(first posted 4/7/2013) We’ve just seen a diesel powered Corolla so how about a more conventional diesel powered Toyota? While still rare, this diesel-powered third-generation pickup is probably a less surprising recipient of a diesel engine than a small hatchback. There is one thing I did find puzzling about it besides its pristine looking condition though …
A while back I owned a 1982 SR5 so from the front it seems pretty easy to peg this one as a 1982 model since it uses the one year only combination of the early grill and the square sealed beam headlights. I even have the same grill still sitting in my garage as there seems to be no call for it. The lack of flares on the front fender means this is a two wheel drive model which jives with the fact that the diesel engine was not available with four wheel drive until 1983.
But coming around the back the bed looks to be an earlier type. This bed style was used on the second generation of the truck so it would be made in 1978 at the latest. Due to its single wall construction and lack of rust proofing intact beds of this era are extremely hard to come by but I do wonder why this truck has the early style bed. Perhaps the truck was involved in an accident very early in its life and was repaired with a more easily found at the time earlier box? Or perhaps the owner had enough of a preference to make the swap. A color matched topper is a nice touch though.
The diesel pickup used a non-turbo 2.2L version of Toyota’s L family of engines. It produced 62hp @ 4200 rpm versus 97hp @ 4800 rpm for the 2.4L 22R gas engine. Even the torque rating of 93 lb-ft was down against the 22R’s 129 lb-ft. The SR5 variant might have been sporty but the diesel sure wasn’t.
Taking a peek into the interior I first noticed the sportier SR5 steering wheel (but not extra gauges) and the bench seat that looked like it had been re-done. Could someone have restored a two wheel drive, basic and early 1980s Toyota truck? The four wheel drive ones are in demand and can be found restored and/or modified to better than new condition but usually the two wheel drive versions are worked hard then unceremoniously dumped when they can’t continue. Either restored or nicely preserved original it was certainly a treat to see a two wheel drive truck in such nice shape with the diesel being an extra bonus.
I never understand manufacturers bragging about the use of a timing belt as a noise reduction measure on a diesel engine. It’s like putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. Similarly, the use of an overhead cam on a diesel engine back then seems sort of silly as makes the use of such a belt more likely than it would be otherwise and the engine isn’t dependent on revs to make its power. Nevertheless, those are solid economy numbers and the truck overall looks a bit less bare bones than an Isuzu P’up of the same era.
Also, I’d bet the pick-up bed was replaced long ago judging from the continuation of that very old fashioned looking bodyside rub strip.
OHC isnt about revs its about valve train power losses and belt drives are the obvious answer. My car has an OHC diesel that was originally designed at a similar time it uses a BDA arrangement so why should Toyota having Licensed the injector pump setup from Bosch revert to the primitive pushrod or chain setup when modern diesel engines of 80s design are all OHC belt drives. Noise has nothing to do with it.
I see. What is BDA set-up?
Also, the ad lists the t-belt as a noise reduction measure.
That’s just marketing. They come up with the product first and then pay somebody to design the words that describe why it’s good. In a technical sense, yeah the belt is quieter (on at least some level), but since Toyota was already firmly committed to OHC designs at this point, and the diesel was based off of the L-series gas engine, that’s what this engine was going to be regardless of whether it actually had any tangible noise reduction benefits over an equivalent chain-drive.
There was another car featured on here recently, I think it may have been a Tercel or Corolla in fact, where the advertisement featured an announcer saying “…and it features a longitudinal engine, which you won’t find on any Honda!” Of course, north-south engines in FWD cars offer very little (if any) apparent benefits, but the statement is still technically true… just say it with a little stink on it and most people won’t know any better.
Belt driven arrangement.
For old skool ‘merican V8’s especially for drag racing the Jesel belt drive is superior to both chain and gear drives.
Michael Ronk
I recently purchased a 1982 toyota pick up with the 2.2l diesel. Seems to be a great truck although the timing belt snapped. I intend on repairing it and bringing the truck back to its original condition. Any pointers?
Thanks Mike
An accident survivor, as it looks; and a very nice truck.
The single-wall bed doesn’t probably work against it – given its shape, it’s probably a fair-weather truck. Which of course complements the diesel setup – why fight a block heater, and diesel additive, winter blends, and still have gelling problems…when the owner can more easily keep a beater to ride the snowdrifts and salt puddles?
Love it. Don’t have a place for such a rig in my world…but love it.
Actually, the timing belt on a diesel makes perfect sense from an engineering standpoint, although not for noise. Timing belts are far more accurate at higher mileages than chains, which can wear and stretch. This isn’t a big deal for a petrol car where all it affects is the valve opening and perhaps the ignition timing, both of which need to be REALLY bad before it makes a difference- as the tensioner tends to take up the slack well enough.
