gavan
Observer
Southwest 610 area, feel free to stop by any time. PM me and I can give you my address. You can stare at my neighbor's Scout and get some ideas for your D44 CJ swap too.
4bt diesel CJ based pickup truck
- Thread starter gavan
- Start date
Southwest 610 area, feel free to stop by any time. PM me and I can give you my address. You can stare at my neighbor's Scout and get some ideas for your D44 CJ swap too.
Wow, that would be an eye turner. Would make a great photo to post!
SilverBullet
Explorer
There is a great article on the 4BTR in a CJ8 in this month's Four Wheeler, FYI
MOAK
Adventurer
OK cool, that is the most concise / honest answer I've received from anyone that has down the 4bt swap. Hell's bells, we nearly have to yell now to be heard over the wind noise of the ragtop, so, we swap to hardtop, and insulate the bejeezus out of the firewall, I'm almost sold. Boiling it down to the 4 bt or the chevy LS1,, more info the better... thanks, be good, be safe, and good luck !!
gavan
Observer
LS1 and 4BT are some pretty solid choices.
LS1 will get worse mileage, but be a smaller, easier to install package (except the exhaust). It will be quieter and have more horsepower. It is a pretty common motor, and should be easy to find parts for.
4bt is arguably more reliable because there is very little to go wrong, and it will run without things like batteries. It is big and heavy, and a little bit of a mess to put in a vehicle. It should be just as easy to find parts for if you are just a little creative, they mostly come off of a 6BT anyways.
One thing I would really look at in alaska, depending on how deep you go in, is fuel availability. Lots of important stuff is powered by diesel up there, trucks, gen sets, heavy equipment, blah blah blah. I am sure there is a lot of gas powered stuff too, but if I needed a fuel in alaska, I would think I could find diesel easier. If you look at all the dumb "alaska gold" shows, everyone is driving a diesel pickup with a diesel transfer tank on the back, and running diesel equipment. If worse came to worse, I bet you could buy some overly expensive diesel from a logger or miner's transfer tank - if you ran out of gas, i do not know how easy it would be to get more. But I am completely speculating there. I could be way wrong. I have not bought gasoline for something besides a mower in 2 years, i might be a bit biased.
LS1 will get worse mileage, but be a smaller, easier to install package (except the exhaust). It will be quieter and have more horsepower. It is a pretty common motor, and should be easy to find parts for.
4bt is arguably more reliable because there is very little to go wrong, and it will run without things like batteries. It is big and heavy, and a little bit of a mess to put in a vehicle. It should be just as easy to find parts for if you are just a little creative, they mostly come off of a 6BT anyways.
One thing I would really look at in alaska, depending on how deep you go in, is fuel availability. Lots of important stuff is powered by diesel up there, trucks, gen sets, heavy equipment, blah blah blah. I am sure there is a lot of gas powered stuff too, but if I needed a fuel in alaska, I would think I could find diesel easier. If you look at all the dumb "alaska gold" shows, everyone is driving a diesel pickup with a diesel transfer tank on the back, and running diesel equipment. If worse came to worse, I bet you could buy some overly expensive diesel from a logger or miner's transfer tank - if you ran out of gas, i do not know how easy it would be to get more. But I am completely speculating there. I could be way wrong. I have not bought gasoline for something besides a mower in 2 years, i might be a bit biased.
Dan Grec
Expedition Leader
If you stick to any kind of maintained road, you have very frequent gas stations (with gasoline and diesel.)
The Dalton Highway is the "most desolate road in North America" and it's only 240 miles from gas station to gas station.
gavan
Observer
SSF556
SE Expedition Society
I have put at least 10,000 miles on this thing doing just about everything.
Pulling my other Jeep
Yard work (with my other Diesel...)
Parts delivery
Even done a little wheeling, it does decent in the snow.
Getting 20ish MPG with relatively few problems.
What is the top speed?
gavan
Observer
I usually go 70-75 on the highway, I have cruised 80 no problem. Never pushed it harder because I just have not had the need or desire. According to the math it can do 97 MPH but realistically it would be spinning pretty hard at 90 and falling off the fueling curve.
The real question is how much faster do you want to push hobbled together junk?