Builds Isuzu 4BD1T Lexus LX450 (Land Cruiser) Build

[Wheelingnoob]

If it doesn't, there are a few tricks we can apply. You just need enough room to remove the rear housing on your injection pump.

This is enough right?



Hahah I can work around that if needed just need a filter housing gasket and some time. Hope we do not need to but I worked around that when I was making the adapter.

Well that depends.

1. Was smoke your #1 tuning goal?
2. Do you wear a flat billed hat?
3. Do you spell cummins with a "g"?

Ah classics, the Flat billed hat thing we have a lot of up here. I swear every time I head to the Prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan) that is all I see is "kids" in there oil money modded trucks. Lifted 13" with 6" tail pipes belching clouds of smoke back and forth to prove who has the larger case of small man syndrome.

I think they check every one of your 3 points above.

I will say on my brothers 2H turbo HJ60 even with a good tune it does puff a cloud (not huge plume) on first toe into the throttle there is no adjustment for it on them no boost comp or any other setting other than max fuel screw. Under full load at 13psi its got 1100F so fuel is set and tunes based on that target.

 

[Dougal]

Even if you need more room, your filter block just unbolts. It's been about 6 years (eek) since I was in my injection pump. While my memory is good enough to scare people, I'm not sure it's good enough to remember all those details.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Even if you need more room, your filter block just unbolts. It's been about 6 years (eek) since I was in my injection pump. While my memory is good enough to scare people, I'm not sure it's good enough to remember all those details.

Yeah easy to remove, should be no issue. Wanted it to be able to remove pump if needed in the truck so will be fine to get the rear housing off......that scares me a bit though I must admit.

 

[rustybucket]

I would love to do a diesel tear down

Done a tone of gas short and long blocks in the 1990s but never a diesel. Did the company that sold this engine to you said it was rebuilt? Far from it. Did you take the crank out and inspect the end caps for clearance?

I would take that block and put in a tank to clear out the sludge and scale in the coolant passages.

What are the steps needed to pull out the cylinder liners out of one of these engines, and a 3b engine?

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Done a tone of gas short and long blocks in the 1990s but never a diesel. Did the company that sold this engine to you said it was rebuilt? Far from it. Did you take the crank out and inspect the end caps for clearance?

I would take that block and put in a tank to clear out the sludge and scale in the coolant passages.

What are the steps needed to pull out the cylinder liners out of one of these engines, and a 3b engine?

Yeah I have built quite a few gas motors as well. This motor was sold to me in unknown condition from half way across the country. The price was worth the risk. When I started digging into it I could tell it had recently been rebuilt. Unfortunately it was done poorly and would not have lasted long. The pistons and sleeves where also made in China and lacked the piston bowl machine work and overall quality that the Clevite replacements had. Everything was inspected and the crank was measured and found be me in spec, also app on assembly I plasti gauged all the journals and they where again within spec no damage was found.

I had the machine shop hot tank the block to remove oil and other patrol based contaminates fortunately that process does nothing for rust removal. I ended up taking a heavy metal brush, rat tail file and screw driver to chip, file and clean off as much rust as possible. It looks a lot better now than it did when I first opened it. I will be running a coolant filter to remove any contaminates that it kicks up. I also will be running a screen on both the rad inlet and the heater core inlet to start with to minimize the risk of anything plugging up the cores.

I do not know if the 3B even has a sleeved block? On the 4BD it was easy with the loaner sleeve tool I got took about 30min to do all 4. Plus about 45min to reinstall. I put the sleeves in the deep freeze for 3 hours leading up to it to help the installation process along.

 

[Polar Bear]

Wheelingnoob, what is your running total cost (approximately) for this conversion? I've been on the fence about which oil burner powerplant I want, and it looks like the bottom end of my gasser motor has decided to expedite matters for me.

If I have to throw several grand into rebuilding a slug of a motor that gets poor mileage (regardless how reliable) I may as well have a diesel for that money.

Unfortunately an expedited timeline means less cash available so I'm looking into a 6.2/6.5 GM conversion. However, I really like the mechanical nature of your motor, and I've driven plenty of NPR's to know that they sip fuel, run forever on minimal maintenance, and can pull a heavy load up a long hill without complaint.

