Toyota Land Cruiser BJ70 to HJ70 Conversion

BJ70 to HJ70

This 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser BJ70 is one of the highest mileage imports we’ve brought State-side.  With just over 600,000 kilometers on stock drive train, body and chassis, we felt this BJ70 was a true example of Toyota’s reliability.

This short-wheel-base Land Cruiser has been driving the roads of Maine since 2016 and finally needs a little care beyond basic maintenance.  The original 3B inline 4 cylinder diesel engine head developed a slight crack over the third cylinder creating a significant loss of compression.  Remarkably, it still started, idled and drove without overheating, but poured an immense amount smoke out the tailpipe making it very dangerous to drive.

We began our BJ70 to HJ70 project about 30-days ago.  We had a nice running, Toyota 2H diesel engine sitting in a project vehicle and we decided to utilize that power-plant to resurrect our dear BJ70 import.  So, when you take a 3B engine out of a BJ70 Land Cruiser and replace it with a 2H diesel engine, what do you get?  That’s right, replace the B with a H and you get an all original HJ70, short wheel base Toyota Land Cruiser.

The 2H engine only came in the 40 Series, 60 Series and 75 Series Land Cruiser models.  It was never offered in the 70 Series, short wheel base, two door wagon.  We figured, what the hell, let’s give this a shot – we’ll keep you updated on our progress.