Before I start I know this has been discussed before sometime last year. Me and my brother have been debating and wondering what is the true difference between these two types of engines.I told him the only way that I could really get up in HP is to get the SC. He tells me that I may not need it and only get a chip that would increase the HP to that of the 2ZZ. Now I know and did explain that the 2ZZ has timing lift but I wasn't sure if that was capable of the 1ZZ. I will forward all replies to him later today.Thanks for the input in advance
You are corrcet and your brother is wrong. A chip will not give you an extra 50-hp to increase the 1ZZ from 130-hp to the 2ZZ's 180-hp.The 2ZZ gets it's extra HP from the unique head only used on the 2ZZ that uses different cams and has the increased lift. The 1ZZ head and cams can't match the 2ZZ's HP without forced induction (S/C, Turbo, nitrous) or some major engine work (new cams, higher compression, ported intake and head, etc). Also, the 2ZZ has a slightly larger bore and slightly shorter stroke than the 1ZZ.
From a common sense perspective, I think if it were possible to get the power of a 2ZZ in lift by replacing a chip for the 1ZZ, GM and Toyota would be all over that instead of sinking countless amounts of money trying to come up with the SC for the 1ZZ. Once developed, chips are cheap to mass produce. They could then produce some impressive looking but useless assembly to go along with the chip to make people feel that what they were getting was worth a couple grand. If you see a device that is supposed to be a chip that greatly increases the power of an engine, then maybe the device pushes the engine beyond tolerances. Is it worth it to jack up your engine power if a thousand miles later the engine explodes?
In the same line of thinking, why would Toyota develop the 2ZZ engine and head if all they had to do was change the chip to get that extra 50-hp for the Celica GTS, Matrix XRS and the Vibe GT?