Any experience with DieselToyz toyota conversions?

[RMP&O]

20 years to recoup cost at current! Lol. No, I'm not doing it fir the mileage. At this point, after talking to a smog tech school, and a referee, it's going to be more pain than I'm prolly repaired to deal with. It's been a week of oh yes and oh no on this front. In Talking to Tor at Torfab, outside of a Vortec swap, things get weird and expensive in a hurry in the case of Ca.
Even then, I'm not sure it's worth it for a bit more pull on a grade.
Thanks for the info folks

Mayne

Hey man diesels are awesome, I have a super sweet one that was big coin to build. And also not so sweet one I am rebuilding to make it better. Thing is, I have had a few v8 Cruisers now too. An FJ60 with a v8 and now my 80 with a v8. And the best bang for the buck hands down is the v8. Your standard Chevy v8 will start to show some age at 100,000 miles and show more age by 200,000 miles. Some thing may fail like the starter, or alternator. But overall they are very cheap to maintain. Also cheap to rebuild and plenty fun to drive. A buddy just picked up an FJ60 with the L33 5.3L v8 and clocked 17mpg at 80mph on the HWY driving it home. Hard to beat that.

Any ways, point is, diesels are awesome, I dig them but the best bang for the buck is a v8. I also know nothing about California laws or rules and we have none where I live. I would imagine that $28k price tag was for a new crate engine from Toyota along with a 5spd trans as well as all the legal stuff you need to drive/own it in SoCal. If you have $28k to spend on a motor swap, you can do it for much less and have one hell of a nice Cruiser with a super sweet 400-500hp v8. You could keep a lot of that cash for something else and still have a super nice truck worth $25-35k if you sold it. I hear it is easier to get the v8 legal in SoCal too. Georg also has a TD swapped 80-series at his place one of his clients is trying to sell. I spoke to him about it and I believe it is California legal. It was cheap but needs a full rebuild. $20k into it though and it would be very sweet and probably worth that $25-35k. Georg told me you would be in the motor rebuild $5-10k on a good day.

As far as where I am looking at trucks outside the US. Trademe in NZ and kijiji in Canada as well as Tucarro in Latin America.

Cheers

 

[waterweber]

I have a 4BT swapped 80 and love it! That being said, it takes a lot of tinkering and fixing little things. There are not many mechanics who will work on a swapped rig. If they do it will be a slow process and you will be second guessing if they know what they are talking about.
My personal opinion is that unless you meet one of the 2 qualifications below, any type of engine swap is a bad idea, gas or diesel:

1. You want to do it yourself and eventually take the entire truck apart and learn how to do pretty much nay repair that might be needed. You are willing the spend 3x what you originally estimated and have it take 4x as long..
2. You have a competent swap guy near you. You don't plan to go way off into the boonies. You have lots of cash and time to throw at them.

Once you get into serious modifications like this, you are pretty much on your own with the exception of this site and sites like it.

FYI, Don't count on the smog ref being any help by the way. You need to do the research and know the law better than they do or any of the people at the DMV. Be prepared to argue your case.

Once again I love my 4BT 80 totally worth the hassle.

 

[60Dan]

Parts are not hard to get hold of - at least I haven't had a problem anyway.
cruiserparts.net, gscruiserparts.com, and ebay are a few places to name a few.
I carry a spare alternator, starter motor, set of belts and a fuel and oil filter as you can't always pick these items up at your US parts store.
Not much to these motors!
Ive put over 15,000 miles on mine since the swap - she's got close to 225,000 miles now and runs like a dream!

 

[Mayne]

Thanks guys.
Very insightful, and the knowledge on the subject has been a huge help in forming a decision. If I don't keep the 1fz-fe, I'll prolly go vortec v-8, as I know GM parts pretty well. As much as I may romanticize about the toyota diesel, it's coming up to be a bit beyond what I'm wiling to deal with vs what I wanna get.
Thank you for your time
Mayne.

 

[SSF556]

I have a diesel Grand Cherokee that I will sell you for $27,999....:costumed-smiley-007

 

[Lumpy70]

Or, you can just use gas and save 20000 upfront since you can't possibly ever drive enough to make up the difference.

You don't drive a diesel truck to save money on gas, that's what Volkswagen TDI's are for. It's all about the torque.

 

[Lumpy70]

Or you could by my RHD 1993 HDJ81 and have a full parts rig rolling your way for $16k!

 

[zimm]

You don't drive a diesel truck to save money on gas, that's what Volkswagen TDI's are for. It's all about the torque.

its not that simple. thats an old wives tale understanding of combustion engines.

you drive diesel for economical production of torque at a low rpm, and range, which is fuel mileage. a 400hp/1400tq semi motor in diesel, is a 400hp/1400tq in natural gas too. the difference is in the combustion characteristics of the fuel, and the fact that diesel has a higher BTU content per volume.

fords gasoline factory ecoboost v6 at 3.5lts, produces 345 hp and 420ftlbs. a factory cummins 6, at bout 2x the volume, is somewhere around 350/800. roughly the same tq per given volume.

what does that mean?

it means that you can produce a gas motor that has plenty of torque. the difference isnt entirely the higher btu content. its mostly in the length of the given motors stroke in relation to the volume. the mechanical advantage you give the pistons via the length of the lever arms you attach them too.

so why arnt engines gas made that way?

its a waste. the gas motor has a much better RPM range that we can make use of, and you can do so with economical low compression design. to get the same tq, you need to force feed oxygen like a diesel, but the rpms are high enough that piston speed becomes a consideration (piston whip), among'st other issues. ultimately, to produce the same tq, youre at a higher rpm, naturally equating to much more fuel consumption.... so yes, its all about mileage.

next, consider the vehicle. does the need for low rpm tq trump the need for a broad power band? not in a highway passenger car or truck it doesnt. a land cruiser is a passenger vehicle. you need to be regularly loaded to the chassis limit of a "real" cargo truck to make that argument. does the need for better diesel MPG make a difference? you can always argue thats a bonus.... so yes, in this light its all about mileage.

Mileage is a value argument. the natural gas semis mentioned in the beginning dont get the same mileage but its only a 10% loss at 50% less compression. while they dont have the range due to the tank size needed and you wont see them as long haul, at 2 bucks a gallon the savings is significant when the engine is designed to be optimized for the task.

so when do you buy diesel for a passenger car or truck? simple. when the MPG equates to value over the gas, or, for some reason, youre regularly 500 miles between fuel stops. other than that, a diesel LC isnt gonna haul or tow anything a gasser wont. just be honest and say you drive it because its cool and they are rare. its normal to have an ego to stroke. its ok.

its all about the money.

 

[plainjaneFJC]

wow. what he said.