However, for a diesel, the injection pump runs off of the timing chain or belt. Any Land Rover series diesel owner will tell you just how bad a diesel can run with only a small bit of wear in the timing chain- it may still be good enough to run the valves, but the injection timing will be way out, meaning lots of black smoke, no power, and general poopey running. Plus, changing the chain every 50K miles is much more of a PITA than popping on a new belt.
A timing belt tends to be accurate up to its replacement period. Once replaced, the marks line up again and it runs as new. This is why Land Rover changed to timing belts in their OHV diesel engines in 1984, which solved the diesel’s problem once and for all.
a-HA, that makes much more sense.
Congratulations Mr. Saunders, one of your photos has been featured on Jalopnik! Enjoy your 15 seconds of fame:
http://jalopnik.com/whats-the-greatest-unreliable-car-470945751
Maybe the reason somebody might have restored this is because of the want for a reliable, cheap, fuel-efficient, & small rig.
I like the old Japanese pickups; while I was in H.S. in the late ’70s, these & ’60s ponycars were the thing to drive. I wonder if the double-skinned bed (introduced by the Ranger & S10) added a lot of weight?
Does the driver like living dangerously, or were head restraints not req’d in light trucks in this model year? I don’t need NHTSA & insurance safety fanatics to tell me that it’s not good having glass right behind my skull.
While on the subject, there’s a site I can no longer find called “At the Scene of the Accident” which has numerous car accident photos (mercifully free of gore) from the ’30s-’50s. Many wrecks have a nice round windshield crack in line with the driver’s position. The rigid steering column’s effects can only be imagined.
No need to imagine it. The deep-dish design of the steering wheel, from the late 1950s on…was not a styling issue. Ford, specifically Lido (or his lieutenants) came up with that – back when he was on his “safety” bender. The unimpressive results led him to forever pontificate: “Safety doesn’t sell.”
But apparently the automakers were impressed at that one safety innovation – as it became universal a full decade before the 1966 Motor Vehicle act went into effect.
Re: headrests: No, trucks, light trucks, and “multipurpose passenger vehicles” were not required to have headrests. Or collapsible steering columns. Or lockable steering columns…as late as 1976, Chevrolet used a standard Saginaw steering wheel in the C-series light trucks ( C10, 20, 30) – but left out the steering-wheel locking mechanism! That just floored me – and it wasn’t a one-off assembly error. We had a 1973 C10, a 1974 C20, a 1975 and a 1976 C30 cab/chassis rigs. All had manual gearboxes – and none of them locked the steering wheels.
I don’t think they were REQUIRED to have such things until just a few years ago – but it was surely cheaper and made more sense from a parts-sharing perspective, as well as for liability limitation, to just put those things on various trucks.
Thanks for the info. You’d think what’s good for the goose is good for the gander here, but maybe there was push-back from the trucking industry. And the trouble with marketing safety features back in the day was, it’s a morbid subject. Who wants to think about dying while buying a car? Real men who survived the Depression & WW2 laughed at death, right?
I thought it was Robert McNamara who introduced “Lifeguard” features like padded dashes, seat-belts, & deep-dished steering wheels in ’56, but Ford’s weak sales figures that year were fallaciously attributed to this by Henry II, who supposedly said, “McNamara is selling safety, but Chevrolet is selling cars.” Problem really was, Chevy was on a roll those years.
McNamara, as a “Scientific Management” fanatic, had interesting nicknames: one of the “Whiz Kids,” or “Bow-Tie Bastards,” or to LBJ, his “Lard-Hair Man.” The Falcon, F-111 (aka Aardvark, Flying Opera House), & the Vietnam War were all part of his legacy (& all affected Australia, by the way).
“You’d think what’s good for the goose is good for the gander here, but maybe there was push-back from the trucking industry.”
It was actually that truck sales, even including pickup trucks, were insignificant against regular passenger cars. The pickup truck was a painted-metal-interior work vehicle; the Suburban was for the Forest Service and for railroads.
Only with CAFE did the Suburbans, Wagoneers and various pickup model sales take off. People wanted and needed heavy vehicles to tow or carry; and K-Cars didn’t do it. Not having the safety garbage was a big plus.
(Buzzers were the order of the day back then; it was a ritual in our family that my brother and I would spend a weekend on a new car, de-buzzering it. And defeating the seat-belt interlock…we all wore the belts, but my old man had a deep independent streak in him. And he wanted LAP belts, not those mid-1970s two-reel, three-point horrors.)
