Builds Mitsubishi 4D34-3AT3B diesel swap into 94 FZJ80 (2 Viewers)

[Fromage]

I'm going to be swapping out the 1FZ/A442F combo out of my 1994 Cruiser and swapping in a 3.9L direct injected Mitsubishi diesel out of a 2001 Mitsubishi Fuso delivery truck as well as an Aisin transmission. The exact model of the truck is a Fuso FE-SP, similar to an FE-639. These trucks are also referred to as Canters in other parts of the world.

Before I get started, I must give credit where credit is due. Astr, whom is documenting his swap of a 4HE1 Isuzu engine into an FJ62, was instrumental in figuring out how to retain the Aisin AW450-43LE transmission for a Cruiser application. Kudos to him for all his hard work, if you are interested in this project, you will learn a lot from his thread:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/diesel-tech-24-volts-systems/268941-isuzu-4he1tc-into-fj62.html


The long and short of it is I cannot deal with 14 mpg. I bought a 1994 FZJ80 in the mud classifieds last year. It's e-locked, and runs OK, we like it as a second car/winter beater, but it is the worst vehicle I have ever driven for fuel consumption. I started thinking about a swap about 2 weeks before I brought the truck home. Originally I wanted to put a 1HZ in it, but the cost and obscurity of a transmission (H150) made it kind of a pain, not to mention too expensive for my tastes. Then I stumbled upon the compatibility of the Aisin AW450-43LE to the original A442F transmission. I saw this as a game-changing breakthrough.

Quickly put, the transmission that is found in 2000 and up 4 cylinder Fusos, as well as 2005 an up Hino 4 cyls and some Isuzus (as detailed in Astr's thread) is what I call the "Japanese Allison". The 450-43LE appears to be a mildly beefed up version of the A442F, which is computer controlled and has very cool features, such as lockup capability in 2-3-4, exhaust brake integration, and other cool toys. It is of course 2wd, but Astr had good luck swapping out the tailhousings. So I started looking at the options. I did not like the Isuzu due to the starter issue (see Astr's thread) and the Hinos are still too new to be had cheaply. So I started looking at the Mitsus.

About 2 weeks into my search I bought this:

I thought I was being lied to when I found out the mileage, but it appears to be legit. The truck was in very good shape mechanically, but suffered from lots of corrosion (it was a shellfish delivery truck out of Bar Harbor Maine). The truck was non-op with an unidentified issue. I got lots of spare parts including a spare trans and a spare injection pump.

I bought it sight unseen and had it delivered to a friend of mine in Central Maine. I drove down for the weekend armed with some tools and a pressure washer, and we gutted it. I kept everything, whole harness, computers, etc etc.

Trans. Identical main case to an A442F.

The drivetrain on my trailer, ready for the 400 mi ride home Ottawa.

 

[Fromage]

Another shot of the engine:

I did some digging and, in stock form, it puts out 145 hp and about 280 ft lbs of torque. It probably will not go like a 1HDT powered HDJ81, but I am not gunning for top speed. Plus, I should be able to squeeze some extra ponies out of it.

I got the engine a few months ago and it's been sitting in the garage for a few months while I finish other projects. I'm nearing completion and I figure I will pull the 1FZ in a few weeks. I'm currently trying to sort out the Mitsu wiring harness in order to remove all the non-essential wires. It's a big job.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Your point about the relative obscurity and high cost of things like the H150 transmission is good one.

What is the parts supply for these Mitsubishi engines like? what is the expected fuel economy and lifetime of the engine do you think?

I see the injector pump is inline - any plans for running alternative fuels?

 

[Fromage]

Re: Parts availability - Being a fairly significant player in the delivery truck market parts supply is good. I have a local dealer, they are knowledgeable. As with my Cummins swap into my Land-Rover the parts guys that work in the real truck world are usually a cut above. In my search I saw several of these Fuso trucks with 300, 400K miles so I figure the engine must be pretty good to have lasted that long. Also they are used in 4wd Canters in all kinds of nasty places (Oz, etc) and they seem to hold up. Pushing a little Cruiser around I'd probably say 500K kms between rebuilds, about the same as a 4BT, Isuzu 4BD1, etc.

The injection pump is a Zexel, basically a licensed copy of Bosch technology. No plans for biofuels in the near future. I want to squeeze 30 mpg (imperial)out of this mess. That is really my first goal.

Here is some info I found with respect to horsepower and torque curve:

Given the limited RPM range I think it's going to be a pretty strong little engine.

 

[canucksafari]

This is going to be a cool swap. I have often thought what i would do if my TD4.2 died. Given how expensive used ones are in the US, I had considered this one as a logical swap.

The Zexel IP will do biodiesel or WVO just fine. This IP is used also on Nissan industrial engines like the TD4.2. I know of one Safari here who runs bio and WVO. Quite a few have done this in Australia also without any issues. Here is the Zexel Fast moving Parts database. All you need to do is to input the type number found on the IP plate: ZEXEL.

