Questions about a 60

[jelliottoregon]

I have an 87 60 I plan to buy from a good friend in the spring. I'm planning all the "necessary" options list to add to the rig but had a couple questions. I've heard there may be a few local members who have diesels that might have some insight.
Do you think the diesel engine makes any sense?
If so which one?
They appear to get pretty good mileage but does anyone have any "real" mpg numbers for me?
What about towing/passing on hills? I know these rigs will never be fast but would like to not be passed by my 4 year old on her bike going over Sexton while towing the drift boat.
Lastly for tonight does anyone have any input about where to get an engine and any ideas about having it installed. I know about G&S Cruiser parts in BC, SOR and I've talked to somebody in Portland.
Thanks for the info!
PS I plan to make it to the next outing/meeting do you guys have any details so I can get it on the calendar?

 

[TOY350]

Hey "J", good to see you post up.

Kief has done some research on diesels and can probably help with most your questions. Bob in the club has a diesel 60 but he has been tied up with work and we haven't had much contact with him lately.

Is the engine in the 60 you are looking at on it's way out? Just curios if you would like to go diesel in the long run or is an engine swap going need to happen after you pick up the 60.

We will be posting up when we have anything planned in the near future as in runs, meetings or wrenching to do.

 

[jelliottoregon]

The 60 has been well taken care of with lots of recent work done. The engine and transmission haven't been worked on and are without issue at the moment. I'm thinking about using it as a daily driver and would like to see better mileage if possible.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

Next question: Are you a purist? I'm not too up on diesels, but I'm sure there's a better option out there than the H or B engines that may have came in a 60...

 

[Kief]

If you want to put a diesel in a 60 to save money forget it. The cost of the motor, adapter, accessories alone will take years to recoup.. there have been a few for sale on the market that have all that done and you might come out better.. Alaskan Herbs has one for sale here on mud. If you want to do a diesel conversion and are not mechanically experienced I don't advise it, if you pay someone to do it go check out Proffit's cruisers... $25k for the complete conversion for a 4BT, new motor and you supply the vehicle. It doesn't surprise me that many swappers end up selling their "I had to have it" projects when they realize that the diesels are noisy and not that peppy like they wanted.
If you want to do a diesel swap to do a diesel swap cool, but don't spend 5 to 10 K just to increase your mileage 5 to 12...
Signed, Kief (wanna be diesel swapper/oh my goodness this is gonna get spendy!!)

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

Here's the Toyota Diesel you really want:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/79-95-toyota-truck-tech/157712-91-pickup-diesel-conversion.html

I've talked to this guy in person and seen the truck... It's cool, and he's getting 30-35 driving it easy...

 

[jelliottoregon]

I would want to keep some sort of a toyota diesel engine in it. I'm not really interested in a 350 or anything similar.

 

[jelliottoregon]

I appreciate the insight from everyone. I'm pretty set on the 60 series and when it comes down to it I would want to do the diesel mostly just because its cool/unique. Does anyone know someone local who has a LC with a diesel that I could talk to?

 

[TOY350]

All I know of is Bob and his is factory, not sure if he will be able to answer any conversion questions or not. Maybe he will jump back on the board here and chime in or we can hunt him down.

 

[Darkrealms]

I had thoughts about a diesel swap but pricing everything out and having someone that can work on them after the fact I just couldn't justify it. I ended up with a 350 (383 stroker technically but I'd recommend a 350 over it now) swap.

 

[RredFJ40]

Lynchmob up in portland also has an FJ62 with a 13bt and the stock a440f in it. It'd be a nice rig to pick up as it's got a good motor but the the body and interior aren't perfect (like so many end up doing), so it's relatively inexpensive. Something I'd love to do but just not in the cards. It just doesn't make sense unless you can come up with the motor on the cheap and do the work yourself.

 

[jelliottoregon]

I think I'll stick with the stock motor for now and revisit when/if the original motor starts showing signs of going out. What I was thinking was it would be easier to present to the wife the cost of this 60 with all of the "necessary" upgrades from the beginning instead of at a later date i.e. "oh by the way I need 12k for a diesel engine". My attitude is get it all now while I can or it may be a lot harder to justify later.

 

[Ebag333]

If you're seriously looking to get a 'cruiser with a diesel I'd really consider one already setup with it.

Even an 80 imported is only around $20k, IIRC. Which isn't bad considering plenty in good shape are around $8-9k still, and the imported ones are usually built pretty nice.

You should be able to find (or import) a 40 or a 60 that's already built with an diesel for what you're looking to do an engine swap for.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

You can't legally register an 80 series yet... Vehicle has to be 25 years or older.

 

[Ebag333]

You can't legally register an 80 series yet... Vehicle has to be 25 years or older.

There are ways of doing it, albeit either very expensive (paying lots of import fees), borderline illegal (VIN swapping), or time consuming (swapping body/engine/etc onto the other trucks frame).

After seeing how easy it is to get a new title, even for a bad VIN (look at Keif's truck ) I personally would do a VIN swap and call it an engine/body swap. It's the same in principle if you took everything and swapped it from one truck to the other.

 

[Kief]

Half-cuts from SOR are an option and I think if you get one in Canada as well but you better do your footwork and have it documented. You are looking at 6 to 8k from SOR..

My rig doesn't have a bad vin... it simply had the vins all stripped... including the vin tag. Any out of state rig in Oregon would have to have a VIN inspection to be registered and if you swapped a frame and body etc you could get an assembled vehicle title and vehicles over 25 years can be imported. They come up once and a while on the west coast or in the form of an unfinshed project. Spend some time in the Diesel Forum and you'll learn a lot.

 

[BlueHZT60]

Just stumbled onto this. I'm around for the most part, come over and see the diesel. It is on the back side of a front end rebuild right now. If you want a diesel engine plant: Grab the 1hz-H55 from Lynchmob. It is a fair price and sounds like a decent engine. I looked hard at it for the 80, but I've already got another diesel engine waiting for me. I also have two 87's & and 84 60. Don't fret the vehicle licensing issue - a)you can take mine down for a voluntary test if you want to see. B) register it in Bend or Klamath.

Plan on: $6000-$9000 for 1Hz/H55, then BEB, Turbo, Misc electrical, Motor Mounts, Starter/Glow, new radiator, new exhaust, some sound proofing. You don't even want to know how much I spent - but that was because engine #1 was shot, with too small a turbo on it. Anyway, the transplant is a bit of work, but not all that hard. I'd want to give myself a decent budget, or a decent amount of time OR both, my daily driver work truck was down and mostly out for over a year - futzing with things until we just yanked the engine and put the second one in. Bob