I would say it’s a woman gardener’s hobby truck… an occasional truck that just goes to the garden center for a few annuals and a perennial or two but never much heavy duty work. Probably parked its whole life inside a barn with the rest of the tools… safe from the elements and sun… The gardening gloves and the blue plaid throw are the big tip offs…
I am not trying to sound or be condescending, I think its a great idea to have the proper tools, as I myself have an occasional garden truck… an Amber Flame 2000 Dodge Dakota 4WD V8 5-speed. In the 4 years I’ve owned it I’ve put about 5k miles on it… including driving it from 1000 miles away! Though I do haul 2cubic yards of compost/mulch in it a few times a year. It is mostly used for shopping/major yard debris hauling. It’s in good shape considering it has 206,000+ miles on it!
The 3rd, AKA high mount, brake light was required in utility type vehicles (pick-ups and vans) in 1994. That brake light was required in passenger-type vehicles (cars) in 1985. Headrests, on the other hand were required in cars in 1969 (why do I recall my uncle’s ’71 or ’72 Rally Nova not having them on the buckets?), but I don’t think they were required on trucks until early ’90’s.
Plenty of old Toyota diesel Hiluxs still in front line duty here the diesels go forever there is one for sale near the end of my street with a mere 420,000kms on the RUC label its barely broken in. As for timing belts accuracy of injector timing is paramount and chains simply do not work well enough, Car dealers here make a huge deal of timing chains telling mugs they are maintenance free no more belt changes which is a lie belts are simple to change and cheap chains are the opposite, the proof is in how many belt driven engines are still alive from Toyota and the huge expense of keeping Nissans going with gear or chain driven cams.
The same idiot buyers neglect oil changes or even checking the oil, I’d avoid buying a later model Toyota with a timing chain, bad or lack of oil is death for these motors, I’m guessing it would be far more economic to replace with used motor than even bothering with cam chain replacement which I’m also guessing it would require genuine parts.
Is changing the sprockets a thing you also do along with idler and also theres gaskets which you wouldn’t find on a belt engine.
Memory does not allow the exact details about Toyota P/U beds.
In the 1980s era there were two styles labeled the “American” style and the “Jap” style.
One had the lip at the top and the other was smooth with no upper lip.
I forget the details about the hooks used for tying down stuff.
The taillights do look akin to those used in the 1975-1978 years… I believe they were all interchangeable.
I think the SR-5 option had the black trim and non-SR5 had a silver color.
Everything Toyota P/U related sold very well at the auto recycling/dismantling/junk yard
Was the Diesel 4WD ever sold in the US? I thought not … not Toyota, Isuzu, Mazda or any Japanese mini truck that was sold as a 2WD Diesel.
My friend’s Dad had a 4WD Isuzu P’up diesel, but it was pretty used up by about 1990. 58 hp wasn’t enough anywhere other than in their back yard, although I recall it getting stuck there on a rainy day. They tried to tow it out with a hotrod CJ7, but the Jeep’s driver couldn’t be convinced to try any technique other than standing on the gas and spinning sideways across the hill. My friend started eyeing my Audi quattro, and I decided it was time to make my exit. We also used it to tow a smallish ski boat, which lowered top speed to 55 mph. He replaced it with a 4.3 liter 4×4 S10 extended cab with almost three times the power.
David, that’s a heck of a find. I simply don’t see these Toyotas on the road anymore; and a diesel, at that! So, when you run across an article about a truck like this, you have to stop and pause. Just admire how clean and space efficient our vehicles once were…..and what bloated pigs they have become today!
One note about the rubber timing belt on a small diesel: I think dealer profit at the time of service has to be considered too. The larger truck diesels from engine makers like Cat and Cummins don’t have timing issues with their geared drivetrains. I dread my 60k timing belt change(along with the water pump since it is driven by the timing belt and as a matter of course, is changed when the belt is changed) on my New Beetle TDI. At the dealer the cost to you was about 800 dollars or so. That’s pretty good profit for the dealer. And with these TDI’s, there is no return should a rubber belt breaks. You’ve basically met valves with pistons and earned a trip to the junkyard for a replacement engine. Rebuilds are in another price league by themselves. So, I wonder, why not a geared drive train????
“So, I wonder, why not a geared drive train????”
Probably expense, with a side order of packaging issues.
Geared drivetrains for top end and ancilliaries are not common anywhere. There’s undoubtedly a reason, and “maximizing servicing profit” isn’t it.
They make a lot of noise too, but it can be a glorious noise!
I’m not sure if it is a profit issue or not.
I don’t know why diesels haven’t used geared drive trains either- although any Ford Essex (UK) v6 owner or Tech4 owner can tell you that if those gears are made of nylon, you’d wish for a timing belt!