BTW, Western Star Sterling is now selling Fusos and providing complete parts support.

 

[lshobie]

Very cool, you need my engine hoist yet??? I should need it for about 3 more weeks then you can have at it. Oh, after you help me put my engine back in

 

[Fromage]

The Zexel pumps are great in my mind. They use the tried and true inline P7100 Bosch design that's seen in the Cummins BT line, but electronic with timing and injection pressure control. The system is called TICS and what I really like is that it's quiet and docile, while having the reliability of the inline pumps like the P7100. It's the best of both worlds. This is the pump Cummins should have put on their 5.9 24V instead of the VP44.

Thank you for the link to the Zexel site. That's good info! We are lucky to have the Central Fuso in town here, I am guessing that the parts support network from Daimler will help huge. Maybe I'll have to put a "powered by Western Star" sticker on there just for kicks.

Hey Louis! I may end up using the skiploader to pull the engine but I will keep you in mind for the hoist in case I don't. I may have a evening or two to help when you stick the engine back in, but I'm in Ohio from the 2-6 and gone the weekend after that.

Here are some photos of the wiring nightmare.

Green corrosion

One of the issues I was worried about was the fact that we could not start the truck. It would run with carb clean sprayed down the intake but it did not seem to be putting out any fuel. It being a computerized nightmare of wires, this was a problem. Since the truck has 65K miles on the odo, either that was a total farce and the speedo had been disconnected for half a million, or there was a terrible issue that caused them to scrap a truck with 65K on it. Commercial trucks used for shellfish deliveries do not usually lead a very sheltered life and people usually get their mileage out of them.

The main issue we found with the truck, other than being nasty and smelly, was corrosion in a junction box of the wiring harness around the rad. The cab harness and the chassis harness connect in this "sealed" junction box that became a moisture includer device. The connectors were green but since stuff was blinking and cranking and spitting I figured there might still be some continuity there.

I'm gearing up the pull the gas engine in a few weeks and I figured I should at least figure out the mess of wires that will be my new engine harness, and get it to run. I found that every single wire going in and out into the box is a mess of black wire death corrosion for 8-24 inches on either side of the connectors and many of them were broken. Not a chance it would have started, and this would have made any economical repair absolutely impossible. I think that's why the truck was parked.

So I resolved to cut about 2 ft out of the harness where the connector was, back to virgin uncorroded copper wires, and resolder. Given the design of a cabover truck, and the fact that the cab has to bend at the front, the harness is really long, so 2 ft does not make it too short. I will probably have to reshorten it later for some of the leads, but I want to get the engine running on a pallet before I pull the gas engine out.

I've run into an issue. Most of the important wires that plug into speed sensors are shielded. These sensors are obviously seeing a pulse output generated by RPM sensors and position sensors for the trans, the fuel rack, the crank, etc, and are going to be affected by interference.

They are 2 or 3 wires encased in a braided silvery aluminum mesh
covering, then inside of plastic. However when they get to the main plug (source of corrosion) the shielding just disappears and terminates into a wire, goes through the connector, and back again to shielding. There is a solid foot that is not insulated/shielded.

Well, I need to shorten these wires. My procedure to date is to cut the harness back a foot in either direction, solder the sensor wires and cover with the dual wall waterproof shrink wrap stuff, then pull the shielding over the connections and crimp both sides of shielding together, then tape it (the factory connections for shielding are crimped in this manner). This should provide even better shielding than the factory connection point as it's only uncovered for 4 inches. Right?

I have always been told that soldering can change the resistance of a wire and could cause issues. I would much rather solder such a connection than crimp. What do you electronics people think? I have always thought that it was kind of a wives tale, due to crappy and cold solder joints.

Stripping down the harness is fun. It's light, quick work that makes the hours go by and with the manual it's surprisingly easy.I am hoping to get the engine running by Sunday. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Dougal]

Subscribing.

BTW, Zexel is Bosch. It's their japanese arm.

 

[Fromage]

Subscribing.

BTW, Zexel is Bosch. It's their japanese arm.

I'm pretty darn surprised you didn't give me crap for not picking an Isuzu! Does this mean you are letting me off easy?

I really hope this will be a good thread. Don't go easy on me if I start slacking off midway. I know Dougal doesn't usually pull any punches!

So, some photos of the FZJ80 in question. This is my work truck, hence a real work horse engine. It seems like half the time I have my flatbed trailer hitched up, or a plow hooked to the front. The idea of having the lower gearset of the AW450-43LE combined with an exh. brake, massive trans cooler and an engine with a torque peak as flat as Kansas really appeals to me. I do have my Land-Rover 109 to do the really heavy stuff, but since it's also kind of in pieces (as per the photo) the Cruiser does a lot of the work.