How does the 6.2 conversion parts cost compare to your swap? I'm looking at one of the military take offs that run around a thousand bucks and a 700R that's been beefed up to handle a diesel with an AA adapter to the transfer case. I'd be doing most of the work myself, minus the AC and exhaust install.

Thanks!

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Wheelingnoob, what is your running total cost (approximately) for this conversion? I've been on the fence about which oil burner powerplant I want, and it looks like the bottom end of my gasser motor has decided to expedite matters for me.

If I have to throw several grand into rebuilding a slug of a motor that gets poor mileage (regardless how reliable) I may as well have a diesel for that money.

Unfortunately an expedited timeline means less cash available so I'm looking into a 6.2/6.5 GM conversion. However, I really like the mechanical nature of your motor, and I've driven plenty of NPR's to know that they sip fuel, run forever on minimal maintenance, and can pull a heavy load up a long hill without complaint.

How does the 6.2 conversion parts cost compare to your swap? I'm looking at one of the military take offs that run around a thousand bucks and a 700R that's been beefed up to handle a diesel with an AA adapter to the transfer case. I'd be doing most of the work myself, minus the AC and exhaust install.

Thanks!

So far with out adding up every little receipt I'm at $3120 there is about $200 extra in things like break cleaner assembly lubes and little hoes and so on. I have also had to buy about $300 in tools I found I needed along the way with the engine rebuild. But I have not taken off the things like the NV4500 adapter I sold for $650 or the Engine in my truck now that I have tentatively sold.

My goal all along has been to get this done for as little as possible with out sacrificing quality or reliability. I also had a total overall monetary output goal of $5000 not including selling any parts off after the fact, so far I think I am well on my way to easily achieving that goal. In the end after selling my existing motor , trans, adapter and other odds and ends I should be into to it for about $3000-3500 I hope.

At the end of all this I will do a detailed cost spreadsheet and factor in sold parts and so on to see if I got close.

My main goal all along was improve my range both on and off road with minimal loss or no loss in performance.

I do not know anything about the 6.2/6.5L GM diesels, I did not even consider them. The little I know about them I am happy I went with this Isuzu 4BD1T.

 

[Polar Bear]

That's good news, I was expecting your totals to be closer to 8000. You and I have the same financial goals for this swap, nice to hear you're coming in under budget before you even sell off the engine etc.

I wonder if it's possible to get my 97's transmission to play nice behind an Isuzu if I picked up a tranny controller and did the torque converter stall modification.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

That's good news, I was expecting your totals to be closer to 8000. You and I have the same financial goals for this swap, nice to hear you're coming in under budget before you even sell off the engine etc.

I wonder if it's possible to get my 97's transmission to play nice behind an Isuzu if I picked up a tranny controller and did the torque converter stall modification.

One warning I have on the budget posted so far is that this swap is not done yet. I think and Hope I have all the big things out of the way but there is always the unknown with swaps of this nature and I will have to cope with those as they come up. I was leery of posting my total investment so far for that simple fact. I have also been able to get some extremely good deals on parts and that has saved me literally thousands so far on this swap.

If my budget was $8000 I would have just bought a HDJ81 up here and swapped the parts into mine and parted out the rest. I like doing things differently and I like my Diesels to not smoke at idle all the time. Every HDJ81 I have seen smokes all the time.

 

[Polar Bear]

Warning taken. I always expect the worst case scenario when undertaking something new, so my goal is 5K, with a pleasant surprise if it doesn't land closer to 8K. My mechanical experience tends to prove that Murphy was an optimist, so I usually plan accordingly.

My goal would be to nurse the stock motor through this winter and spend that time accumulating/rebuilding parts, and then take the summer and fall to complete the swap.

I have an armada of people in my back pocket who thrive on finding cheap/free stuff, so I'll have help locating parts for my swap.

Only a few more years before the American locusts arrive and wipe out your surviving crop of older diesel 80's (a vehicle has to be 25 years old for US importation without emissions requirements). Won't be many left within a couple hour drive of the border I'm guessing.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Ok so today was to be a big day, plan was to finish connecting the filter housing to the oil cooler with AN fittings. Get the engine off the stand and onto the run stand to get the back of the engine all buttoned up. Then get the valves adjusted, tidy up the odds and ends then basically have the engine all done ready for trans adapter work. But plans seldom go as...well planned.

