Dodge Ram 50 Diesels Transplant

[4D55 Performance]

The 4d56 is a much more improved engine when compared to the 4d55. Mitsubishi upgraded to a wastegated water cooled turbo, a roller rocker head, better waterpump design, quick glow plug design, better head design for more efficient cooling, smaller injectors to prevent the head from cracking, large displacement for increased power etc etc. I have a buddy who has both the 4d55 and 4d56 and he gets better efficiency out of the 4d55 but the 4d56 is definitely more reliable. For the first 6 years I owned my truck I never got better than 27mpg, but the moment I rebuilt my injectors, upgraded to a 1983 injection pump, upgraded the intake and exhaust, deleted the egr valve and upgraded to 4d56 roller rocker head my milage went through the roof. I was hoping for 32-33mpg but I was shock to see 42mpg on several long trips. While the 4d55/56 is a great engine, it has a lot of room for improvement as far as efficiency is concerned.

Also at this time the only source for a new 4M40 engine is Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi has not sold the design to other manufactures like Hyundia at this time. If you buy a 4d56 crate engine like Jeff did, the motor was built and sold by Hyundia. Hyundia bought the 4d56 design rights a few years back and they now put the 4d56 in there Golloper SUV's that they sell all around the world. Also all the 4d56 heads you see on ebay are built by Hyundia. The Hyundia 4d56 parts seem to be very good quality from my experience.

[corsaoceano]

I wonder what the price difference between buying a 4d56 vs 4m40. Maybe I'll make a couple calls to the parts department and see if they can order them direct to the local dealership.

[off-roader]

Yes, I have been doing a lot of research lately on this subject as well. I huge part of me wants to just go ahead with the project, but at the same time that is a lot of time, money and effort for someone (the gub-mint) to tell me I can't have it and redo it all back to normal or worse, take it all away and destroy it.
I have been reading other conversion posts and especially in the Land Rover forums of people running into problems importing diesel cars/engines and also completing the conversion and then not being able to legally drive it due to these same problem.
There has to be a loophole some where, and I'm going to find it! A very small and narrow one but it must exist, it's America! This my mission in life right now

Im no expert on this so verify it with CARB. My understanding is that the biggest problem is if it's not an engine that was originally imported into the US, it may be very difficult to get approved. Again you should dblcheck with CARB and their regulations on that. It may need to be checked and approved by a referee station.

HTH.

[4D55 Performance]

I wonder what the price difference between buying a 4d56 vs 4m40. Maybe I'll make a couple calls to the parts department and see if they can order them direct to the local dealership.

Last time I checked it was $12K to get a 4M40 from the dealer in Japan. But that was a year ago so things may have changed. I did check with Max Overdrive in Canada last month about importing a crate 4M40 but Mitsubishi has not sold the engine rights to another manufacturer. He said he has several nice used 4M40 for around $3000, but he highly recommended getting the crate 4D56 for $3400 because it is a brand new motor, it is much more efficient, and it will be more reliable.

[corsaoceano]

Thanks for the great info 4d55.

So now you have me thinking about this. Since the 4d55 is fairly easy to come by in the US and you can find 4d56 heads "fairly" easily... what about building an engine from the ground up starting with a 4d55 short block? I have all the tools necessary and maybe this would give me a way to build slowly along the way instead of forking out a few grand on a crate 4d56 (which would be awesome no doubt).

Specifically speaking about the head/block, what were the differences between the 4d55 to 56? Were the blocks a completely new cast or did they just stroke it or bore it out? The heads are interchangable so i would think there can't be that many differences... seems to be mostly auxilary stuff like injection pump intake/exhaust manifold etc..

I also did a little research on the manual transmission availability for the 4d55/6 here in the us and there are quite a few used ones I could pick up and have rebuilt from around the country at various junk yards.

[4D55 Performance]

Thanks for the great info 4d55.

So now you have me thinking about this. Since the 4d55 is fairly easy to come by in the US and you can find 4d56 heads "fairly" easily... what about building an engine from the ground up starting with a 4d55 short block? I have all the tools necessary and maybe this would give me a way to build slowly along the way instead of forking out a few grand on a crate 4d56 (which would be awesome no doubt).

Specifically speaking about the head/block, what were the differences between the 4d55 to 56? Were the blocks a completely new cast or did they just stroke it or bore it out? The heads are interchangable so i would think there can't be that many differences... seems to be mostly auxilary stuff like injection pump intake/exhaust manifold etc..

I also did a little research on the manual transmission availability for the 4d55/6 here in the us and there are quite a few used ones I could pick up and have rebuilt from around the country at various junk yards.

It's just not worth it. To rebuild my engine and upgrade it to the 4d56 head, watercooled turbo, rebuilt injection pump etc. I was into it $7500 plus all my and a few buddies labor. The injection pump alone on that crate engine will cost you $2500 at the Mitsubishi dealer. Even if you did everything yourself, which would require a lot of specialty tools to balance the turbo, turn the fly wheel, spray testing the injectors, pressing in the sleeves, milling the sleeves, etc. you would be into it $3000-4000 in parts a lone. It's just not worth it. That crate motor is such a screaming steal. You can't rebuild a motor for that price.

[red87]

I hate to rain on the diesel love here but I'm 95% sure you aren't allowed to put any diesel engine in an originally gasoline powered vehicle in CA. Fingers crossed I'm wrong.

[mrwizard]

4D55, I also am very interested where you got your crate 4d55. Can you post up or PM some contact info? Thanks a ton.

R

[sneakyninja]

Doing this swap as well, I've got a 4d55 with 4d56 head and turbo going into an '88 montero, 3400 dollars for a brand new hyundia 4d56 is insane! i should have totally done that.

Video running 4d55

[corsaoceano]

Yeah, what is the contact info for ordering a crate Hyundai 4d56?