Builds The Cummins-Powered 80 Series - Diesel Land-Crusher Build Thread

[Mr Cimarron]

@mryanangel, I certainly agree...research is key. I got the 1993 LC about 18 months ago and have been researching ever since. I always wanted to do the cummins diesel swap, but I was under the impression that it would be a 10K-20K job for a DIY'er. I considered doing a V8 swap, but that has its own set of issues too. Once I started reading up on the Diesel Adapters kit and talking to the guy (Dustin, I presume) over at Diesel Adapters, That was kind of a game changer.

So the general consensus I'm hearing is (and PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong) you WILL get your parts (eventually) and you may have to twist their arm some to make it happen. The actual product is good, but the speed at which it will arrive is pretty atrocious. Also, don't let Duiser do the work for you.

Does that seem right? Slow shipping isn't enormously off-putting, so long as I WILL get the parts. That's the biggest fear I have; getting screwed out of $5K

If you budget in a roundtrip ride to Portland you may get your parts quicker. I think I remember a local getting his stuff much faster. Although I think that goes for any business. The first time I ever called him I got a call back within the hour and he shipped my part out quickly. This was due to being the "first" thermostat housing failure he had seen. Now my calls and emails aren't important anymore.

 

[RockJock82]

I may be hoping on a plane to go collect my parts...

 

[cjmoon]

i remember looking at flights, very frustrating. and i was only dealing with the adapter only. not the kit

 

[Dirty Koala]

@mryanangel, I certainly agree...research is key. I got the 1993 LC about 18 months ago and have been researching ever since. I always wanted to do the cummins diesel swap, but I was under the impression that it would be a 10K-20K job for a DIY'er. I considered doing a V8 swap, but that has its own set of issues too. Once I started reading up on the Diesel Adapters kit and talking to the guy (Dustin, I presume) over at Diesel Adapters, That was kind of a game changer.

So the general consensus I'm hearing is (and PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong) you WILL get your parts (eventually) and you may have to twist their arm some to make it happen. The actual product is good, but the speed at which it will arrive is pretty atrocious. Also, don't let Duiser do the work for you.

Does that seem right? Slow shipping isn't enormously off-putting, so long as I WILL get the parts. That's the biggest fear I have; getting screwed out of $5K

Mostly correct. I would say that the reputation of duiser is based on some shoddy past work and off putting interaction with the cruiser community. Not all their work was bad, I haven't heard of any issues with @Mr Cimarron swap. Keep in mind that the Duiser reputation was all based on the previous ownership (Joel Jones I believe). Duiser is now owned by Dustin...maybe in partnership with others. I personally would believe that the engineer and developer of the kit (Dustin) would most likely be the best suited person to also do these installs.

To put it bluntly, Duiser as it stands now is not the same Duiser that has received the bad reputation. Perhaps a re-brand would be beneficial, along with some increased attention to client communication.

 

[Mr Cimarron]

Mostly correct. I would say that the reputation of duiser is based on spme shodfy past work and off putting interaction with the cruiser community. Not all there work was bad, i havent heard of issues with @Mr Cimarron swap. Keep in mind that reputation was all based on the previous ownership of duiser (Joel Jones I believe). Duiser is now owned by Dustin...maybe in partnership with others. I personally would believe that the engineer and developer of the kit (Dustin) would most likely be the best suited person to also do installs.

To put it bluntly, duiser as it stands now is not the same duiser that has the bad reputation. Perhaps a rebrand would be beneficial.

Correctly put. I haven't had any issues with the actual conversion install work. My conversion was done by Jonesy's prior to the Duiser business being set up. You can still see my install progress videos on the Jonsey's website. I still keep in touch occasionally with great response to any questions or comments I have.
As with many people that make great products, like Dustin, sometime they fail in the customer service department. I wish he would just hire an addition employee to field the calls and help out with the stuff he may not want to take time to do.

 

[Bravo1782]

Ok, awesome. This is the info I need! Thanks Guys! I'll be pulling a cumming engine in early October and ordering the kit at the same time. I've checked the engine out, and it runs solid. I'll be posting pictures of what I've been up to so far this evening.

Also, I've gotten a few comments in a few other threads and I'm going to field the general question they all address: Why take two crappy cruisers and make one good one instead of buying one good land cruiser and building it? Obvious answer: So far I only have a couple hundred bucks in the two cruisers (and I'm in too deep to quit now!).

Less obvious answer: I like the idea of doing this complete from the ground up. Stripping down to the frame, doing all the preventative work to really do it right. I know (more or less) exactly what I want this set up to do, and I want to do it (at least as much of it as is reasonably possible) myself. Frankly, I know it's "more trouble than its worth" but it's fun for me. Yes there are easier ways to do it, but doing it this way, I've got my heart and soul in every part of this build. When all is said and done, it will be my cruiser, through and through.

 

[Dirty Koala]

I'll be pulling a cumming engine in early October

Cummins

 

[Bravo1782]

I mean't what I said.

 

[Bravo1782]

Hey, for anyone that's following my thread, I know I haven't updated in a while. I neeeeed to post the promised pictures, because things are getting interesting. Here's the short version:

1993 White LC: Interior is gone, dash is gone, fenders removed, radiator gone, hood off. Soaking bolts for doors and body mounts. Going to remove the body by the end of the month. Plan is to then remove engine and related items and and prep the frame.

