Here is a staggering bit of information about Toyota engines. Toyota started in 1933 as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the founder’s son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Its first vehicles were the A1 passenger car and the G1 in 1935. Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent and separate company in 1937.
With this in mind, The gross amount of engines produced over the years is staggering. Toyota has one of the best engine identification systems of all the manufacturers. What you see below is what the specialists at GotEngines.com use when you have a Toyota engine need. Used in conjunction with the VIN, it is virtually impossible to purchase the wrong engine.
In 1935 Toyota produced it’s first cars, 20 to be exact. Available in Japan only. By 2008 Toyota’s worldwide production of cars was 2,217,662 vehicles. This does not include the engines Toyota has produced for other manufacturers.
- The first numeric characters specify the engine block’s generation
- The next one or two letters specify the engine family
- The suffix (separated by a dash) specifies the features of the engine:
Suffix                                    Feature
A | Valvematic variable lift intake head |
B | Twin SU-style side-draft carburetors |
C | Carburated / California Emissions Controlled |
D | Twin Downdraft carburetors |
E | Electronic Fuel injection |
F | Economy narrow-angle valve DOHC |
G | Performance wide-angle valve DOHC |
H | High compression like 9.8:1 (example: 5E-FHE) High pressure charged (example: 2L-THE) |
I | Single-point fuel injection |
J | Autochoke (Early models) or unknown pollution control |
L | Transverse |
M | Philippines’ market (meaning unknown) |
N | CNG fuel |
P | LPG fuel |
R | Low Compression (For 87 and below octane fuel) |
S | Swirl intake (1980s) |
SE | Direct injection (1990s) |
T | Turbocharged |
U | With Catalytic converter Japan-spec emissions |
V | Common Rail Diesel Injection (D-4D) |
X | Atkinson cycle (typically also indicates a Hybrid engine, as Toyota only uses the Atkinson cycle with hybrids) |
Z | Supercharged |