The Most Reliable Diesel Engines Ever Made By Toyota (2024)

There are a lot of Toyota diesel engines to pick from, and it's hard to choose a favorite. From the Hilux to the Corolla to the Toyota 4Runner, you'll find that some of the most reliable Toyota diesel trucks, cars, and SUVs are thirty to forty years old, and still ticking with the original equipment. These days, you can't buy a single Toyota diesel engine in the USA, but there are still a few oil burners for sale, mostly in the heavy-duty full-size pickup truck segment.

The main reason behind diesel's disappearance from mainstream cars is Dieselgate, which made Americans deeply skeptical of the stuff. Still, there are some epic older diesel engines we can celebrate.

Here are ten of the most reliable diesel engines Toyota ever built.

1VD V8

The 1VD-FTV, or simply the Toyota VD V8, achieved reliability the old-fashioned way: with a nigh-indestructible graphite cast iron cylinder block. Pair that with high-strength steel connecting rods and aluminum alloy pistons, and you've got heroic durability. The base engine produces 182 horses in the 70-Series Land Cruiser, while a single turbocharger will get you up to 201 hp. A twin-turbo variant is capable of achieving 282 hp in the big body Land Cruiser vehicles, perhaps most famously the 200-Series Land Cruiser, or up to 365 for Toyota's boat engines. Early VDs had an issue with excessive oil consumption, owing to a failed vacuum pump, but this was fixed in 2010.

4.2 1HD

A straight-six direct-injection turbocharged engine, the 1HD-FT, or 4.2 1HD, is best known as the engine powering the FJ80 Land Cruiser from 1995 to 1999, but it also found its way into boats as the 370-420-hp Yamaha ME. Off-roaders love the hefty low-end torque the 4.2 1HD offers, stomping through mud and dirt in first gear without issue. The cast-iron block helps to make this engine strong as hell, while the simple straight-six construction makes the 1HD easy to maintain, and easy to find parts for on the rare occasion that something does go wrong.

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F33A

The F33A was introduced in 2021 for the Land Cruiser and holds the honor of being Toyota's first V6 diesel. Besides the newer Land Cruisers, the F33A can also be found in the current-gen Lexus LX, though not in the USA. The connecting rods are made from high-strength steel and the crankshaft is carbon steel, helping to bring the total weight down without sacrificing power.

It's quite an impressive engine, especially if you look at that torque figure. That's supercar levels of torque, and in these big off-roaders, all of it is available from just 1,600 rpm. That's ideal for off-roading, towing, or just cruising around town effortlessly.

1GD-FTV

The GD-6: Global Diesel 6-Speed. The engine is actually an inline-four, though, not a V6. The 1GD-FTV was launched in 2015. Besides the Hilux, the 1GD-FLV can also be found in the new Land Cruiser (not in the USA), the Fortuner, and the Coaster, a Toyota minibus used for public transport. The 1GD-FTV was followed by the 2GD-FTV, a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder producing 147 hp, and offered alongside the first iteration of the modern Hilux. The 1GD-FTV suffered from excessive oil consumption early on but has otherwise managed to produce dependable performance thanks to its simple build and unambitious performance specs.

This year, Toyota added a mild-hybrid system to this engine and introduced it in several third-world countries. That speaks volumes of how much confidence Toyota has in this engine.

5L

The 5L, and the electronically fuel-injected 5L-E, are part of the Toyota L family, which has been running for close to fifty years now, launching in 1977 and it's still in use in countries that need budget versions of the Hilux and Fortuner. The reason it's cheaper is that it's not turbocharged like the GD-6 we mentioned earlier. We could fill five of these lists with nothing but Ls, but for simplicity's sake, we'll highlight these latest iterations, the 5L, and 5L-E, as they do a good job of showcasing what five decades of focused R&D can achieve. Many Toyota drivers prefer the smoother-riding 2L engine, but the 5L and 5L-E do an excellent job of delivering strong torque at low RPM.

1KZ-TE

Introduced to replace Toyota's light-duty 2LTE engine in Japan, the 1KZ-TE was launched as an option for the 70-Series Land Cruiser Prado, before finding its way into the 1993 Toyota Hiace and Hilux Surf. The engine utilized an ETCS-i, or Electronic Throttle Control System - intelligent, which is a modern gasoline injector but with higher injection pressures and worse fuel economy. The engine's durability mostly comes down to smart, high-strength construction; steel crankshaft, aluminum alloy bearings, fiber-reinforced metal top ring groove.

1.4 D-4D

The 1ND-TV, also known as the 1.4 D-4D, or simply the D-4D, was retired after the 2020 production run, but had nearly twenty years on the European market, debuting with the Toyota Yaris XP10 and the XP20 Yaris Verso. The engine also found its way into Indian releases of the Corolla. The D-4D marked the first time Toyota built a diesel engine with an aluminum cylinder block. This was an inline-four intended to bring emissions down and fuel economy up, all while running a bit quieter than earlier diesel engines. The simple formula behind the D-4D's reliability: it's a small engine with a durable cylinder block, and it's tasked with outputting fairly modest horsepower.

3B-II

The Toyota B Engine series dates all the way back to the 1940s, but we're more interested in the 1988 relaunch, specifically the 3B. Built on a mono-block with no cylinder liners, the 3Bs built in 1988 and later are unofficially known as the 3B-II. The original 3B was used to power 40-series Land Cruisers, while the 3B-II may be best known as an option in the Toyota Dyna. The engine's simple, functional construction and cast-iron block contribute to its impressive durability. There's just not a lot of stuff on this engine that can break.

2H

Built to replace the original H engine, the 2H was introduced in 1981 and would go on to prove the more reliable engine of the two, with many 2H-equipped Dynas and Land Cruisers going for more than 600,000 miles. Drivers tend to report that the 2H engine is durable, but feels a bit wimpy in high-pressure situations. But, it produces 177 lb-ft of torque at just 2,000 rpm. So it might not be the best engine to take on the highway, but it'll get you where you're going in dirt, mud, and snow.

22R-E

The 22R-E was a versatile little diesel engine perfect for Toyota off-roaders, launched in 1981 and produced up until 1997 for vehicles like the Hilux Surf. The engine was given a series of revisions in the mid-1980s, with one being that Toyota swapped the dual-row timing chain for a single-row with plastic guides in 1983. This resulted in reduced system drag, but the guides were prone to breaking after 100,000 miles, which could lead to timing errors and engine failure. Early 22R-Es are more reliable for this reason, but later engines will go for decades as long as you replace the timing chain components as needed. Like many of Toyota's 4-cylinder diesel engines, the R family, and the 22R-E especially, manage to deliver long-term reliability thanks to a simple build and manageable performance specs.