Toyota 22R / 22R-E

Toyota's 2.4 petrol four — the 22R and fuel-injected 22R-E — in the Hilux, 4Runner and Celica.

It is one of the most durable engines Toyota ever built, and it is the reason a forty-year-old Hilux is still working somewhere. Iron block, single overhead camshaft, and an output that was modest when new and is the whole point.

⚑ The timing chain is the one thing that ends these. It is a chain, not a belt — but the plastic guides break down, and a broken guide lets the chain saw through the timing cover, which sits against the water jacket. The failure presents as coolant loss and an overheating engine, not as a timing complaint, and by then the cover is scrap. A rattle on a cold start is the warning and it should not be ignored on one of these.

Its other complaints are ordinary and cheap: the 22R carburettor on the earlier engines, and on the 22R-E a tired cold-start injector, a worn idle air control and a coolant temperature sensor that skews fuelling.

Parts are still made and still cheap, which is usually what decides whether one of these vehicles keeps working.