But if you are talking about cost savings after a diesel swap, it takes a long time for it to add up. Let's say you drive your cruiser 20k miles a year, which is waaaayyyy more than most 20+yr old cruiser owners do. Not all...but most.
Gasoline 3FE
20,000miles/12mpg=1666.67 gallons of fuel x $3.40=~$5600 a year
Cummins 4BT
20,000miles/20mpg=1000 gal fuel x $4= $4000 a year.
My 3FE on my older 62 was getting 14-15mpg pretty frequently, but most on the road get less. And it seems like most diesel guys are getting about 20mpg on average depending on driving style, terrain, and tires/gearing.
$1600 a year is pretty good! But that will take 5yrs just to recoup the added costs of a $1OK engine swap vs a 2F or 3FE rebuild of a couple thou or so. Most likely it will take longer than that time frame to recoup, purely from fuel savings. The money savings argument is valid, but only over the long term. And it seems like $10k soup to nuts on a Cummins swap is probably the minimum if doing all the work yourself, correct (to those who have done it)?
The quicker, more tangible difference is definitely range. And mechanical diesels are legendary for reliability, ease of repair, etc.
i dont want to sound like i'm patronizing in any form, however, everything you said above is in agreement with my first post except for two statistics: - - - (keep in mind i said that diesel swaps have
often surpassed ones projected budget/expectations, mostly due to improper/inadequate preparation.)
1) 10k diesel swap. if youre spending 10k on a diesel swap, youre doing it because
a) you want it to remain all toyota
b) you are ill informed/didnt do homework on the options available in the form of swap candidates and their availability/abundance
c) you have copious amounts of money and want to do it your way only
d) all of the above
2) 20 mpg. . . .
a) I
average 20 mpg in my 7500 lb pickup truck (its decently setup for mileage, i got 21-23 with small injectors), so 25+ mpg in a 5000 lb landcruiser is not out of the question
b) ive seen first hand an old brick f250 that i built with a 4bt/5 speed achieve 26-27 mpg average with 285's, ported everything, 40 horse injectors, ve pump w/ fuel pin and timing bump, and hx30. that truck weighs 5800#, and is noteworthy that it is turning the factory 8 lug 4x4 gear.
all that being said, ill never say over the internet that someone isnt getting horrible (relatively speaking) mileage with their particular setup. however, i will always cite my personal experience and knowledge gained through said experience to suggest to others what is possible with the right homework/setup. a run of the mill 4bt off craigslist is 1500-2500. an expensive (often p pump) 4bt is 2500-4k. a 4bt can be had for much less if patient enough to find one in a boneyard ( ~5-750 from u-pick, u-pull) or almost free if crafty enough to teardown a bread truck for the motor, and scrap the rest. there are soooooooo many other options out there, aside from the 4bt, that we could talk about for days and still not accurately represent all of the potential swap candidates and how to get them cheaply (isuzu, hercules, 6at, cummins 3.3, perkins). its worth noting, anything IDI will get worse mileage, DI and turbo will net the best overall results.
with the motor cost out of the way, how much is it to finish the job? adapters, wiring (or lack thereof), metal fabbing, fuel lines, misc - - -1k? 2k!? 3k!?!?!? even at 3k (an outrageous figure) we still arent close to the 10k even with the most expensive 4bt candidate. subtract the cost of a 2f rebuild (and the "misewell mods" associated with that) or even more, a 3fe, and we further narrow the gap. you just cant beat the thermal efficiency of a diesel vs a gas motor.
