CruiserUser gets his shot at Rig of the Week.
I want to thank all of you for giving advice and spending the time it takes to help bring people up to speed.
I tell people that I have an online support group for my cruiser addiction.
My name is CruiserUser, I’ve been addicted to Cruisers for 14 years…….
Background:
· I have owned my 80 for about six months.
· Bought it on e-bay for $11,000 and shipped it for $1,000
· When I got it, it had 109k on it and manix brush guards
· It’s locked
When I bought the cruiser I knew that 12-14 mpg would be too low for me. So the plan was to swap a diesel into it as soon as possible.. Initially I was having a hard time tracking down the elusive Toyota diesel. I strongly considered Cummins and thought about Isuzu etc. Then I tried to talk my wife into how cool it would be to have diesel that is as loud as a ups truck and got nowhere with that.
Back to E-bay. I began searching the rest of the world and found a 1hd-ft 24 valve Toyota Diesel (hino) for 800 pounds in England. I asked the seller a couple of questions and placed my bid. I won it and started searching wreckers in England for the tranny and everything else I needed. By the time I had bought what I could find, I had spent $4000usd. Shipping cost me $1000 and took 2 months. I will have spent another $10,000 by the time I’m done finding the last missing bits from Japan and paying the mechanical mastermind of this project (Raymond Fourie.)
I can’t say enough good things about Raymond. If you are considering this swap and are able to get into his schedule, then you will not be disappointed.
At this point I have yet to install a 3” exhaust system, tach, a/c pump, intercooler, and second battery.
In time I would like to upgrade to an arb winch bumper w/ winch, rear bumper w/ tire carrier, sliders, led’s, etc. etc.
So far besides the diesel, the only changes I have made are the shocks (Bilsteins) and the tires (BFG M/T 255-85-16.)
Right now I’m trying to figure out an inexpensive route on exhaust and intercooler piping. After I get that complete, (hopefully in the next couple of weeks since I’m driving to California and back,) I need to figure out a faulty ground that has killed my sunroof and dome lights. Input on these would be greatly appreciated.
I had the exhaust coming out of a down pipe for the first few days after the swap was complete. Man was that a cool sound. It was just like a big eighteen-wheeler! The thing would ROAR then when I shifted, the turbo would whistle. I loved it except at anywhere near WOT it gave me a headache! The wife wouldn’t ride in it anymore so I had to hook up the old stock gas exhaust temporarily. When the exhaust was free I was getting 24mpg, with old hooked back up it’s 19.
I am moving to Boulder CO in a couple of weeks and am a little nervous about emission testing with a ’96 diesel swap. Anybody have any experience with this?
I want to thank all of you for giving advice and spending the time it takes to help bring people up to speed.
I tell people that I have an online support group for my cruiser addiction.
My name is CruiserUser, I’ve been addicted to Cruisers for 14 years…….
Background:
· I have owned my 80 for about six months.
· Bought it on e-bay for $11,000 and shipped it for $1,000
· When I got it, it had 109k on it and manix brush guards
· It’s locked
When I bought the cruiser I knew that 12-14 mpg would be too low for me. So the plan was to swap a diesel into it as soon as possible.. Initially I was having a hard time tracking down the elusive Toyota diesel. I strongly considered Cummins and thought about Isuzu etc. Then I tried to talk my wife into how cool it would be to have diesel that is as loud as a ups truck and got nowhere with that.
Back to E-bay. I began searching the rest of the world and found a 1hd-ft 24 valve Toyota Diesel (hino) for 800 pounds in England. I asked the seller a couple of questions and placed my bid. I won it and started searching wreckers in England for the tranny and everything else I needed. By the time I had bought what I could find, I had spent $4000usd. Shipping cost me $1000 and took 2 months. I will have spent another $10,000 by the time I’m done finding the last missing bits from Japan and paying the mechanical mastermind of this project (Raymond Fourie.)
I can’t say enough good things about Raymond. If you are considering this swap and are able to get into his schedule, then you will not be disappointed.
At this point I have yet to install a 3” exhaust system, tach, a/c pump, intercooler, and second battery.
In time I would like to upgrade to an arb winch bumper w/ winch, rear bumper w/ tire carrier, sliders, led’s, etc. etc.
So far besides the diesel, the only changes I have made are the shocks (Bilsteins) and the tires (BFG M/T 255-85-16.)
Right now I’m trying to figure out an inexpensive route on exhaust and intercooler piping. After I get that complete, (hopefully in the next couple of weeks since I’m driving to California and back,) I need to figure out a faulty ground that has killed my sunroof and dome lights. Input on these would be greatly appreciated.
I had the exhaust coming out of a down pipe for the first few days after the swap was complete. Man was that a cool sound. It was just like a big eighteen-wheeler! The thing would ROAR then when I shifted, the turbo would whistle. I loved it except at anywhere near WOT it gave me a headache! The wife wouldn’t ride in it anymore so I had to hook up the old stock gas exhaust temporarily. When the exhaust was free I was getting 24mpg, with old hooked back up it’s 19.
I am moving to Boulder CO in a couple of weeks and am a little nervous about emission testing with a ’96 diesel swap. Anybody have any experience with this?