Toyota 4AGE - What makes it GREAT? ICONIC ENGINES #1

A MASSIVE THANK YOU to Bill Sherwood (Billzilla) for maintaining his 4age website that's a true wealth of information on the 4AGE engine.

The 4AGE started it's life in 1983 and was produced until 1998. What does 4AGE even stand for? 4AGE is the 4th revision of the A block. G is a performance cylinder head and E is electronic fuel injection. When it comes to the 4A family, the first members were far less impressive and performance oriented than the 4age, the first engine being the 4ac, which was a single overhead cam 8v carbureted engine outputing around 70hp. The next evolution of the 4A family was the 4AFE which introduced double overhead cams and fuel injection. After this came the 4AGE, which was the performance option for the Corolla, Celica, MR2 and other mid-sized Toyota vechicles of the time. Interestingly enough you can also find the 4age in the GEO Prizm and Chevrolet Nova, which are basically rebadged versions of the Corolla AE92. When it comes to the power output the 4age started with 112hp in it's first generation and ended with 165 hp in it's last generation.

The engine the 4age shares a lot with is the Cosworth BDA. BDA being belt drive a type. It was one of the first racing and production engines to have both cam gears driven by a rubber toothed belt. The 4age was also toyota's first engine to have both cam gears driven by a rubber toothed belt.

This was a racing engine designed in 1969 by Mike Hall for homologation purposes for the Ford Escort RS1600. The original BDA spawned numerous different variants which were very succesfull in many different fields of motorsport.

The 4age has a bore of 81mm and a stroke of 77mm. The bda has an identical bore and stroke. From this we can see that the 4age is a very oversquare design which means it's an engine capable of handling high rpms pretty well. A large bore allows for some nice large valves and in stock form the 16v 4age comes with some healthy 29.5mm intake & 25.5mm exhaust valves. These are also of an identical size on the Cosworth bda. So the 4age is basically a mass produced version of the cosworth bda.

What about tuning? The 4age has been around for more than 30 years so everything posible that you can imagine being done to it, has been done. Everything from Crazy high revving formula atlantic builds to turbos, to twin charging to carburetor conversions to whatever else you can think of..Somebody likely already tried it.

The 4age is a good enggine, and while there are engines from the same era that may have an edge over it when it comes to engineering and performance, the 4age is capable, has undenieable charm, and is perhaps one of the best sounding 4 cylinder engines ever made.
The 4age engine has a total of 5 generations and you can sort of tell them apart by the valve covers. But that is honestly very unreliable and you can't really tell what's inside a 4age until you actually take it apart.

Remember how we said the A series engine had more generations after the 4a? An important one is the 7afe engine. It was a 1.8 liter with the same bore as the 4age but a larger 85.5mm stroke, and good way of getting more torque from the 4age, both in NA and forced induction modes is to take the 7afe a block and 4agehead and build something called a 7age. However there is also something called a 9age. This is a total frankenstein of an engine that boosts the 4ages displacement to 1.9 liters and is capable of serious power, especially if you go for the 20v valve cylinder head, which has a narrover intake angle compared to the 16v.

9age you need parts from 4age (16v/20v), 7afe block, 1zz/2zz crank, 2zz connecting rods (con-rods) and custom pistons. For this guide I'm going to assume you all ready have a stock 4age 16v and we will start building from there.

If you're interested in this engine, a company called MRP in New Zealand is basically a sort of a 4age mecca and they can build one for you. It will not be cheap but it will be insane. MRP can also build basically any kind of 4age for any kind of application you need.
So to sum it up, the 4age is a good, small reliable and capable engine. It's short and it's a great swap into older toyotas and any other light cars! It is outdated and squeezing very large power figures from the 4age will take a lot more effort and money than getting those same power figures from more modern iconic engines such as the 2zz or Honda's K series for example. That being said it's novice frienldy engine that is still relatively plentiful and it's fun and easy to tune and work with. The sound it makes is the icing on the cake.

D4A (driving 4 answers) is part of the amazon associates program

#d4a #4age #iconicengines

[antonkopitsa]

Fans of initial D or not, I would like to point out that the 4AGE that Bunta put in Takumi's 86 after the original blew out WAS from the Formula Atlantic race cars. Bunta mentions a friend acquiring the engine from connections within the racing world, it was not just another 4AGE but that explains it's capability of revving up to 10k rpm

[da]

So what do you think of the start of the ICONIC ENGINES series?

