Builds White Lightning's Diesel Conversion - A 1994 T100 OM606 swap (2 Viewers)

[Bryan Plunkett]

I went into the harness work a little blind, not really sure what i would and wouldn't need. Some of the circuits I was keeping, like 4wd, starter, a/c etc, tied into the ecu. I gambled that they were just for the ecu to reference and adjust EFI parameters and fortunately I think I was correct b/c everything appears to be working fine without having the OE ecu.

The process started by severely hacking up the stock harness, which was a shame b/c for something 24 years old...this thing was in great shape. I cannibalized a lot of the extra wires to support the harness I had to build.

he had no idea what he was doing

So went the layout process, probably one of the more chaotic workspaces I've let occur. It took roughly 2 full days of cutting and splicing for the sensors alone. I spent a few hours a night before hand finding where the ~30odd wires leads from the stock body harness went.

Starting to get there..finally introducing some loom

Mostly Done. Still need to mount the one dangling mercedes harness connector to the firewall. The relay hanging there mounts to a stud on the air intake shroud, which also kind of helps hide the wiring.

A few general notes on the wiring,

I T'd the Toyota Gauge cluster oil pressure switch in to a port on the oil filter housing along with the sensor for the Autometer gauge that I have yet to mount

The Toyota gauge cluster coolant temp sensor was added to a plug somewhere on the head that I was able to drill and tap.

The DSL1 ecu had 4 configurable outputs which are pretty neat. Right now I have it wired/setup to control the glow plugs, the spal fan based on coolant temp, the boost control solenoid and the last one to switch on the gauge cluster check engine light if it throws and codes of its own. The added an LED in the gauge cluster wired to one of the glow plug wires so I can see whenever they flick on.

The electric lift pump I added is powered off the toyota fuel circuit which used to rely on a signal from the MAF to turn on. This allowed it to shut off in the case of a wreck. Currently I wired this to a switch in the dash, but may look at wiring it to something like oil pressure.

The Alternator was pretty simple, the big wire went to the battery and the small one acts as a ground for the light in the cluster. The other 2 toyota wires weren't needed.

I forgot to grab the mercedes MAP sensor when I was cannibalizing the donor car, so I ended up using a GM 4bar. The DSL1 was very simple to update the config file with the GM sensor scaling.

Wiring worked pretty well overall. It cranked on the first try! It would have started too if I hadn't jacked up loading the firmware to the ecu. Once that was sorted it fired right up

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

I was running in to issues with cyclical turbo action that I can only think has to do with the wastegate. I figured I would try to simplify the system an use a pressure controlled wastegate like every other turbo I've ever seen. I went with a turbosmart wastegate with the 10psi spring for starters. I'll likely add a manual boost controller and use an old AEM solenoid with the DSL1 boost control once I've confirmed this method will work.

I ended up just using the stock wastegate bracket and making an adapter. The rod that came with the turbosmart was too long, and slightly large on diameter so ended up welding on the mercedes actuator rod...which ended up helping me get things to line up best.

Added a port to the intercooler piping. (mercedes vacuum solenoid seen to the left)

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

Ran into what I believe is a thermostat issue was the engine wouldn't get above 70C. The stock thermostat is supposed to be 80C. I added a new thermostat last week and have yet to confirm if it fixed the issue or not. I also ordered some tools to check the injection pump timing as well as the injector spray pattern. The engine makes plenty of power, but is vibrating a bit at idle and smoking like an 80s dump truck. I'm hoping that a purge of the fuel system will help, but I'm guessing the injectors could need a rebuild.