Pics (in random order):

Wiring brought you by:

FZJ80 pulling around my CTD powered 109 carcass (which is getting some work done to it as soon as I finish the poor 80)

Studded Hakkas, lockers and a Snow-Way 24 make for fun evenings!

 

[lostmarbles]

wooohoooo!

Clearly you're a man suffering a disorder or two!

Subscribed!

 

[Dougal]

I'm pretty darn surprised you didn't give me **** for not picking an Isuzu! Does this mean you are letting me off easy?

The little mitsubishi diesels (2.3, 2.5, 2.8) are very average, but this one looks like it might be good. Either way I'm keen to see how your conversion goes.

What's with the black rangie in the background?

 

[Falco80]

Neato, i'm interested to see how this goes. I remember how thirsty my old FZJ80 was, but i can just imagine how quickly the fuel needle would drop when your working it with that huge blade on the front!

 

[Gerrit Loubser]

The little mitsubishi diesels (2.3, 2.5, 2.8) are very average, but this one looks like it might be good.

I am glad that you limited your list to those Mitsu motors and I agree that they are nothing special. I am a huge fan of the 3.2 DiD motor though (model code 4M41). We have some of those here in South Africa that have done huge mileages and they are known to be reliable and durable. They use an electronically controlled rotary injection pump, though, so are obviously not as easy to transplant as the older mechanically controlled motors.

 

[Fromage]

This weekend's progress:

My goal was to get the wiring down to the point where everything was labelled and all the extra stuff was pulled out of the harness, just bare bones trans and engine control. Once that was done, I was hoping to have time to plug everything in and see if I could get it to start (I bought the truck as a non-op so I wanted to make sure I have a good engine before pulling it apart).

So after a lot of this:

I got the harness down to this:

All the connectors were now separated out of the bird's nest and I had everything labelled. I now know what every wire does, and the project is a heck of a lot less scary than 48 hours ago.

So, that was a solid day of soldering. On Sunday I decided to try and test fire the engine.

So I stated with a hot bath

Steam cleaned the engine to get it squeaky clean, an easy task with the "mobile engine crane".

Mmm clean!

I did not get a photo of me after, but I assure you that all the gunk and rust made its way directly from the engine and onto me.

I then put the engine back on the pallet jack and improvised a test stand out of 2X6s and a ratchet strap.

I then hooked up the rad and I wired up a temporary fuse box, plugged everything in, and powered up the ECM, TCM and all the necessary relays.

So, I started cranking and cranking. No go. I wasn't getting any fuel out of the injection pump. After a bit of trouble shooting and comparing with the spare injection pump I have, I determined that the electronic governor wasn't working correctly. It was very scientific. I just plugged in the spare pump and listened to it as I cranked. The old pump was silent, the new pump made all kinds of electrical servo noises. So I decided to swap the pumps.

Swapping the pumps took about 2 hours. It was pretty easy, I really like how this engine is put together. Once I had it back together it was clear that this pump was working. I got lots of fuel at the injectors and after a few cranks to get the air out, it fired right up!

I was pretty relieved that it runs fine. I was a bit worried that I was going to have to find "a needle in a haystack" such as a broken wire or another issue, and I was very careful in my wiring harness mods to avoid any problems. I'd say I spend a solid 8 hours decyphering everything. But, it was worth it, the darn thing started right up, the electronic accelerator works, the idle adjust works, and I could not be happier.

I'm uploading a video as we speak, I'll post it later!

 

[Fromage]

Video!

YouTube - MVI_6653.AVI

You'll notice quite a bit of smoke in the video. I'm running the engine off the fuel tank for my pressure washer burner, which has a mix of diesel fuel and engine oil in it. It's all I had around the shop...

 

[lostmarbles]

....I'm uploading a video as we speak, I'll post it later!

Wish you were my neighbour! I'd love to take part in this

Can't wait to see the video.

 

[Dougal]

It's great to see people taking the plung with EFI diesels and even better to see them making it work.

So what's the control on this pump and what are the options for getting more from it?

I love the sound of an unmuffled turbo.

 

[astr]

Congrats! Without the Isuzu starter location issue, the swap should be straight forward. Subscribing!

 

[canucksafari]

BTW, Zexel is Bosch. It's their japanese arm.

A little bit of Zexel trivia - Zexel is now Bosch but it wasn't merged into the Bosch corp until 2005. It was started as Diesel Kiki in 1939 (part of the Isuzu Motors Corp) and fabricated under license from Bosch - just the same way the Denso rotary IP is made under license from Bosch using the VE design. In 1990 it changed its name from Kiki Diesel to Zexel (BTW, same time the Y60 went from an inline to rotary IP). In 2000 the company was reorganized from Bosch KK (recognizing the Kiki Diesel) into Bosch Automotive Systems Corp. In 2005 it fully merged with Bosch Corporation, although it continues to manufacture using the Zexel name.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Congratulations on the successful start-up. A huge relief I imagine. Keep up the good work!