I saw the the thread about the guy that put the 4 cylinder deisel in his 86' toy pickup. I was wondering if anyone else heard of putting a diesel in a early 4runner or truck.
Iwould really like to sticka v6 deisel in my 4runner. I would get the extra torque plus almost twice the milage. He was geetting almost 30MPG.
I know that they have deisels in europe, I don't know if I would have to shipp one from there, or if there is a more local option.
His bolted right up to his gas tranny and mounts. So it may not be too hard. But getting the engine might be.

Anyone have any info or know were I could start looking for this kind of swap?

Thanks
Kent

 

Hi
Don't know where you'd start in the states, but over here in the UK the engines (out of the body etc) are very rare. You could always have a look on www.ebay.co.uk or check out www.parkers.co.uk and "buy to import".

Check the head thoroughly though, they are prone to cracking due to overheating, so if it hasdn't cracked already it may do soon. I bought a '94 4Runner 3.0 Turbo Diesel in 2001 and then in 2002 had to replace the head and radiator.

There are also alot of Surfs with the 2.4 L diesel engine being imported direct from Japan - maybe that's the way to go.

 

Ithink that for the states the best option would be to find a complete Diesel Pickup with a 2LT engine as a scrap job and use that. You may be able to find one of these in Latin America somewhere as I think that they were exported down there. Alternatively you may be able to import one from the UK.

New Toyota Diesels are very expensive and as Jeremy said ones that are out of dismantled cars are rare as hens teeth. The pickup engines are more common as they tend to get bashed to death by builders and the engines tend to last longer than the bodies in that environment. You would probably need to rebuild a dismantled engine anyway so you would need to import the parts fo it.

Alternatively you could look for online dismantlers on the web - one in the UK or Australia or New Zealand would be able to get the parts most likely however the shipping would be quite expensive. You would also need all the engine control equipment such as the ECU, and all the ancillaries.

Hope that helps

Andy

 

I'm not sure what the law is in OK but if you have any kind of inspection on a regular basis, its NOT worth it. Here they will not let you register a truck that has had a diesel swap. The same is true in 95% of the country. The reason is the EPA and their concern about acid rain. US Diesel fuel is inferior to that sold in most of the world. Its high in sulpher and burning it may cause sulphuric acid to form in rainclouds, so they claim. Therefore most Diesel swaps are illegal.

 

And personally if I lived in the US with Gas prices as low as they are (compared to the UK), I'd just throw in a Small Block Chevy. You get all the power and torque you need and it would probably turn out to be reasonably economical becuase it's not working very hard. I used to get around 22mpg out of a Camaro with a 283ci SBC from an early Corvette and it could still run at over 130mph.

Diesels certainly work well for longevity and for economy but bear in mind that the small Toyota TD is not the most economical engine. IN the UK you can expect around 24mpg at best and for that you have an engine putting out only 90 odd bhp however the mid range torque is very good for the engine size. The latest common rail Direct injection D4D engine will get you about 30mpg but a new engine from Toyota will cost you in the region of $4K. So the costs don't stack up.

A common engine conversion in the UK for Toyota Pickups is using the Rover V8 (was buick) which is a readily available 3.5 - 4.2 litre V8. It's Alloy and therefore very light for it's power output and has good mid range power and torque.

You may be able to get one of the small Buick V8s, you can get adaptor plates to fit these to the standard Toyota Transmission.

Sorry I know that got a bit off the subject of fitting a diesel but I thought someone might want that bit of info.

Cheers