In the meantime I've been working on getting the exhaust longer than the 2ft long "diverter pipe" I've been driving it with. Because the moto of this project is along the lines of "We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard" the exhaust needs to flip from the passenger side to the drivers side. The 93/94 T100s had the gas tank/fuel lines on the passenger side of the truck (I believe in 95 with the intro of the 3.4 they swapped the tank to the drivers side). not wanting to sacrifice any ground clearance, the best option is to fit the 3" pipe through the 3.4" gap between the front driveshaft and the transmission. The pipe will have a hard mounted on the other side of the transmission so that it will move with the engine, I added a flex pipe between the turbo and this point to deal with any thermal stresses as I imagine the exhaust will grow more than the engine/transmission does with heat. I'll likely take a hammer and pipe and try to give myself another 1/4" on the driveshaft side as the front diff is on rubberish mounts. The rubber line seen to the right is the fuel line. iv'e made a metal heat shield (not shown) that I think will keep the heat away. If not I bought some header wrap to add

The heatshield also block these lines

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

Sooner rather than later I'll need to address my driveline situation. As expected the angles I've got are causing an issue. At this point I believe it is only in the 17-25mph range, after which it goes away (I've only taken it up to 65mph).

If any driveline gurus want to chime in it would be much appreciated. my plan of attack...which will likely involve driving it as is for awhile, is to cut the crossmember where the center support bearing is, and slide it up ~1" or so to get my angle at the transmission output U-joint closer to 3. incase the picture labeling is confusing, right now the trans output flange is 3.4° down from horizontal, so the U joint is operating at 12.5°-3.4°= 9.1°.

Picture to better show the crossmember. For reference I've gotten into this predicament as the transmission came back 5" and upwards about 1" to fit everything

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

Figured now that I got some miles on it it was time to add the sticker..hopefully I didn't jinx anything.

I've been struggling to come up with locations to mount the gauges, seeing as there aren't any T100 specific A pillar mounts out there and I didn't want to screw anything into the dash. I was happy with how the egt gauge mount came out. I removed the OE clock...because lets be real who is using the clock in their car all that much. I set the gauge, made a little backing plate, and potted it in place. I added a light coating of grease to the gauge before potting it incase i need to remove it from the potting compound in the future. Not show car...but functional.

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

Finally got the exhaust to a close to done state. I won't run the last bend until I finish the body lift on the bed so that I can tuck it up tight. Its a full 3" from the turbo back, with 2 flex sections and all Vband connections. Making the cross to the driverside was a pain but definitely worth it. It is just a straight pipe for now...and decently quiet due to the small turbo. I may end up adding a muffler in at some point.

Here are a few pictures

Front section

Rear Section

 

[anothernord]

Nice work on the exhaust fab and wiring harness!

Are you concerned that the Toyota starter circuit has enough amperage capability to handle the beefy Mercedes starter?

Got any pictures of the port for the oil pressure switch?

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

Nice work on the exhaust fab and wiring harness!

Are you concerned that the Toyota starter circuit has enough amperage capability to handle the beefy Mercedes starter?

Got any pictures of the port for the oil pressure switch?

thanks, reallllyyyy happy to be done with those two items. As for the starter wiring, I used a thick gauge (00?) to route from the battery to the starter. I have no intention of endlessly cranking this thing, so I doubt I'll see any issues. I can double check what wire gauge I actually used if it'd be helpful.

As for the oil pressure switch. See below picture. The Large sensor on the Tee (look for the stainless braided line coming from the oil filter housing,) is for the autometer gauge and the small one is the toyota switch that controls the cluster indicator. If you zoom in you can see the yellow wire that grounds the switch to the body (the toyota cluster indicator is wired hot and relies on the switch to ground out when it doesn't get pressure). It is typically screwed into the block which is grounded.

hope that helps.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Excellent work all around Bryan. I'm happy to see the swap was a success and that you're ble to drive it around. Keep up the good work and keep us updated.

 

[Zorlac]

Outstanding!



are you using just the primary fuel filter?

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

Outstanding!



are you using just the primary fuel filter?

thanks!

it's got the Toyota pickup screen/sock in the tank, a ~100 micron pre lift pump filter, and then the standard Mercedes fuel filter before the IP

 

[Motohead1]

You might want to pull that sock out of the tank next time your in there. Diesel tends to clog them and cause problems after a while.

