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Diesel swap

1K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  kerryp 
#1 ·
I was talking to guy today with an old Olds it had a V6 diesel, he said it was a 4.3, and was good on fuel. It looked like it would be a good swap in to my YJ. Anyone ever seen this swap?
 
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#2 ·
I have never heard of a GM 4.3 V-6 diesel. It could be a 350 V-8 diesel. That was the worst engine GM ever made. If you want to go diesel, you need to stay with a 4cyl. Anything else will be too big to fit.
 
#4 ·
I think Dieselyj used a 6.2 or 6.5 in his.
The 4.3 diesel V6 was used in midsized gm fwd cars like the olds ciera in the mid to late 80's. I have had a few com through the yard I work at. While I don't know a lot about them I haven't heard much good about them either. I think they were another gas conversion engine gone bad.(like the olds 350)
 
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#5 ·
I have an uncle that had one of those 4.3 in a Cutlass Ciera once and absolutely hated it. It was very loud (for a passenger car) and vibrated like crazy. Keep in mind that my daily driver is a Powerstroke, so I don't mind the noise or inherent vibrations. The 4.3 had a lot more vibration than my PS. Those 4.3's were also used in front wheel drive cars and I don't know of anyone who sells or makes adapters for front drive engines. Even if it were a good engine you would have to adapt it yourself. Here's a photo of a Cummins 6BT in a CJ7. I don't know anything about it other than what you can see in the photo.
 

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#6 ·
I too, looked at swaping in Diesel, but after REALLY looking at the costs and what it would take to completely beef up my drvietrain to handle all the torque, Perkins, Nissan, and Isuzu soltions seemed the best. In the final analysis, I swaped in a 94 4.0 into my CJ. However, Jeje has some EXCELLENT info for getting some info on this subject at http://pub3.ezboard.com/fjeepscramblerdiscussions.showMessage?topicID=2596.topic This URL is located at http://scrambler.cj-8.com/discuss.asp which you may have to register to view. Good Luck and keep us posted to what you determine.
 
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#7 ·
No one mentioned the older 4 cyl VW diesels. They should be around and even cooler still you might be able to find the newer VW TDI engines. Dont know too much about tranny apps and such, but the engines are nice engines if you can make them work.

Older Mercedes diesels would be good choices too.
 
#8 ·
When I was a kid, my dad and I dropped a Detroit 4-43 Silver T/A (turbocharged and aftercooled) in a '78 F-250 Crew Cab. Lots of torque, but way heavy for a jeep. Before that, we knew a guy in Washington state with a Chevy Elcamino with a Detroit 2-53 in it....weird looking set up. The engine was so tall, he built a hood scoop to clear the top of it, and the pan still looked awfully low to me!

I've heard rumblings about DC putting a 4cyl cummings in the Dakotas and Durangos. Basically their 6cyl Turbo diesel with 2 cylinders lopped off. Now THAT would be just about right.....
 
#10 ·
DieselYJ has done all sorts of research on this. get in touch with him. i think he has a 6.5 liter turbo diesel. also try a search this has been discussed several times on here.

shawn
 
#11 ·
Ok,
I researched the isuzu 3.9ltr a little and personally don't feel comfortable with it as a swap (this is in regards to Jefe's post on CJ-8, and the discussion we were having abut diesels), the isuzu's reportedly have had problems and there isn't as much after market support for them as there is for the Cummings 4 cylinder.

if you go to www.turbodieselregistry.com and go to the forums and the converison section, there is some good information about swaps.

The 4 cylinder mentioned above is a Cummings 4bt 4 cylinder diesel engine that has the same size cylinders, pistons, etc as its big brother ( the 5.9l TD in the Dodge trucks) but smaller overall pakage, rated at 105hp and around 300ft lbs of torque,(not dure on the torque figure).

This is the conversion I plan on doing to my scrambler. I have always wanted a diesel, and as soon as I have the fundage (which you better have, cuz they are expensive)(somewhere between 2k and 2.5k for the engine and tranny), I will be performing the conversion..go to the web page I listed above for further info, theres alot of good info there.

kerryp
 
#12 ·
All the CJ-10's we have at work have those Nissan 6 cylinder diesels in them. There is plenty of room under the hood, and they put out alot of torque. According to what I read on the Scrambler board is sounds real easy to make the drivetrain mate up to the engine.
 
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#13 ·
OOOOF! I love that pic of the 6BT in the CJ! I have a Cummins swapped into my M-715 and the idea of one in my CJ really stuck with me for quite a while. I just couldn't get around the weight issue though. The 6bt weighs 1000#.
 
#14 ·
The diesel engine that you will want for a Jeep, will greatly depend on what you plan on doing with the Jeep.
It really sucks when you go through all the work of putting a diesel in your Jeep (and it is a lot of work) and you take it out the first time and you have that feeling in your stomach that this is just not what you expected. I have been there twice now.
Back in 1990 when i first built my Jeep, I installed a brand new 4 cylinder Isuzu in my stock CJ7. This engine did not have a turbo on it and was very gutless on the road. It would only do about 55 with a tail wind. Off-road it was acceptable, and it did get 20 mpg consistently.(with 31" tires and 3.54 gears)
After I got sick of that engine i replaced it with a 6.2L diesel. Off-course the 6.2 was better, but it still did not impress me. It would go faster on the road, but it still took it awhile to get there. Off-road it also did very well, and also got close to 20 mpg. (31" tires and 3.07 gears)
After that engine busted a valve, I replaced it with a 4 cylinder Perkins diesel. This is a very tall engine, so that is when i had to go SOA, just to get it to fit. This engine had some issues and I only put about 2000 miles on it before i replace it. It sucked on the road (top speed was 65) and i never tried it off-road. It did get close to 24 mpg though.(31" tires and 4.11 gears)
Next came the current 6.5L turbo diesel. IMHO, this is the best engine to ever put in a SWB Jeep. It weighs about 150 lbs more than a SBC, will so 0-60 in about 10-11 seconds, will do 100+mph, and still gets between 18-24 mpg. It has had the stock axles in it, so it has not went off-road, but I cant see any drawbacks there either.

The problem with the diesels that have already been mentioned. The mercedes and VW-hard to mate a tranny to it. The Cummins and Perkins 4 cylinder is a very heavy engine(close to 800 lbs), a much slower engine (redline 2500-3000) and does not have the hp or torque of the 6.5L diesel.

So if you are planning on only using the Jeep as an off-road vehicle a 4 cylinder diesel would be sufficient. But if you want a Jeep that will be a DD and off roader you would want a higher speed diesel, I would not go with a 4 cylinder, unless it has a turbo on it.

 
#17 ·
the cummings 4bt 4 cylinder is a turbo diesel, and my rig is not a daily driver, it will be used primarily on the trails with the occasional jaunt around town...

the cummings can HP can be improved with some mild or wild mods too, to get you the additional HP if you want.

Large exhaust and a good air intake syetm will give you additinoal HP right off the bat, and then if you want, you can add injectors, etc.

But frankly, for a trail rig, the semi stock form should be plenty for me, but thats just me...

there have been some additioinal replies on my post on the 3.9 ltr Isuzu turbos that are interesting on the TDR site, so I will continue researching the engines to make the best decision I can before I buy, that decisiion will be based on prices and availability as well...

kerryp
 
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