it in 2011 when I was in middle school with 120k miles on it, she is still whipping that thang rn going into 2024. She has also wrecked it and overheated it atleast 4 times. This engine is stronger than my crippling debt 🤝🏼