You are right though about some vehicles having good timing chain systems- I had a Merc w124 250D and that had a timing chain and gave no problems in many miles. However, I bet that it had a much, much more intricately designed tensioner than the primitive stock petrol item on old Land Rovers. Furthermore, I think there is something to do with the type of pump. Mercedes had adjustable rotary pumps- Land Rovers used a different design. The 2.25 Diesel on old landies was identical to the petrol engine aside from the cylinder head, pistons and crankshaft- only 3 bearings until 1981. The 2.25 petrol on the other hand- was slant-six reliable. Over-engineered well beyond its meagre power output and capable of 300K miles in the early 60s with the typical hard use and lack of care that old farm vehicles endured. In 5 bearing form, its right up there with the Volvo Redblock, Slant 6, Ford 300 6, and OM606 for likelihood of seeing 500K or better. The diesel? Maybe 100K if looked after.
Great truck, love the color – and I wonder if it’s in fact the same exact one that was featured in the advertisement? Considering that Toyota didn’t sell all that many of them in the US, it wouldn’t surprise me.
The truck has an Alberta plate on it, so it’s a Canadian truck. It does look to be in good shape, that’s probably because they don’t salt the roads in Alberta in the winter. I think they use sand.
I miss my HiLux….
David the other clue it is a 2wd is that it is about a foot closer to terra firma (ok slight exaggeration)
Those early 4WD ones sat extremely high. I remember actually laughing out loud at the first one I saw because it looked so cartoonish.
I don’t think any mass production OHC motors use gear-driven cams. Too far apart from crank to cam, without using idlers, and dealing with resulting cost/noise/clearance issues. Some Honda motorcycles have gears … but it’s not been really successful.
Very Surprised to see my truck on your website. It is indeed a 1982 SR5 which we purchased new as a runabout truck for our corporate farming operation. Although incredibly reliable and fuel efficient, by 1999 the one problem endemic to all early Toyotas, namely rust, was serious enough that a replacement was purchased for the company. Even though this truck had 450,000 km at that time, mechanically it was still sound, so I did a complete body restoration which I completed in 2000. This included a complete dismantling of body parts down to frame and drive train, stripping all body parts to bare metal, patching, welding, replacing rust infected areas, repainting original colour, and reassembly. Unfortunately, the original truck bed was rusted beyond repair, but I found a 1979 bed in reasonable condition, which I then restored and mounted, as cleverly detected by Mr. Saunders. As the original upholstery and headliner was largely plastic and quite deteriorated, I had an upholsterer friend redo the seat, headliner, and door panels. Original steering wheel was also cracked and was replaced with a used one. Since the restoration in 2000 I have used this truck as my second personal vehicle, for work, pulling the boat, tent trailer, etc. It now has half a million km on the original motor and drive train. We have replaced the timing belt three times during its life time, replaced glow plugs once, and replaced the starter. Still the original injector pump and injectors, still no oil consumption between oil changes, 35-42 mpg. The reliability of this truck is more than I ever bargained for.
Thanks for your interest.
I made an error in my previous post. This is not an SR5, it is a 5 speed diesel, (I was thinking of our previous truck).
THAT FOR BUY MR ,HOW MUCH FOR THAT ,BEST PICK-UP
I do need one for myself
Is it for sale
Still looking? Might have an 83 Deisel. In Tennessee. Jgiants86@optonline.net
I have a Toyota diesel truck for sale for $5000.00 call me at 970- 824- 2164 Colorado. It has 140k on it Nice condition.
Toyota 1981 2.2l 4×4 conversion into the original 22r. Runs well at 306,000 kms .With the extra weight of the front running gear it does pretty well averaging 35.7 and 35.2 mpg (imperial) for fuel mileage. No, the terrain wasn’t flat and included trips up and over the Coquihalla and to Lumby in the North Okanagan, where some repairs were done by an old school mechanic. The repairs included a rebuild kit on the Bosch injection pump, and dropping the T.case down a bit because of body contact and replacing the T.case rubber mount for the correct one. The next trip was for the harmonic balancer which was shot. Couldn’t find the correct single pulley and ended up trimming the fan blades to get clearance. Also, the glow plug timing circuit was shot. No parts found so we went to a momentary switch system along with new glow plugs. Works great. She goes through a bit of oil though. My mechanic figures its probably valve seals. I agree for she’ll scoot along at 65-70 mph although it takes awhile to get there. She prefers and runs smoother at 90-95 kmh. Just got her on the road again after an epic search for a new throttle cable. Finally found the parts I needed through Lordco from Dorman products. Drilled out the injection pump lever end hole to match the barrel ends that go onto the new stainless cable and the same to the accelerator. This is an easy fix. I may back up the set screws with some Loctite.
I currently own a pristine 1982 Toyota Diesel custom made from the factory with dual tires in the back
I’ve heard the value was 20k 7 years ago. Just curious if anyone knows?
Does it run?
It runs beautifully.