Were the 21R Motors ever In the Toyota Hilux/Trucks if they were what are the years? Just curious

 

Yes. 21RU, I think?

Not sure what years. Google search will turn up a surprising amount of info.

 

I have a 1980 Toyota 2WD long bed truck, Ordered one of those Japan Import motors you always see in the papers and had the new motor swapped in and it was a 21RU.
From what i was told it was out of a 1979 truck over in Japan.

Hope this helps!!

 

I found a 85 or 86 on craigslist. With a 21r in it once

 

the 21r never came into the states so if there is some here there from japan and got shipped here i think austrailia has alot of them too.

 

My valve cover on the engine I removed from my 80 looks like "21R-U", if aint 20R I can tell you that. This is interesting, will take a pic and post it after work.

 

Google 21R-U and you'll find plenty. It looks like, though you never can trust what people are saying on the internet, that it never came in vehicles bound for the US. But it was a cheap replacement motor more than a few people here must have bought, becuase it definitely turns up a lot in 70's vehicles, and sometimes 80's.

It's not unanimous, but the general consensus seems to be that it's not a great engine.

 

Also remember that valve covers are pretty interchangeable. Just because the cover says something doesn't necessarily mean that's what you've got...

 

Here is the motor out of my 80. Ways to ID at 21R vs 20R?

 

No idea! I'll bet if you could look at the two side by side, you'd be able to see a difference. But people don't have much experience with those 21R-U's. So..I don't know how much help you'll find. Good chance someone needed a cheap engine and picked up an R-U from Japan.

Unless you feel like spending money, or feel like taking on a project, the wisdom I've seen is "drive it till it dies, then get a 22R"...

You could even find a blown or used one now, and start rebuilding it...Not sure what your skills are. I think I could handle rebuilding an engine if I had no rush, so I could really take my time, buy parts as I could afford them, ask questions, be in no hurry to get it back together and do something wrong in my haste...

Someone could have needed a valve cover and found a 21R-U in the junkyard and thrown it on...but my guess is that if you've got an R-U valve cover, you've probably got an R-U engine.

 

Just clicked on your website link. I'm guessing you can rebuild an engine

 

I was hoping to use the head for my 20R/22R project, so now I need to source another 20R head! Crap!

And ya I've only rebuilt probably fifty or so from 2.2L up to 13.5L

 

Yeah, that's too bad! I would search google, though. I found a lot of spec info for this engine on wikipedia, marlin crawler, and pirate 4x4. I think maybe it's the displacement that's wimpy? Anyways, I sort of wonder if maybe the head isn't so different from a 20R...I don't know.

Anyway yeah that's annoying, having a vehicle that originally came with a 20R, and finding that it doesn't have one for your hybrid project.

 

Need any pics? I am in town with my 21ru until tomorrow
Working out some little bugs on the the 22r carb swap on it over the week and trying to figure out WHY the HELL is only running on 3 cyl... Ran fine when I left... Grrrr