I went to my local performance store this morning and got some -12 fittings, I got a swivel 90* and a straight hoping they would almost line up. Well of course that would not work. There is a 1" off set in the out let and inlet. So I started looking at other options. I thought i could make a tube bender to bend up some 3/4" steel tube and make something like the stock pipe......nope just crushed the pipe

I had a few other ideas use Russell 3/8th aluminum fuel line kit rated at 250psi burst pressure. My worry with that is work hardening of the pipe and failure down the road, the two points do not move separate of each other but this is the diesel that vibrates.

I could use the -12 AN fittings and make a large loop of the line but that seems like such a ham fisted approach to the solution.

I may try and make another bender out of a old pulley or something and see if i have better luck.

Last option is try and use the tight 90* bend from the factory hose and TIG it together. Like this solution so may investigate further.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

-12 fittings? Jesus that's big.

Try filling your tube with sand, then sealing the ends, before you put it in your bender. Should help prevent the tube from crushing.

 

[Fantom]

Damn, that is a tight radius to pull off. I agree with the comment above, but I also think a flexible hose would be a better choice for install/removal. Those are hydraulic standard fittings? pincess can make up a hose, or for better quality, talk to Greenline or New Line and they can custom make a soft or even hard line with whatever fittings you like. You can even get a full steel braided hose, so it will maintain the shape.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Yeah they are big and thats kind of where the issue is. If they where -8 it would have been workable.

So after my last post I worked on it got another hour of actual productivity done.

This is what I have come up with. First I remade my bender using an old water pump pulley and some left over steel.

Then I tried a bend, first one kinked badly. So second time I did a bit at a time and was able to bend a nice arc with no kinks.

Looks like it will work well.

I still need to make some flanges for it since the old one are now AN fittings. Should work out ok i think. Just a mater of getting a good weld on it. Think I'll TIG that part.

 

[longbow]

That new bend looks really clean. It is so close that if you hadn't welded the AN fittings on, you could have just tig welded right to the old flanges.

Don

 

[Wheelingnoob]

That new bend looks really clean. It is so close that if you hadn't welded the AN fittings on, you could have just tig welded right to the old flanges.

Don

Yeah it worked out really well. We had a hell of a time trying to weld a steel AN fitting the the larger cast flange even with a preheat, high nickel rod and slow cool it kept cracking hence the 1/2" pipe thread fitting on that one. The only down side to making new flanges is i now need to self on a -4 steel AN fitting for the turbo oil feed (easy).

Think its going to work out good though, using the same material the stock pipe was made out of so no loss in strength or durability and it cost $5 to make. When I have time in the next week i hope to get the new flanges made and have it ready for welding.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

So I got my injectors back I ended up getting a lot of advice on this from Longbow. I had taken the injectors to a local place that said they could re do the faces. It turned out they sent them to the same place Don (Longbow) had said that could do it. I got that sorted out with the local place and got the injectors back with rebuild faces and rebuilt Nozzles. One of the nozzles even after being redone was out of spec (something about to much bypass on the return?) So I took Don's advice again and contacted a place in Texas that had new nozzles that are made in Italy. Locally they wanted $ 60 per nozzle and $50 each to ship? I got them from USDiesl for $18 each and $10 shipping.

So DNR did the face repair for $20 each and $15 for the nozzles:

http://www.dnrind.com/mainpage.htm I dealt with Mike FYI they are a no Credit card shop so be ready to send a check or money order.

The nozzles I got from USDiesel:

http://www.usdiesel.com/dieselinjection.htm

Was as simple as taking the nozzles out and giving them the number off them. Took 3 days to get them from TX.

I then had a local (not the one I used the first time) BD Deisel set the crack pressures. Since I worked with most of them in the past they even did it for free. Great group of people there.

So all said and done the injectors are finally in my possession and ready to be put back in.

Morale of the story when you get good advice take it. I should not have dealt with the first place and just send the injectors to DNR in the first place.

