4/1/2007
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EngineINtel: Stalking The Toyota Family
Although I have read bits and pieces of different things that have given me a cursory understanding of the engine designators used for Toyota, I've never found anything that I could continuously refer back to and say "this makes sense."
By Roy Berndt
Just recently I received an email from a reader who was confused about decoding the Ford part numbering system. I was able to refer him to previous Core Corner columns, and it got me to thinking about a similar project that has been making me crazy for as long as I can remember.
Although I have read bits and pieces of different things that have given me a cursory understanding of the engine designators used for Toyota, I've never found anything that I could continuously refer back to and say "this makes sense."
In some circles, these words might be considered an engine equivalent to the supermarket tabloids, and my "inquiring mind" would not let it go. I know that this is not as titillating as Britney Spears shaving her head but I still think that there is a real benefit to being able to decipher the Toyota engine designators.
There is real value to having "the chart," so you can go back to and scroll your finger down a row and say "that engine is a …" and actually have a clue to determining the engine configuration. So like paparazzi with a new Nikon and a lens that can see a mile away, I was off on a quest.
There are really just a few basics that you need to know but you must have all the information to make it work. First, the numeric characters specify the engine block generation; second, the next one or two digits indicate the engine family; and last, the suffix information separated by the dash specifies engine features. See the chart at left to help you understand.
See Toyota Charts: Engine Features Directory & Engine Family Directory
Simple enough, right? You would think that would just end it and now you know everything. So did I, until I tried to understand the families themselves, including their applications, configuration and displacement. Unfortunately unless you know the entire family's evolution you really do not know the whole story at all.
I felt like I had the magazine cover shot of the century but it was out of focus and unusable. The only way for me to solve that problem was to go back and get a better picture than the one before, and the only way to do that was to give you a chart of all the Toyota engine families and their years, liters and cc information. So the really long chart found on page 26 will make all that work for you.
This list will cover pretty much everything that you are going to run into in the automotive aftermarket and engine builder industry and should help you figure out what, where, when and why. Don't expect to see this list in your grocery store counter but it's worth keeping around when you need to identify and/or determine a Toyota engine application. There are a couple of V12 engine applications and a number of diesels that are not included on this list but they're not what you generally see in the mainstream of vehicle applications.
You can expect more coverage on the expanse of import information in upcoming months in this column.
This information pool is something that many who are much wiser than I don't dare dive into, but nobody said that I was smart enough to stay in the shallow end. I hope this ends up hanging on your wall and you get to use the chart often, for if you do, I got the shot I was looking for.