Isuzu diesal

Not a diesel swap, but maybe useful info.... A guy here has a nissan Z24 gas motor in his 2A. He used a buick bellhousing/jeep adapter and the nissan bellhousing to adapt it to a t14. He cut the integral bell off of the nissan trans and sliced the buick bell in two. then machined the two to the correct combined length and heliarced it together. I might do this to the 3B if the fhead keeps pissing on me. High revs make these motors happy, plus they run forever.... I drove a pickup with one in it during highschool and college. It had 220k on it when I got it and was still running good when I sold it.

 

A Cummins 4BT out of a bread truck would be cool as well.

The only downside to a diesel is the lack of RPM's that they offer. If you wheel in areas that get wet then that could be a problem.

 

I have seen an isuzu diesel in one of the newer ('98 i think) GMC cabover trucks that had the chevy bellhousing bolt pattern on the engine.
It was mated to a TH400 tranny.
It was a little 4cyl turbodiesel. I think that it said that it was 265 ci on the dataplate.

 

hello ,

the jeep cherokee used in europe a 4cyl 2.1 td renault engine,
a bit weak , but with a cooling up-grade and the new generation varriable geometric turbo .it perform quit well and it's light .

after that one they used the vm 2.5td wich is not so reliable , but again with new style cylinder head ,it become a decent engine....

 

There is also the Mitsubishi diesel. I have to get off my butt and go see the two that a guy has an hour from me. One is still mated to a T90.

 

There are some xjs in Canada that run diesel. The low rpm thing is not really an issue on the trail. I owned a diesel Landcruiser for many years before the Jeep and never had a problem wet dry or otherwise. Diesels may not hit the same redline as gas engines but torque comes on much sooner and allows you to grab one gear higher than with gas engines (I also owned 3 gas Landcruisers). Diesels are more "submersable" (spelling?) than gas engines too. The only thing I did not like was the noise. I wore ear plugs for any drive that took more than about an hour. Now if DiamlerChrys made a Rubicon with a new Mercedes diesel in it and a 6 speed...

Karl

 

My experience with Mercedes diesels is limited but from my experience they suck. I would jump on a Volkswagen, Isuzu, Perkins or Cummins Diesel in a heartbeat. I myself would not even look at a mercedes Diesel, the few cars I have driven that had them were junk and spent more time in the shop than on the road. One of the things that limits diesels in Jeeps is there shear size and weight, most of thew diesels in this country were built as industrial motors so they are two big and heavy to fit into a jeep reasonably.

 

I am Really looking foward to seeing if i can get this this thing to work. Which the only catch is the bell housing every thing else should be easly handle with duck tape and baling wire, or push comes to shove caronila hacksaw and the metal bubble gum maker.

 

Good Luck and keep us posted. Oh yeah pics.

 

I did a little parts searching on car-part.com, and it looks like there was an isuzu small pickup in the early 80's with diesel and 4X4 (at least it's in the options you need to go through to look up parts). They were also listing both 4 spd manual and an automatic with the diesel. Could probably just lift the whole engine, tranny, xfercase from an early 80's pickup and be set. Probably easier adapting driveshafts than adapting a bellhousing. Sounds like a great project, good luck!

 

The diesel was available on all Isuzu 4wd all the way up to the last body style change in around 1988 1/2. I had a 1986 that I bought new still have the brochure around here somewhere and a 2.2 liter turbo diesel was available on it then with a 5 speed manual.
Just as a side note to anybody searching books, the gas burner was a 1.9 all Chevy LUV trucks and 2.3 liter (1986 on thru 1988 1/2) when they introduced the 2.6 , the diesel was a 2.2 liter in both Luv and P'up trucks (early ones were non turbo I think).

 

Didn't they put the diesel in the Troopers as well?

 

Yep!

 

Slightly off topic, but I'm floored at Mcruff's statement re Mercedes diesels. I've had 2, with over 550K miles on the 2 of them, no problems. My last, a 240D had over 300K on it when I sold it - only because the body was in such bad shape.

I think an engine out of a 240D would be great in an early CJ, except I think its too long.

 

Sorry about disappointing you. I actually work for a company that makes the vast majority of the M class Mercedes as a tier 1 supplier and I wouldn't own one if given to me. My general opinion of Mercedes is they are very very over engineered and are of general poor quality, our GM, Ford and Nissan parts are of far better quality and the tooling is built far better, Mercedes doesn't even inspect there parts they simply rely on cosmetic quality. Now of all the stuff we make the Toyota is the best quality and the most well inspected. I have known more than a dozen people with Mercedes cars in the last 25 years and none of them got the mileage and reliability out of them that the average 15-20k car got.

[Moderator's note]
Edited to keep it civil
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Had a coworker who put a Detroit Diesel 3-53 in his jeep. He was a machinist and made his own adapters. it was a interesting setup, kind of a flat power band but cool. Lots of torque. Took the engine out of a Coast Guard 25' motor surf boat. Had to wear hearing protection 'cause of the blower whine. I lost touch with him and don't know where it ended up. He drove it for the few years I knew him. I guess the moral of the story is anything is possible, money, time and yankee ingenuity.
Joe

 

If you wasnt a felow jeeper a would have to beat ya with a bamboo pole lol

 

you could do what we where planning to do with our swap ( isuzu diesal 2wheel drive )we where going to run the stock 4spd and then run a divorced model 20, it seemed the easyest way to go.

or if you wanted some beef you could go with a 205 ( divorced ) its tight but will fit, you dont get much low range like you could with the model 20 ( after market 3.15 low range ) but there every where and with the diesal you will get a much lower RPM and most of your tork off of idel so it could make up for the lack of low range.

you might have to push the motor as far forward as possable and mount the traney and T-case yoke to yoke but it will work with some fabbing, i bailled out of it when i got my rockwell axles and wanted to build bigger, good luck jason.

 

You're from Va. so in the eyes of somebody from Bama , you are a Yankee. R)