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

It's been awhile since I've done an update, been pretty busy on the truck though. I lost the before pictures unfortunately, but here are some of the rear half of the frame getting painted. I'll be going back at some point to get behind the tank and to remove the rear axle to paint it, so those were left in place this time around

I went over it first with the air chisel to remove the big rust flakes, imo this is critical on heavily rusted parts as the wire wheel doesn't get the big chucks off. Next I hit it with the wire wheel, then the degreaser, wash, rust converter, wash. Then it got 2 coats of the Rust bullet base and then 2 coats of the rust bullet black shell. (incase u missed the post earlier in this thread...I like this product way more than the POR-15 that I used on another project).

I ended up going for a 1 piece driveshaft from Tom woods. I was hesitant on a one piece shaft due to the length, but after talking to Tom he seemed confident it would be ok at the driveshaft speeds I'd be seeing (~3500rpm at 70mph). It's 3.5" tubing and 62.81" long incase anyone was curious. This required me to notch and brace the cross member where the old center support bearing was.

Here is the driveshaft installed as well as some support blocks for the 2" body lift. IMO standard body lifts cut alot of corners and leave the bed unsupported. Since I actually use this as a truck and not a mall crawler I wanted to make sure the bed was supported. The aluminum tubing is bolted down to the frame and is in addition to the 8 body lift pucks.

Finally no more gap between the cab and bed! I think a 1" lift would have been more ideal, but i still like the look of it, the truck always sat too low. Current tires are ~30.5"...may look at some 33" to lower the engine/driveshaft rpm on the highway. As it sits now I only use first gear for creeping around, the engine gets through the current gears a bit too quick, so new gearing and/or tires is needed. Looks like 4.10s are the highest I can get for the front diff (rear is common to tundras so I can go was higher there).

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

Made some close outs for the front and rear out of some rubber I got off Mcmaster. I'd recommend this as it was alot cheaper than than paying for something that probably won't fit from performance accessories. (I bought a performance accessories body lift and didn't use a single thing out of it).

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

The single piece rear driveshaft I got is a double cardon type so the rear diff needed to be pointed upwards to match the driveshaft angle, or within 1° of it. Toytec sells a 3° steel zinc coated shim that comes with new longer bolts. I think it says its for a toyota pickup instead of a t100...but it fits. The U-bolt nuts were a part of the U bolts so they had to be cutoff. At least now if I do anything with the spring pack I can at least unbolt it.

so unfortunately, I still have a vibration... I jacked up the rear wheels this morning and put it in gear. Sure enough there looks like the driveshaft has a wobble to it. TBD if this is normal or not

With the body lift completed...another small win was had by finishing the exhaust.

no "diesel bro" tip on it for now

An important note for anyone else doing a swap...the noise through the airfilter from this turbo is UNGODLY loud if using an open element filter. From early pictures you might remember I made an Aluminum intake tube that put the filter back by the firewall. On the highway it sounds like a jet on an aircraft carrier about to take off. I moved the filter away from the firewall a little as shown below and this helped some, but I think I need to use an oem style plastic box installed near where the battery currently is to keep the noise out of the cabin. I think part of the reason is this is such a little turbo...starting to envy others who have swapped to something a little larger.

Currently working on a mount for the battery that will put it back by the firewall.

Also received some new monarch nozzles to rebuild the injectors with, hopefully this fixes the smoke and slight miss i'm getting at startup.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Very nice Bryan, I like the finished exhaust. Your smoking issue is likely a leaky injector just piddling away through the whole injection cycle. Or at least thats what I hope.

I know what you mean about that little KKK K14 turbo, the thing is a little screamer with an open element filter, mine was nearly at the radiator and I could hear it in the cab quite well.

As for your post over on my thread, I haven't had a chance to drive it around much due to all of the little mods I've been doing...or attempting; but I haven't noticed any drone. It's actually quite quiet for a 3" with no muffler and the FTE resonator adds a nice tone to what is heard. As for mounts, I utilized all of the stock rubber isolators on my land cruiser. I made sure to make new mounts on the exhaust to utilize them. It seems to have very little movement which is good for areas where the exhaust was really tight between the cab and chassis. Keep up the good work man. Impressive build.