Thanks Don for the continued help.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Took a bit of time yesterday and got a few things accomplished on the engine. I wanted to fit my mockup turbo so I could start measuring for oil and coolant lines. I got the fittings of ebay from Kinaguwa turbo’s. I have to say the parts I have gotten from this manufacturer are good quality, on par with OEM. I was also able to get the turbo down pipe flange from a company in California, it showed up in two days and save me making one myself. http://yother.com/cj-per-exhaust.html

So I started with bolting the turbine and CHRA to the manifold.

As you can see I have one of the engines with the top mounted AC compressor (more on this later).






Looks like it fits ok, sticks out a good bit but I will not know if that is a problem till I get it onto the engine bay. I then bolted the York AC compressor into place to get an idea of intake placement and space.





Got quite a bit of room for a down pipe I hope…..to be seen once the engine is installed. No work will be done on that till then.


Was also able to fit the dip stick tube, took a few more degrees of bend into the already bent tube. It worked out well and lined up really nice with the mounting tab on the AC compressor.





Only issue maybe the height of it in comparison to the engine.



Overall it all seems to fit well now, the final test will be when the engine swap gets started. I have a slight issue with waste gate actuator placement but hope to buy an actuator and mod it a bit to allow the room I need for the intake pipe. I have two options for the intake pipe, weld an Aluminum 2.5” elbow to the inlet of the compressor cover. Or get a 2.5” cobra head inlet pipe, my hope is to have a 3” pipe for most the intake track. Next issue will be getting a 3” pipe to fit between the hood and valve cover.

Next question for those with a good knowledge of the 4BD is turbo oil feed. I know the stock feed is from the hard pipe running from the filters to the oil cooler. Is there an issue if I run the turbo oil feed from the vac pump oil feed on the turbo side of the block? It would just make this feed line a lot shorter and cleaner. If there are concerns with flow or pressure then I can run it off the stock placement.

I have the engine all ready to be lifted off the engine stand and mounted to the run stand so I can finish bolting on the rear main seal plate, flywheel housing and flywheel. Once that is done I can mount the starter and see how my oil drain is going to fit.
Also does anyone know the threads on the heater hose ports on the water pump and thermostat housing? My stock ones are badly corroded and need to be replaced.

This week I hope to get some more materials so I can make my hard heater lines from pump/t stat housing to back of engine and exhaust manifold head shields. I also need to make the flanges for the main oil feed from the filters to the oil cooler.

Slowly forward.

 

[chris weinberger]

Great stuff!! Sorry to Jump in here, but the viewers/ readers seem to know their way around a multitude of diesel scenarios. I want to build a full-sized van for touring either Africa or South America, depending on future job. Want it to be diesel(of course) and 4x4. Has to be simple and totally bullet-proof. Cummings seems too loud and hot. Isuzu offers a lot of great options, simplicity, liners, overseas support and mechanical injection. Will need a 5 speed option, automatics a big no-no overseas.
I don't see ford powerstrokes as an option, nor the sprinter, very hard/ expensive to convert to 4x4
1. will vibration and Isuzu engine size be so bad as to make swap impractical?
2. am I better off putting a more reliable diesel into a ford powerstroke body, diesel fuel tank and exhaust, etc. being a big positive.
3. can I use the front drivetrain from a 4x4 ford truck?
4. everyone's swap seems to involve at least a 3" lift. Height becomes an issue, because with roof-tents++ it will be a bit top-heavy.
5. not a big fan of the pick-up camper, I like the idea of using interior space for multiple purposes, 2 months with a fam in a pick-up gets to be looong.
Open to any input or criticism, I have lived for the last 15 years in the bush of Africa and basically the rule was that which does not kill or maim you works, actually, even if it killed or maimed you people still did it.
Thanks for all the creative input throughout these threads, feared American ingenuity had been beaten out of the masses with everyone being force-fed a steady diet of regulations

 

[doug720]

Jeremy,

On my 4BD2, the turbo oil feed comes from the filter head and supplies freshly filtered, and somewhat cooler oil to the turbo. If you tap into the oil supply somewhere else, the possibility of a small piece of crud going to the turbo is higher.

Is this a problem, not sure. But oil, directly after filtering also supplies the IP pump which is a high precision part too.

I would try to supply the oil from clean side of the filter.

Doug