[sandcruiser]

before you start getting excited about a diesel swap, you might sit down and do some math...

Diesel and gas seem to be rising at similar rates. If anything, diesel is rising faster during winter months.

Any diesel swap is going to cost you at least $5K. Most diesel swaps will net you between 30% and 50% increase in efficiency (I get mid-20's mpg in my hd-t. Most 80's get around 14. Just did a trip with two similarly built 80s, one had a FZ the other a 4BT. The 4BT was getting low 20s when we were getting 15.)

So "best case" you get twice the mileage (and probably some more power) out of the diesel swap. If you do, then you'll recoup your investment of $5K in a mere 2,000 gallons of fuel (which would yield around 56,000 miles). Even if you are drivng the heck out of it, you probably won't actually do 25K miles per year. That's 2.24 years.

If you do the same numbers on a much more realistic scale, you are looking at 4 or 5 years to recoup the investment.

To complicate things more: if you put a diesel into your cruiser you are opening up a can of worms for things to go wrong. Either you use a domestic diesel motor, which means a custom installation with custom parts that will be harder and more expensive to fix in backwoods USA (let alone other countries) or you are going to use a Toyota diesel which will cost a lot more to obtain, will have very very little mechanic support in the USA and will be very hard to get parts for it.

the FZJ motor is pretty ubiquitous in the USA and elsewhere, has great parts/mechanic support, and drives well enough for most expedition type travel (hey, I spent years behind a 2F, the FZJ is a ROCKET in comparison).

If you think you want a diesel conversion, find a good-quality fzj80 with a blown motor or blown HG. Then at least you'll save some $$ on buying the truck.

Keep in mind with all of this: I bought a converted hd-t 80. Love it. Great motor. But hard to justify converting an 80 in the states on fuel savings alone.

W/regards to suspension: I think that a slight lift (2.5 OME) is one of the best investments you can make on an expedition rig. You'll be spending a lot of time behind the wheel, adding comfort for you and reducing wear on the contents is a good thing. Higher is rarely justified, in my opinion.

Before you buy bumpers/sliders/armor... consider the terrain you'll do and the weight of the stuff you are buying. All that weight eventually turns into $ at the pump.