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

Very nice Bryan, I like the finished exhaust. Your smoking issue is likely a leaky injector just piddling away through the whole injection cycle. Or at least thats what I hope.

I know what you mean about that little KKK K14 turbo, the thing is a little screamer with an open element filter, mine was nearly at the radiator and I could hear it in the cab quite well.

As for your post over on my thread, I haven't had a chance to drive it around much due to all of the little mods I've been doing...or attempting; but I haven't noticed any drone. It's actually quite quiet for a 3" with no muffler and the FTE resonator adds a nice tone to what is heard. As for mounts, I utilized all of the stock rubber isolators on my land cruiser. I made sure to make new mounts on the exhaust to utilize them. It seems to have very little movement which is good for areas where the exhaust was really tight between the cab and chassis. Keep up the good work man. Impressive build.

thanks man, yea i think you are right on the injector. Funny thing is I just sent them along with some new monark nozzles to get rebuilt. The person rebuilding them ran into some issues with the New monark nozzles sticking and not firing right (in short). They ended up just getting put back together with cleaned original nozzles, and shimmed to meet the pop pressure, or so I'm told. I just ran them this weekend and even after ~100 miles they're smoking way worse than before....so long story short if anyone has a good reliable source for monark nozzles and a recommendation on a place to rebuild them I'm all ears. That said after this experience I'm leaning towards building my own pop tester.

 

[Bryan Plunkett]

Been awhile since an update. Here's the latest work,

Finally got all the gauges mounted. There are no actual T100 specific gauge mounts so I got a little creative with some off the shelf stuff for the boost, egt and oil pressure. I didn't want to lose the grab handle or mess up the top of the dash so I ended up with the below layout. The oil pressure gauge is actually pretty easy to see through the gap in the steering wheel. it works well for quick checks as I get more comfortable with the om648 pump setup. Today was the first day with it in there and I'm only seeing 45-50 at 2500rpm which seems a little lower than I'd expect.

Finally boxed in the crossmember I clearanced for the single piece driveshaft. it has an extra 1/8" plate on the top as well. It's likely not as strong as the unmodified piece...but I imagine it's good enough

Picked up some 4runner trail edition wheels (and tires) locally. Can't decide if I'm sold on the look yet, they look great on the 4runners for sure, but they might be a little flashy for me. nonetheless the street tires are so much better than the BFG all terrains as far as smoothness and noise.

Perhaps the best update for drive ability was the addition of a Flowmaster Super 50 muffler. This greatly reduced the resonance in the cab of the truck. here's a back to back sound clip between the two.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

thanks man, yea i think you are right on the injector. Funny thing is I just sent them along with some new monark nozzles to get rebuilt. The person rebuilding them ran into some issues with the New monark nozzles sticking and not firing right (in short). They ended up just getting put back together with cleaned original nozzles, and shimmed to meet the pop pressure, or so I'm told. I just ran them this weekend and even after ~100 miles they're smoking way worse than before....so long story short if anyone has a good reliable source for monark nozzles and a recommendation on a place to rebuild them I'm all ears. That said after this experience I'm leaning towards building my own pop tester.

I'm skeptical that the shop actually shimmer the injectors back to factory spec. You can get new injectors for about $100 each. Honestly that's probably the route I'd go. However, Portland Diesel Fuel injection services is supposed to be a very reputable shop and they were the best quote price wise when I was looking to have the injectors on the old motor rebuilt. As far as monarch nozzles go, I can't help there. Also, Redding injection in Redding California is supposed to be pretty good too and very reasonable.

 

[AirheadNut]

A couple of years ago I rebuilt the injectors in my OM617 G-Wagon using Monark nozzles and a pop tester I bought from MercedesSource.com
It was a really simple process and a lot of fun. I was able to balance the injectors to within 30 psi of each other. The main issue is keeping everything clean. I did the work on a sheet of stainless that I cleaned with brake parts cleaner and a lint-free rag.