1994 Green LC: Removing all components that would prevent me from lifting it off the bent frame. Going to remove seats and misc interior components

Oh yeah, and I got my cummins. It's a 1996 6BT, ~200k miles, and it ran great. The guy I bought it from was super helpful and even pulled the engine for me (I did volunteer to help, but someone wanted the transmission out of hte donor truck). I'm not planning on doing much performance mod to it, just the killer dowel pin mod. It's dirty, but otherwise in excellent shape.

 

[Bravo1782]

Finally, some pictures! Here's the white LC coming home form PA. Had to rent the trailer and tow it 800 miles, but it was free...so there's that.

Here's a side shot. It looks clean on that side, but the other side is all tore up:

Dropped the spare tire and here's the underside. It looks pretty bad, but the frame really is solid, except for one spot...

Here's the bad spot...the rest, after a thorough inspection, is all solid. Surface rust. The front is in much better shape. The plan was to turn it

Here's the other side (pretty sorry shape):

The plan was to turn it into a Max Max Style 4x4...big tires, low gears, gutted interior (as the interior was totally trashed), exo cage...until this guy came alongicked up this guy for a couple bucks on craigslist. It lived in the south west its entirely life except for a few months that it lived in Iowa before the owner wrecked it.

I must be crazy.

Here's the wrecked corner. Had to go at it with a Sawsall to clear up the damage to see what the condition of the frame was. Spoiler alert! It was bent.

Deep in disassembly. Something satisfying about the amount of wanton destruction going on.

All fenders off! The passanger side inner and outer fender was mint! Not bent at all (somehow).

YOINK!

Ta da!

The frame has gotta go, but the body is in amazing shop. So clean. Next, the white LC Interior..
SHAZAAM!

Naked!

 

[Bravo1782]

Engine Exposed, getting ready for a another YOINK.

In the interim, something followed me home: a 5.9L cummins diesel out of a 1996 Dodge Ram 3500. Suuuuper low miles; ram like a dream when I checked it out.

 

[Bravo1782]

Current Status: Gotta pull the engine from the white LC, pull the body off, prep the frame, clean the diesel engine, do some work to it (not much, KDP kit, clean it up, and paint). Also, I ordered my Diesel Adapters Kit after talking to Dustin for quite a while. I've heard mixed reviews about their service on here, but so far my experience has been spectacular. I'll keep everyone posted on how everything goes with him. I need to de-loom the engine from the green LC for the wiring core. I already have the torque converter out, so that's one less thing to worry about. Gonna be a lot of hard work in the next few weeks. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[hamishpotter]

Great thread so far - you are zooming along, and this puts my tinkering to shame. Keep it up

 

[Bravo1782]

@hamishpotter , don't let the pictures fool you, there were some long gaps in steps. Recently, I've been putting in some long hours though. It started as tinkering too...now it's gone all out! Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[Bravo1782]

Hey Guys, I know it's been a while. Here's a quick update: I've got the frame completely stripped and gutted and ready to prep. The temperatures where I'm at have tanked, so it's too cold to Chassis Saver the Frame. Since winter has hit, all I can do is save up money for next year.

I've also hit the expected roadblock with Diesel Adapters: they have stopped responding to all contact. I've called and e-mailed and left plenty of messages. I filed a dispute with them a few days ago and now I'm waiting for Paypal to handle things. After about 20 days, I'll turn it over to them and let them resolve it. In the interim, has anyone had any contact with Dustin or any of the guys over there?

I don't understand what they're thinking with their business model; they have such a killer product and people WANT to buy it, but their customer service once they have your money suuuuuuuucks.

 

[Stylo07]

It sounds like his website is slightly misleading, and grammatically incorrect (coarse vs course).

"Through the coarse of developing this kit we have had this set of goals in mind-

-Eliminate the chance of the customer ending up with a never-ending project."

 

[Mr Cimarron]

I called for over a month to get a spare thermostat housing with no luck. It took a failure in Moab to get a call back. This was with some help from people who could make things happen with him. I feel for you and hope you get your parts.

 

[Bravo1782]

I don't get it at all...it sounds like they have plenty of people that want their product, but they're terrible at delivering!

@Stylo07 , that's a hilariously frustrating point. The irony, of course, being that the project BECOMES never ending because they never send the parts. :-\

I'm to the point where I've started considering a contingency plan. I've toyed with the idea of tracking down an NV4500, run an AA adapter between the 5.9L and the NV4500, but there's the transfer case issue. If I switch to a part-time TC, I'll have to do an axle swap (I feel like a 5.9L sending all its power to the rear axle is begging for problems). Otherwise, I gotta find some way to make the NV4500 play nice with the HF2A full time TC. All this widely explains the scope of the project

Alternatively, I could change gears to a V8 swap, but I really wanted to run diesel. Besides, at that point, I might as well cut my losses and track down a 100 series.

If Dustin could just get things together, get me my Swap Kit, life would be so easy.

 

[RockJock82]

You could always run the nv4500 to a 60 series split transfer case. I'm still waiting on my parts too... Considering just building a turbo'd LS motor instead. . .

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Just to be clear, you guys say things like "I can't get a hold of anybody at diesel adapters" or " why can't they get there act together" well I have news for you. Diesel adapters and now duiser is a one man show, he has a machine shop in his back yard. It's a very small operation. It's basically from what I can tell Dustin and his 5 year old daughter.

I was very surprised when I stopped in. I got the NV4500 to HF2A adapter but the other parts he said where in stock via e-mail actually miraculously sold out in the one day it took me to get there. I changed plans and am going a different route that eliminates the need for any more of his products.