When you’re pushing over 1,500hp on gasoline and 1,900hp on methanol with a inline 6 engine, you need to make sure every part of the rotating assembly is up to par for the course. In the past few years we’ve seen 2JZ development go to a level beyond what many would have imagined when many of the parts we use where originally developed. Through years of racing and pushing our engines to their limits we have found what once was considered “indestructible” now needs to be improved to hold up to the rigors of racing. We are fortunate to have great sponsors and technology partners who help us in our quest to create the best 2JZ engines available. One such partner is Sean Crawford and the gang at JE Pistons, whom I had the pleasure of visiting a few months ago on a trip to California for the Red Bull Drifting Championship. After a few discussions with Sean over dinner about advances in technology initially found through their partnership with many Nextel cup teams, we began talking about improvements to our current 2JZ pistons. We’ve made small improvements for the application along the way, but Sean felt it might be best to go back to the drawing board and see what we could come up with using the latest CNC and forging technology available at JE.

We’ve spent the past few weeks working closely with JE’s engineering department to create a pistons that is both strong, reliable and lightweight. The new JE Pistons are being custom engineered and manufactured specifically for our Titan 2JZ engine program, and include the following features and improvements :

• Custom Design: After receiving several years feedback and data from our drag engines, JE has been able to custom tailor our pistons designs to perform flawlessly in high horsepower 2JZ engines. Small changes such as top ring location, skirt shape, bottom band design, crown thickness and more have been adjusted to improve performance and durability. The wrist pin has also be moved up to be compatible with the longer stroke crankshaft.
• Lateral Gas Ports: These are the small holes that are drilled into the top of the top ring groove. Lateral gas ports allow combustion pressure to get behind the top ring and push it outward. This helps the top ring seal during the compression and power stroke, while does not significantly increasing drag during the intake and exhaust stroke.
• 3D Undercrown milling: Our new pistons feature a 3D CNC milling on the undercrown of the piston to remove any extra weight and make the piston crown a consistent thickness.
• Accumulator groove: When combustion pressure passes by the top ring, it can build pressure between the top and second ring. If this pressure gets too high, it can cause the top ring to loose seal. To help prevent this problem, our new pistons feature a accumulator groove below the top ring to provide more volume between the top and second rings.
• Scalloped valve reliefs: When the valve reliefs intersect the outside of the pistons, a thin spot can be created on the piston crown. JE removed these thin spots to prevent pre-ignition.
• Premium Wrist Pin: Our new pistons feature a .210″ thick wrist pin manufactured from premium 9310 steel. The extra thickness will reduce bending,flexing, and cracking in our high boost engine

After extensive testing with computer models, we received our first set of prototype pistons incorporating these improvements today. With weight being a key factor in the modifications we were very pleased to end up with a piston that is 79 grams lighter than our current 2Jz piston, and 41 grams lighter than the lightest 2JZ piston we’ve tested. Initial product testing will be completed in a test engine during the quest for new records. We also have other engines slated to receive these pistons in the near future for further testing. Like all of our developmental products if they prove to be as successful on the track as they are on paper, they will find their way into our Titan built to order engine programs that our customers can purchase to be the king of their street. This is just the first of many improvements being made using computer modeling, cell testing of every component within our already potent engine.   As we prove these components as we have in the past, our customers can expect the absolute best when it comes to parts from the 2JZ.   Keep an eye on the blog for more information on the latest releases and product development.

One of our good local customers brought in some Red Bull from Thailand today. I’m not sure it’s legal to sell in the US, and after drinking it I can understand why. I’m a caffeine junky (2 Red Bulls a day), and this stuff had everyone in the office wired and then some. Definitely much more potent than US Red Bull, and rather than being carbonated in a can, it comes in a more syrup like form in a glass container. The extra energy is always great, but I think we’re all in trouble once the caffeine crash happen though…..

This weekend the Titan gang headed out to Classic Audi for the annual Challenge Rally. This rally benefits the Russell Home for Children and pits some of the local car clubs against one another to see who can bring the most participants. The route took us over 100 miles of Central Florida’s best driving roads, some even including elevation changes, a rare sight in a nearly flat state. Bottle took his 335i, Nero took the Camouflage 996tt, and I was in my yellow 996tt. Many of us got lost, all of us where driving at speeds that likely exceeded the posted limits, and overall we had a great time. We look forward to participating in other great charity events throughout the year. BMW took the participation trophy with 30 cars to Porsches 29 cars. Over $4,000 was raised to benefit the charity, making the rally a great success.

This weekend the Titan crew was invited to attend Le Belle Macchine d’Italia at Daytona International Speedway.  Lamborghini of Orlando invited us to the event which included both an instructed driving session, and individual ride-arounds in the latest offers by Lamborghini.    Bottle, Nero and Eric made the trek out to the track, arriving a bit late they missed the scheduled rides around the 2.5-mile trioval with 31 degree banks.   They did however get plenty of great photos of the track day, including a very expensive mistake in one of the few Maserati MC-12s here in the states.  The pictures do the talking, enjoy.

This weekend at ADRL’s Dragstock V, Titan Motorsports became the first ADRL 10.5 car in the teens with a blistering 4.158 @ 172.67. After this amazing performance in pre-race testing, the team then went on to qualify #1 with a 4.184 @ 173.32 in Friday night’s qualifying session. After advancing to the Semi-finals with victories over Kenny Kneece and Rick Fleck, Titan’s day ended in the semi-finals with an uncharacteristic red-light by Gary White giving Darrin Hoyle the win. With a very consistent weekend of passes in the 20’s or quicker, Titan moved to 4th place in the ADRL Battle of the Belts. The season ending ADRL race takes place in Ennis, Texas on October 24-25. As with all ADRL races, we will be sending out free tickets to this event, email jons@titanmotorsports.com with your mailing address.

We recently migrated the blog over to WordPress. In the coming days you may see some duplicate postings, please rest assured that once this old content is migrated over you can expect fresh new content. One of the benefits we found with WordPress is not only a highly customizable format, but also the ability to include widgets and remote posting, both of which we hope will allow for a better experience for our readers.

-Wes