2JZ & 3UZ BEAMS Style Heads
A ground-up cylinder head program that brings the Toyota 3S-GE BEAMS valvetrain architecture, dual overhead cams, four valves per cylinder, and dual VVT-i, onto two engines that never wore it from the factory: the 2JZ inline-six and the 3UZ V8. Both heads are designed to bolt straight onto a factory block with no machining, and both are built to breathe hard and rev high, naturally aspirated.
What we are building
The Toyota 3S-GE BEAMS head is one of the great naturally aspirated four-cylinder heads: a compact, high-revving, dual VVT-i design that makes serious power per liter. The problem is that it only ever lived on a four-cylinder block. This project takes that valvetrain philosophy and re-engineers it into full heads for the 2JZ inline-six and the 3UZ V8, so those platforms can breathe like a modern race head while still bolting to the block, crank, and rotating assembly they already have.
Every head is modeled from scratch in CAD. The exhaust side uses D-slot ports, and the traditional dog-leg runners at the front and rear of the head have been deleted to straighten the flow paths and even out cylinder-to-cylinder breathing. Underneath the shapes, the design holds a 7mm minimum aluminum wall everywhere it counts, between the intake and exhaust ports, around the combustion chamber, and around every VVT-i oil passage and head-bolt passage, so the casting stays strong and sealed under high-RPM load.
Fueling is port injection with coil-on-plug ignition, and the combustion chambers are being designed around a naturally aspirated compression ratio of roughly 12:1, paired with custom pistons cut to match. It is naturally aspirated by design, but the architecture can be re-engineered to take forced induction down the road.
The numbers
Dual VVT-i (intake + exhaust)
Bucket & shim, no rockers
Intake and exhaust
32.03 mm ID (1.261")
26.16 mm ID (1.030")
(0.283")
Dog-leg runners deleted
Coil-on-plug
Custom pistons to match
CNC machined post-cast
Ports, chamber, oil & bolt passages
Stock bore spacing, deck, bolt pattern
Because the bore spacing, deck, and head-bolt pattern all match the factory engines, and the coolant and oil galleries are mapped to each block, no block machining is required. The heads locate on a stock 2JZ or 3UZ short block the way a factory head would.
Where we are aiming
These are the theoretical naturally aspirated goals with everything dialed in. They are design targets for an in-development part, not measured dyno results.
The 2JZ head
A single six-cylinder BEAMS-style head sized for the 2JZ deck. Below are current CAD views of the design.
The 3UZ heads
A matched pair of heads, one per bank, for the 3UZ V8. Below are current CAD views of the design.
Where it stands
The CAD is nearly complete. We are now moving from digital models toward the first physical castings, which means working out the casting process and tooling to turn these designs into real aluminum. Every image on this page is pulled straight from the current CAD models, so what you are looking at is the actual geometry, not a concept sketch.
This page will grow as the build does. As parts move from screen to sand to metal, progress shots and flow data will get added here.
Following the build, or want one?
These heads are in active development. If you want to follow the progress, talk shop, or discuss a build on one of these platforms, reach out.
All product lines shown are in development and not yet available for sale. Performance figures are design targets, not measured results.