If you’re in the market for a new or used Toyota Land Cruiser, you may be curious about what’s under the hood. The answer to that question can vary, depending on the model you’re looking at. For example, from 1987 to 1990, the VM Motori HR588 was offered as a 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five in the Land Cruiser 70 Series four-door utility wagon. This engine produced 98 hp at 4,000 rpm and 162 lb-ft of torque at 2,600 rpm.
However, that wasn’t the only inline-five used in the 70 Series at that time, as Toyota added the 1PZ-type diesel in 1990. This diesel engine had 3,469cc and produced a maximum output of 115 PS (around 113 hp). The reason Toyota ended up using two different inline-five diesels actually had more to do with regional production than just a choice between the two engines.
The VM Motori HR588 was used in European-market BJ73s assembled by Salvador Caetano in Portugal as part of an effort to overcome European import quotas. The 1PZ, which came later, was part of Toyota’s own engine lineup for the Land Cruiser 70, developed as a five-cylinder version of the 1HZ, one of Toyota’s best diesel engines, and used in models like the PZJ70 and PZJ77. The 1PZ’s smaller size also made it well suited to the shorter-body versions of the Toyota Land Cruiser 70.
Toyota’s transition from inline-five diesels to modern engines
Toyota’s 1990 changes to the Land Cruiser 70,
Toyota’s 1990 changes to the Land Cruiser 70, which you can’t buy in the U.S., weren’t limited to its engines. That year’s update also introduced the model’s first mass-produced four-door body, created by extending the wheelbase to provide both more seating capacity and cargo room. In fact, two four-door models appeared at this time: the HZJ77V with the 1HZ engine and the PZJ77V with the 1PZ. The PZJ77V was a semi-long body basic model, giving buyers a four-door Land Cruiser with the smaller diesel engine.
The 1PZ’s place in the Land Cruiser 70 lineup was also short-lived. The inline-five diesel remained in use by Toyota for about four years before stricter emissions regulations forced a change at the manufacturing level. Because of this, Toyota eventually replaced the 1PZ with the 1HZ in models that had already used the smaller engine. By 1994, the Land Cruiser 70 Series had fully transitioned over to the six-cylinder diesel.
Today’s Land Cruisers have expanded beyond the days of the 1PZ and VM Motori HR588. For example, Toyota’s newest addition, the Land Cruiser FJ, uses a naturally aspirated 2.7-liter inline-four and joins the 300, 70, and 250 Series in Toyota’s current lineup. However, the five-cylinder diesels that once had a small place in the Land Cruiser’s lineup are long gone, replaced by a much wider range of modern engines.
