diesel conversion?

[Grease Cruiser]

Cummins 4BT and NV4500

Cummins 4BT and NV4500! Loving it more and more each day. I am getting 25+ mpg. I have almost $10K in the conversion but you can hardly buy a good 4 runner or anything else for that matter.

Diesel conversions are great but you IMO there is no use in taking a perfectly good motor out to replace it with a diesel. Sure gas prices are high, but it will take a VERY long time to recover your conversion expenses on fuel savings.

Look at it this way: Let's go conservative and you spend $6K on your conversion. At $3.00/gallon that is 2000 gallons of diesel to pay for the conversion. Let's say the average diesel Cruiser gets 25mpg.
2000 gallons of diesel X 25mpg= 50K miles. That is 3+ years for the average driver to pay for it. that is even estimating conservatively. It all depends on what you want and how much you want to pay for it.

I bought a good FJ60 body for $1,000 with a fairly tired 2F motor. For me, it was worth it to spend the money on the Cummins conversion. I have great fuel economy and plenty of power to pull trailers.

Good luck to all those who are doing diesel conversions. There are lots of great ideas out there. Use what you can and what you can afford.
Best of luck

 

[Cookiemonster]

10,000 grand minimum???? ...my ass! You can do it for less than half that if you want to do it yourself , it cost me about 2,000.00 CDN to convert my fj62 to a bj62 and I get 28 mpg imp. hwy consistantly . Of course it will cost more to use a 12ht or 1hz but a 3b with turbo works well , it may not be a power house but it is pretty much as powerful as the 3fe I replaced .
I am soon going to start on a WVO or BIO set-up


Let the flameing begin ...., Daryl

Note: Toyota diesels must be imported here in the States. Now for a Chevy diesel or other manufacturer sure, but then it means new motor mounts, alot of extra work etc. Cost wise it would still be close to 10k............

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I've seen 4BT motors in good running condition for around $1,000 and NV4500's for the same. After all that, there can't be too much more converting to do, other than the fuel system, and cooling system, and motor mounts, and ....... I see your point.

 

[Gumby]

Gumby, what kind of mileage are you getting now with the auto in there?

About 18-19. Double what the 80 gets in the city. Now that diesel's cheaper than regular, and a/c isn't as important I have been driving it a lot.

Smog exempt for life in IL.

 

[Grease Cruiser]

I've seen 4BT motors in good running condition for around $1,000 and NV4500's for the same. After all that, there can't be too much more converting to do, other than the fuel system, and cooling system, and motor mounts, and ....... I see your point.

Where have you seen 4BT's for $1,000?!? My advice to you would be to buy them! Buy them all day long if you can. I bought my Frito Lay van for $2,300 and that was a pretty good deal. Jeremiah at Proffitts Cruisers is doing 5 more 4BT conversions on 60's and 62's and he just bought 5 Frito Lay vans. Each van cost a little more than what I paid for mine.
If you can get 4BT's for a grand, send them out West, we need them for our rust free high mileage 60's

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I saw it on a wanted site a while ago. I want to convert eventually to a 6BT, but figured that going 4BT first was better. I will do that when my 2F dies, or when the tranny goes, whichever comes first.