Lexus 5.0L (303 cu in) firing order — diagram & guide

If you’re a fan of Lexus high-performance cars, you’ve certainly heard about their “F” division, and if you happen to own one of these you’ll be familiar with the 5.0-liter V8. It’s an engine that’s still going strong in production to this day, so being one of the last naturally aspirated V8s out there, we wanted to give you some maintenance tips.

Precisely, we’ll discuss the Lexus 5.0L (303 cu in) firing order which helps with DIY spark plug or ignition coil replacements. Plus, it’s a great tool for figuring out the sources of engine misfires if those occur, so stand by for the specs and details.

Lexus 5.0L V8 firing order

Let’s jump straight into the key facts here – the Lexus 5.0L V8 firing order is 1-8-7-3-6-5-4-2 and this is a common pattern for Toyota’s “UR” series of V8 engines. Since these were used in Lexus vehicles as well, the “F” models use the engine based on this one, as well as the all-new IS500 engine.

So, the firing order for all these is the same which helps a lot in defining some basic servicing tasks like spark plug inspections. If there’s a cylinder misfire in your engine, the Lexus 5.0L firing order can help you figure out the source.

That is if you can properly identify all eight cylinders and their positions within the cylinder banks. We know it’s tougher than it sounds, but we’ve taken time to explain this to you in further detail, so let’s take a look at the cylinder numbers.

Lexus 5.0L cylinder diagram

As a V8 engine, the Lexus 5.0-liter powertrain comes with two cylinder banks, both of which contain four cylinders in a bank. There’s the right-side bank with cylinders 1, 3, 5, and 7, and the left-side bank with cylinders 2, 4, 6, and 8.

That being said, it becomes easy to apply the firing order of the engine to diagnose misfires or oil leaks this way. Now you know the two essential components – the firing order and the cylinder positions. To make things even more clear, we should point out that the first cylinder is on the right-side bank, but from the perspective of directly looking at the engine.

From inside the car, it’s on the driver’s side, and the first cylinder is where you should start looking. It’s located at the front end of the engine right near the radiator housing.

Lexus 5.0L vehicle applications

Finally, we have to address the matter of confusion where drivers often misplace the firing order of the 5.0-liter engine with another one. To ensure this won’t happen to you, we’ve decided to give you a list of all the vehicle models powered by this engine:

• Lexus IS “F”
• Lexus IS500
• Lexus GS “F”
• Lexus RC “F”
• Lexus LS600h

The “600h” mark in the LS means it’s a hybrid combination of the 5.0-liter V8 with an electric motor. Plus, the engine has also been used by a variety of Toyota models including the Toyota Century, Hilux, and the Hilux GR.

Our take

Well, after reading this guide you now know that the Lexus 5.0-liter engine is derived from the 2UR-GSE engine made by Toyota. Although there have been numerous variations of the engine, all of the versions have the same 1-8-7-3-6-5-4-2 firing order.

So, hopefully, you’ll be able to now use this piece of important information to your advantage to properly service your V8-powered Lexus.