[pabitrikalita]

153 HP from a tiny 1.6 L engine is more than enough for me

[crazysdrums]

100hp per liter of NA displacement is a remarkable accomplishment for any engine. An AW11 with 160hp and the chassis being lightened and reinforced for racing is an amazing sportscar! I should be mad at you for these great MR2 vids...cus I miss my old MR2 that I put so much time and money and love into... ;) I am not mad though! Keep up the great work!

[johnlewis]

I have been building 4age's since 1998(my second car was a aw11) and your comments are exactly on point! In a world with alot of miss information seeing a video on YouTube that correctly and honestly talks about a engine that is near and dear to my heart is very important. Well done! I may pull out my 5mg(z)e of my 76 Toyota Corona and put it in my wife's 87 Cressida (mx73) and actually sit down and build the turbo 7ag that's been sitting on the shop floor for about 3 years. Great video and good on you for it!!!! (One thing you got wrong was the 4agze rods are huge and can be boosted to around 300+ hp and be safe). But other than that absolute perfection! You get a sub for this!!!!

[eddievazquez]

I’ve worked for toyota as a mechanic for 15 years and I learned a lot from this video. I appreciate all the effort

[moisesezequielgutierrez]

4AGE and 3SGE are my favorite NA Engines from Toyota.


I would love to see a 3SGE segment.

[jockihm]

Dude had a twincharged Levin when I was a kid. One of my dream cars back then

[KILLR]

Great video dude! As a Toyota head, AW11 MR2 fanatic, and someone who's spent more time workin on 4AGs than anything this was really enjoyable! I used to have an 87 MR2 with a bigport 4AGE with $1.5k in suspension mods I installed plus some other interior goodies, exhaust, wheels and tires...those TVIS sounds pulled my heartstrings lol, I miss that car and that motor. Now I've got an 86 MR2 with a JDM 4AGZE swap and even more money put into the suspension, lots of good bits. No more TVIS, but man 165hp and 155l ft/lbs out of a 1.6 is great, and people's reaction who aren't in the know is great when I tell them that little bitty motor has a supercharger pushing 10psi on it making some respectable power. Love 4AGs!

[jozsefizsak]

The BDA was the ultimate Mini Cooper S racing swap in the 1970s; unimaginably expensive with a lot of machining and custom crank, etc., etc. but it had been done and so we could therefore dream about it. The commonalities with the 4AGE puts that engine in a very meaningful and interesting context.

[tooljst]

I've owned my 1988 Toyota MR2 for 12 years. I've driven it almost every day and do all of the work myself. I love every minute of it.

[luckyfunclub]

I love 4age’s so much! I’ve got 4 now haha, 4age itbs in one Ae86 and a 4ag with carbs in my other Ae86 and a standard 4age build in my ke70!

[haryosoo]

so that kinda explains why the 4A racing engine sounds reaaally similar to the BDA (which usually found in Escort rally cars). thanks, cheers

[Gazatron]

you need to watch initial d in Japanese with subtitles and the dialogue makes a hell of a lot more sense than the English dub

[shallnotprevail]

I own a starlet with a 20v black top couldn't be more happier

[noobatnothing]

this is the definitively the best 4AGE info video, better than any else. fucking love you man.

[justythrasher]

In New Zealand in 1990 we got the ae92 hatch called the gti. It was the nz new and built version of the Gen 2 fxgt. It had the red and black top, which is the smallport 7 rib that put out 127hp and was rev limited, not speed limited. I owned mine for 5 years and it is in my top 3 owned cars. 150kph in 3rd 😂 I miss it. I chose to keep my gtt caldina which has the 3sgte and awd etcetc. Great vid, excellent knowledge and great for anyone looking to own a 4age containing vehicle. Thanks for your good work.

[motoklx]

I was fortunate to own an 85 corrolla gts with the 4AGE, love the car but that engine, what a gem

[lmenzol]

Billzillas 4age page is the go to reference for anything and everything 4age

[milkomigneco]

Excellent video, have mine 4AGE rebuilt and finishing the installation on my Corolla, can't wait to ride it again.

Please do a video to the glorious 3SGTE