I'm new to 4-wheeeling. I'm interested in good, basic solid "old fashioned low tech", 4X4-diesel light trucks, or the older Land Cruisers. Are there any with turbos?, or superchargers? Are Toyotas good?
Can you recommend any others? (other Japanese Dsl-4X4 light-trucks?, Nissan?, Pathfinder?, or Ford?, GM? Jeep?, etc?)
I was in Costa Rica years ago, and almost all their vehicles were diesels, including the
Land Cruisers, 5-Spds manual Trannys (the ones with the round glass, in back... I don't know models).
I'm into the "survivalists" perspective. I've heard it's best to get them without all the
electronics, like in older models. (mechanical fuel injection, fuel pumps, etc.)

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Philip Jones

Email: thearc@access1.net

Originally posted by philj
I'm new to 4-wheeeling. I'm interested in good, basic solid "old fashioned low tech", 4X4-diesel light trucks, or the older Land Cruisers. Are there any with turbos?, or superchargers? Are Toyotas good?


You're in the Toyota Land Cruiser section, of course Toyota's are good.... :flipoff2: newbie

From a Land Cruiser standpoint you are going to have to get a non-U.S. model if you want a diesel (do a search, the diesel Cruiser import thread has come up a "few" times before, as have the turbo/supercharging topics).

I don't think there are alot of choices for good off-roading rigs with diesels (from any manufacturer in the U.S.), and you rarely see a diesel on the trail.

Mostly you see the big GM/Ford/Dodge diesel pickups as tow rigs.

You may want to pick the 4x4 of your choice and retrofit the diesel engine of your choice.

My diesel 4X4s are all trail rigs, of different sizes and type. You can import a Land Cruiser like my BJ40 and go thru all sorts of legal or other rigamarole, you can take a rig like my M37 and drop a diesel into it; or you can take something like my F350 crewcab and put lockers, some lift, huge tires (325/85R16 XMLs), double transfer case, dual hydraulic winches and it makes a pretty good offroad camping truck. The point: decide what you want, you can usually put a diesel into it.
Good offroad vehicles are made, not usually bought, unless it's a M37 or French ACMAT 1.5-3.5 ton weapons carrier. And even M37s need lockers (and a diesel).
Charlie

Charlie-

I know this is the LC board, but there is no POR weapons carrier section so I'll ask here.

Are the M-37 axles that heavy duty, or are they rather weak? I have seen one (the winch style, M-37 A-1's or something) which looked as if if had a boat anchor 6 cylinder (the Dodge engine must weigh in at 900#'s+) and the axles looked relativly tiny?

what be the scoop?

The housings are very stout and never break or bend, even with 42" tires. People routinely run 39s (11.00R16s). The front Tracta joints likewise are very strong. The ring gear is 9-5/8" and the pinion has 3 support bearings and there's an anti-deflection pad for the ring gear.
The axle shafts are the weak link. The splines are 1.375" 16 spline, but the minimum shaft diameter is 1.25". Front shafts seem to hold up OK. NOS rear shafts can break, but newly mfg'd rear shafts (a military surplus dealer here in Alaska had a couple hundred pairs made by Foote Axle recently and they seem to be better, with better metallurgy and heat treatment).
People primarily replace the axles with D60s or 70s to get different gearing (only 4.89 or 5.83 is available with the stock axles), a centered rear diff or for high HP applications like big block V8s.
In summary the rear axle shafts occaisonally break but there are stronger replacements. Everything else is stout.
Charlie
PS: The motor is a 230 ci flathead 6 and weighs about the same as an F engine. IMHO it begs to be replaced by a 4 cyl diesel. Or a V6 when the baby Duramax or Powerstrokes come out.

Charlie,

I'm looking for a thread that discussed how easy it was to put an engine out of a US medium duty truck like the Isuzu/Mitsubishi cab forward trucks into a Cruiser. This was a diesel engine and I seem to recall it was surprisingly easy and there's an existing adapter that was discussed. Sound familiar? I'm trying to figure out which model Cruiser and which diesel engine was the popular swap. One of the posters on the thread had done a couple and I believe he was from Australia? What say ye?

Thanks

It was an Isuzu 4BD1 (plus/minus turbo). I saw ads in Australian 4X4 magazines about 10 years ago for bolt in kits for Land Cruisers (and Land Rovers) for the 4cyl Isuzu, 3.9L. Land Rover Australia actually speced ALL Australian LRs with a 3.9L Isuzu, turned it into a torque machine.
Maybe some of our Australian readers could help out, try the DTLC (diesel LC List) (dtlc@helios.net) .
The 4cyl Isuzus are used in the smaller forward control trucks, I think the NPR. I'd grab the trans too, it's a good 5spd.
I know of no kits currently available, but I don't know everything. It's a good motor, it ranks right in there with the 4BT and Perkins 4 cyls. The Hino W04/W04T is also a superior 4 cyl motor.
Charlie

You may also want to look into the Deisel Unimog by Mercedes. I will not ofend anyone by sugesting one thing or another, but it is a tough deisel from a respected company, which needs little modification to be very able off road.

We have all deisel Land Cruisers here in Pakistan.. My 79 Cherokee has a Toyota 4 Cyl B2 deisel engine.... The larger 6 cyl engines also come in Turbo.. 12H I think???

How simple do you want it?

I can't really think of many US imported 4x4s except the big PUs that came diesel.

scouts came diesel
you could get an 84ish XJ diesel
troopers had a diesel option for a while
series land rovers also were available with a diesel and would possibly be the most simple, think claw hammer, no wait a claw hammer is too complicated, think a rock.

www.thatchedroofgarage.com

has an old rangie with a 3ltr. toy diesel in it. That could work.

what are you trying to do with it?

Ron