Engine Nomenclature

Sometimes I just don't understand the name an engine is given by a manufacturer. Toyota sends me for a loop most of the time, but nissan tends to be pretty sensible. Mitsubishi is out there too. Then the american makes just give real words like modular, vulcan, LS, etc.

Post up what you know so we can make sense of it all.

Nissan: RB20DET

RB, engine family. RB, Inline 6

20, displacement in liters. 2.0L

D, dual over head cam

E, fuel injected

T, turbo charged

Chevy 350. 350 cubic inches. That's back when it was easy.

The most complicated it got was something like a 455/425 which was the displacement and the hp.

Ford got creative when they went from a 302 to a 5.0. That really shook people up

Honda:

Engine family / displacement / detail codes

D16A6 = D Series, 1.6L, SOHC

D16Y8 = D Series. 1.6L, SOHC VTEC

B18A1 = B Series, 1.8L, DOHC

B16A2 = B Series, 1.6L, DOHC VTEC

ETC...

Well, Chevy was pretty straightforward sometimes, but not always. The famous Rat Motor, the 396, was 396 cubes. Until they bored it out to 402 cubic inches. But they still kept calling it the 396. Too much mojo behind that name to quit using it

The Chevy crate engine we use in the Miatas is an LS376/480. 376 cubic inches, 480 horsepowers I believe.

Don't ask me to explain Mazda's numbers. They're just codes. Mysterious codes. The most understandable they get is when they add T to the end for TUUUUURRRRBOOO!

B3 was a 1.3, "B" block. B6 is a 1.6 version. BP is a P version, I guess. And a BP4W is a P version of the B block with a 4W head. Like I said, makes no sense.

Toyota

[Revision][BlockCode]-[DetailCodes]

So, 22R-E:

22nd revision of the R block, with electronic fuel injection (E).

2JZ-GTE:

2nd revision of the JZ block, with performance dual overhead cam (G), Turbo (T), and electronic fuel ignition (E)

Toyota detail codes as I know them:

G - performance-oriented (wide valve angle) twincam

F - economy-oriented (narrow valve angle) twincam

T - turbo

Z - supercharger

E - electronic fuel injection

C - california emissions

There's a few I'm forgetting. I know there're codes for transverse mount (L maybe?), Japanese emissions, and direct injection.

Current Chevy LS motors:

LS1 - 5.7L

LS2 - 6.0L

LS3 - 6.3L

LS4 - transverse 5.3L

LS5 - nothing yet

LS6 - hotted-up 5.7L

LS7 - 7.0 L

LS8 - nothing yet

LS9 - supercharged 6.3L

LSA - detuned LS9

I usually resort to Wikipedia for this type of info. The ones that make some sense (like Nissan) are explained on the "list of Nissan Engines" wiki page.

Other manufacturers have some explanation of their engines as well.

To add to ReverendDexter's great description of Toyota codes:

U as part of the detail code is for Japanese emissions compliance.

L is for transverse mounting but hasn't been used since the era when they had a lot of the same engines in both orientations....in other words it only applies to the mid-late eighties stuff.

S as part of the detail code is used for direction injection, and is always coupled with an E for EFI.

The big mistake people make with Toyota engine codes (and a source of most of the frustration) is that they don't contain displacement info. Sorry, that's just the way it is and you have to look it up. The VIN plate says, Google is another good source if you don't have the car in front of you.

The cool part is that Toyota chassis codes contain engine family, so you know that an RA28 Celica is a 2nd-generation Celica powered by an R-series engine, and an MA70 Supra is powered by an M-series engine. A JZA70 Supra must be from overseas because it is a 7th-generation car, but with the JZ-family engine, which we didn't get here until the next body style.

BMW is fairly straight forwards.. M is regular engines (M is motor) and S is for the M engines.. the numbers are generally just the build sheet they crawled off of. The last number (that nobody uses) gives the displacement