Any successful diesel conversion stories?

I'd be curious to read any successful diesel conversion stories on 2nd generation or older Tacos. What engine did you use? How did it work out? Do and donts.

In addition to being one cool mechanical project, my GF and I are planning a semi retirement (or "dirt bagging" as it would be referred to in my hobby community) out West where the extra time and less $$ to spend on gas could incentivize me to convert my currently mid-life 2nd gen Taco to diesel and get into biodiesel processing or even growing our own fuel, once the current engine dies.

I tried searching threads for diesel but didn't find much.

 

dieseltoys.com does a d4d 3.0 4cl turbo diesel from the hilux for the tune of $20k or so (thats a new motor and tranny install from what i can tell) and ive seen a few of the older pick-ups and 4 runners that got the inline 5 out of the 300 series benz from the late 80's and there are some aftermarket parts semi available for those swaps. i think they make plates for the tranny from the 22re and the 3.blow to bolt up pretty easy

 

Nothing of value to add really, but from my reading of this forum you are pretty much better off buying a truck that offers a diesel as an option vs retrofitting.

Good luck waiting for your toyota engine to die! There are dudes on here with miles ranging from 250- 400K miles, and they are still going strong.

Also the diesel to gas savings isnt all its cracked up to be (unless you are putting 25K a year on your taco, even then you are still better off with gas). And after you consider the premium you pay for diesel engines and the fuel itself, not worth it.

 

Buy a mirai

 

I'm turned on by the idea of collecting used frying oil from fast food places and making my own fuel. Also, my GF has a really green thumb, maybe we could farm soybeans and make our own.

 

From what I have read, you need to stay away from the newer diesels with high pressure injection systems if you are going to go vegan, they don't like the thicker and not not as pure fuels. I have a 2006 Dodge CTD and burn blended fuels if I can find them, but it is getting harder here in Central Virginia, but stay below the 20% allowed by Dodge for the military CTD.

 

I have looked into these statements and they have proven to be true.

 

Not Toyota, but a friend does the fry oil thing in his suburban. He has access to more free oil than he can burn, but still has to run dino for at least 5 months a year. Even in the summer he starts on dino and has to flush the system with dino by driving his last mile or two on dino before stopping long enough for the engine to cool. He does save money, but has lots of issues. It's not all it's cracked up to be.

 

Not sure you're completely aware of the cost of living out an earth cookie dream life out west. I applaud the notion, however. I would love to be so financially healthy to even think about that as an option.

 

i'm a skilled builder and plan to buy 5-10 acres of adequate land to build on with cash proceeds from my current real estate sale. i also plan to self finance the construction as i don't really like dealing with lenders. no, i'm not buying a townhouse in Boulder...

 

Sounds great. Good luck.

 

I seriously doubt that the Tacoma frame is strong enough to handle a diesel engine. Just too much torque in a diesel.

 

Lol

 

That's an interesting point. I wish that you'd expand on it a little, explaining details

 

no point, dumb thread, use the search bar and you will see this same thing played out 1515616841615 times. Only thing this thread is missing is the OZ

 

Listen to a D4D in person before you commit to swapping in one. It's not a quiet nice Diesel. There's a couple of places that do the swap with either the D4D or the Cummins B4 series and they all charge +$20K. It won't be a new motor either. Last time I looked into it briefly it was a used powerplant and transmission so you are paying that much for an unknown. For you to do it yourself I would think you are looking at +60 hours plus of labour, not to mention all of the fine tuning and parts scrounging you will have to do to make everything in the truck work like it is supposed too. This won't be like swapping a water pump. You won't be just tinkering, you will be fabricating and if you've never done it before you might have to be prepared to do each step several times to get it right or you will end up with something that doesn't run.

You'd be far better off importing a 90's right hand drive Hilux or Hilux Surf from Japan for $10K that already has a diesel. Just make sure it doesn't have the earlier version of Toyota's first turbo diesel I4 engine that likes to crack heads!

 

yeah, i've been to several countries that have Hiluxes and I actually like it better than the Taco. Less power but also more optimal fuel economy. everything for the U.S. market is supersized, i wish we had Hilux here

 

Look into importing. I know here you can get a Hilux Surf for about $6K at auction in Japen that's in good shape. It's about another $1K to get it over here. After that it's another $500-2K to get it inspected and pass for registration. So for ~$10K you can have a Diesel that will run on "poor" fuels without much in the way of problems. It'll also share most parts with the same model year gas 4Runner.

 

Maybe go to straight ethanol and build a still...