TOYOTA'S MOST POWERFUL 4-CYLINDER ENGINE

While the world moves more and more towards an eco-friendly future, certain aspects of the automotive industry suffer. As emission restrictions tighten and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) metrics become harder and harder for manufacturers to meet, engine sizes are becoming smaller in order to meet those goals. That's why we've seen so many six-cylinder engines drop to four-pots, while V8s have been downgraded (or upgraded depending on where you stand) to twin-turbocharged sixes.

Toyota is not immune to these changes, and it's 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder first made its debut in the Lexus NX. It's a handy engine that can be tuned for various purposes, and it was designed to be electrified from the start. The full fat version of this engine can be found underneath the hood of the Toyota Crown.

The Car With Toyota's Hottest Four-Pot

Toyota Crown Highlights

• In continuous production since 1955.
• The current 16th-gen model is the first to come to North America since 1972.
• Both a sedan and an SUV model are now offered.

Being the most powerful four-banger Toyota has to offer is a special honor, so it makes sense for it to be offered within a special car. The Toyota Crown is an extremely important nameplate for Toyota, having been in production for nearly 70 years now. It's lived nearly its entire life, mostly within the confines of its home country of Japan. It was offered in the US from 1958 to 1972, but it was replaced by the Toyota Corona Mark II. Now, though, Toyota is now ready to offer their Crown to the rest of the world, in over 40 countries, to be specific.

Back in the 1950s, Toyota decided they needed a mainstream "car for the people" of sorts. This need was filled when they decided on building the Toyota Crown, a mid-size sedan for the masses.

Over the last 69 years, the Crown has moved from mass-market prevalence to a more luxury-oriented vehicle. 1989 saw the introduction of the Toyota Comfort to fill the gap left by the Crown once it began to move up the market in terms of opulence and price. These days, the Crown is involved mostly in police work, governmental shuttling, and, as we mentioned before, is mostly owned by more affluent civilians these days.

The Crown is one of the few Toyotas to showcase its own, unique emblem which, if you can guess, is a crown. An example of another which boasts its own insignia is Toyota's flagship Century nameplate, an extremely exclusive luxury sedan that's seen continuous production since 1967. Having its own emblem is just another way to showcase just how important the Crown is to Toyota, and Japan, as a whole. Not to mention, the Crown now boasts Toyota's most powerful four-cylinder to date.

The Ins And Outs Of That Special Motor

*Spec table denotes combined power output

The 16th-gen Toyota Crown sedan employs Toyota's 2.4-liter T24A-FTS inline-four engine. One of the largest improvements over previous engines is the Crown 2.4-liter's improved cylinder head design. The new head allows for an increase in tumble flow, or air flow volume throughout the cylinder head, increasing efficiency and power output. The motors also boast a much higher compression ratio, further aiding in increasing combustion efficiency.

As for the Crown's specific Dynamic Force engine, it packs quite the punch. The 2.4-liter turbo is part of Toyota's Hybrid Max family of hybrid powertrains, and it employs both front and rear-mounted electric motors.

These two electric motors also grant the Crown an all-wheel drive drivetrain, good news for those of us who live in occasionally-snowy climates. Despite the Crown's 340 horses, it can still manage 30 MPG combined.

Handling the Crown's horses is Toyota's Direct Shift-6AT automatic transmission. Because of the T24A-FTS' large power output, Toyota decided to stick with a conventional automatic transmission rather than the increasingly-popular CVT-type transmission, as it was deemed it wouldn't be able to handle the Crown's power. This is good news for us gearheads, too. No matter how good CVTs get, they haven't been able to match the responsiveness of an automatic.

How The Crown's T24A-FTS Came To Be

The T24A-FTS is part of the new Toyota Dynamic Force engine family, whose main purpose is to replace the 800-plus Toyota engine variants offered worldwide with just 17 motor iterations, vastly reducing Toyota's engine manufacturing load. Not to mention, the move also makes sourcing parts and repairs on said motors much simpler. However, it'll be a long time before those older, 800-plus engines are largely phased out of existence, as the replacement is on a global scale.

The Crown's hot four-pot has seen applications in several Toyota models, despite its young age of only three years. Upon introduction in 2021, its job was to replace the 2GR-FKS naturally-aspirated V6 which saw use in models like the Toyota Tacoma, Toyota Camry, and Lexus IS 350. The new 2.4-liter is smaller and lighter, but it throws out more power across the board, effectively doing more with less. This means better fuel mileage while also boasting more power, something very important in today's efficiency-obsessed automotive world.

As we touched on before, the Crown isn't the only model that gets the T24A-FTS treatment. Another nameplate to receive the engine is the Toyota Tacoma, although with an altered power output which favors torque over horsepower for better towing capability. The four-pot is also featured in the Toyota Grand Highlander and the Lexus RX 350 SUV.

Four-Cylinder Engines: Are They The Future?

Toyota is no stranger to the small, yet efficient engine. Instead of chasing large-displacement engines and trying to build the most powerful motors, Toyota has focused, largely, on building the best all-around engines on the market. In striving for that level of perfection, the Japanese automaker has spearheaded an engineering tenant known as overbuilding, which is, basically, building something tougher and longer-lasting than necessary. This mindset has bled down into every aspect of Toyota's vehicles, in turn making Toyota one of the most successful and well-regarded automakers in history.

As for the four-cylinder and its place in the automotive present and future, it's safe to say it isn't going anywhere. We touched on it previously, but the engine as a whole is, largely, decreasing in size across the globe to help gain better fuel mileage and reduce emissions. Cars that you wouldn't dream of having a four-banger 20 years ago now feature them en-masse, such as the full-size pickup truck. You can also find a couple of muscle cars sporting the inline-four these days, such as the 2024 Ford Mustang. If you traveled back a few decades and told someone the Mustang would have an engine that small, you'd be laughed at. Well, who's laughing now?

Sources: Toyota.com

2024-08-26T01:58:05Z dg43tfdfdgfd