Will Van
GOLD Star
As a lot of you know, I have been lusting over a Toyota 4x4 diesel swap for several years now. For a variety of reasons that I won't get into now, I settled on swapping a Mercedes OM617 turbo diesel into a 1979 to 1995 Toyota Pickup or 4Runner with an RF1A gear-driven transfer case. The reason for this particular combination was cost, reliability, availability, and ease of swap.
My plan was to use the Doomsday Diesel conversion kit for whichever Toyota truck I ended up finding. I chose Doomsday because the swap components are extremely well-engineered, readily available, bolt-on, and sold as a fully-integrated package. You pull the Toyota engine out and bolt in the OM617. No welding or custom fabrication. And you can run a factory radiator with air conditioning and power steering. No cutting the radiator core support. Basically with the Doomsday components, the swap can look factory and elegant. Doomsday customer support is also outstanding.
I figured I would have to spend about $8,500 for a decent Toyota Pickup/4Runner, another $2,500 on the Doomsday swap components, at least $1,000 for a decent OM617 donor, and probably another $1,000 on miscellaneous components and parts from Summit. All in I was expecting the build to cost between $12k and $15k.
Then I stumbled on this 1986 4Runner for sale local to me with an OM617 swap already performed. Seller performed the swap in 2015 and has been consistently driving it since that time. It is in decent shape and the Seller wants $4,800 for the truck. A steal even for a stock truck, let alone one with the OM617 swap already performed.
The problem is, it's not exactly how I would have performed the swap if I did it myself today. Joe, the owner of Doomsday, has really advanced the integration of these OM617 swaps since Seller performed the swap back in 2015 (It seems Joe comes out with new slick components to make the swap easier every day!).
Back in the day, you would just delete the A/C condenser, cut the radiator core support, weld in some make-shift engine brackets, and notch the oil pan. This truck is no exception.
Seller did a good job with the materials he had available at the time, but it has A/C deleted, a cut radiator core support, hood-latch delete (hood pins), and some rudimentary (but strong engine) mounts. He used a competitor-to-Doomsday's bellhousing adapter kit. The competitor has a reputation for sub-par components (they grenade transmissions because they're out of concentricity). Seller even stipulated that he received a "bad-batch" of adapter components the first time, and had to redo some work.
Cut radiator core support and notched for Mercedes radiator/fan
Notched oil pan
Hood bracing and latch removed
Seller also deleted the engine mount pads on the frame and welded in "boxed" engine mounts. This is my biggest concern because if I want to retrofit the Doomsday kit, I would have to re-weld/install the factory engine pads. Not an easy task compared to the bolt-on engine adapters from Doomsday.
It also has a small oil leak at the oil galley plug on the back of the motor, common on these OM617 engines (Similar to where the Toyota 2F engines leak at the Welch fittings).
Bascially, it's probably more work now to get the truck exactly the way I want it than it would be if I were starting with a stock 4Runner.
But what do you guys think? Should I be scared off by the swap? Or ignore my OCD and take advantage of an OM617 swapped 4Runner at a great price?
I can always swap the Doomsday bellhousing adapter (the component from the competitor that leads to transmisison failures) on this truck and keep driving it and modifying it along the way.
My plan was to use the Doomsday Diesel conversion kit for whichever Toyota truck I ended up finding. I chose Doomsday because the swap components are extremely well-engineered, readily available, bolt-on, and sold as a fully-integrated package. You pull the Toyota engine out and bolt in the OM617. No welding or custom fabrication. And you can run a factory radiator with air conditioning and power steering. No cutting the radiator core support. Basically with the Doomsday components, the swap can look factory and elegant. Doomsday customer support is also outstanding.
I figured I would have to spend about $8,500 for a decent Toyota Pickup/4Runner, another $2,500 on the Doomsday swap components, at least $1,000 for a decent OM617 donor, and probably another $1,000 on miscellaneous components and parts from Summit. All in I was expecting the build to cost between $12k and $15k.
Then I stumbled on this 1986 4Runner for sale local to me with an OM617 swap already performed. Seller performed the swap in 2015 and has been consistently driving it since that time. It is in decent shape and the Seller wants $4,800 for the truck. A steal even for a stock truck, let alone one with the OM617 swap already performed.
The problem is, it's not exactly how I would have performed the swap if I did it myself today. Joe, the owner of Doomsday, has really advanced the integration of these OM617 swaps since Seller performed the swap back in 2015 (It seems Joe comes out with new slick components to make the swap easier every day!).
Back in the day, you would just delete the A/C condenser, cut the radiator core support, weld in some make-shift engine brackets, and notch the oil pan. This truck is no exception.
Seller did a good job with the materials he had available at the time, but it has A/C deleted, a cut radiator core support, hood-latch delete (hood pins), and some rudimentary (but strong engine) mounts. He used a competitor-to-Doomsday's bellhousing adapter kit. The competitor has a reputation for sub-par components (they grenade transmissions because they're out of concentricity). Seller even stipulated that he received a "bad-batch" of adapter components the first time, and had to redo some work.
Cut radiator core support and notched for Mercedes radiator/fan
Notched oil pan
Hood bracing and latch removed
Seller also deleted the engine mount pads on the frame and welded in "boxed" engine mounts. This is my biggest concern because if I want to retrofit the Doomsday kit, I would have to re-weld/install the factory engine pads. Not an easy task compared to the bolt-on engine adapters from Doomsday.
It also has a small oil leak at the oil galley plug on the back of the motor, common on these OM617 engines (Similar to where the Toyota 2F engines leak at the Welch fittings).
Bascially, it's probably more work now to get the truck exactly the way I want it than it would be if I were starting with a stock 4Runner.
But what do you guys think? Should I be scared off by the swap? Or ignore my OCD and take advantage of an OM617 swapped 4Runner at a great price?
I can always swap the Doomsday bellhousing adapter (the component from the competitor that leads to transmisison failures) on this truck and keep driving it and modifying it along the way.
