I've been trying to figure out when I did the first swap into the D50, probably 93ish. I bought the 85 D50 4wd in 89. I redid the swap into the 87 Montero in the late 90's, using the same engine and wiring and such, but I changed the pan to the montero pan (the dent in the side to clear the front diff is different) and installed the truck oil pump and pickup instead of the starion pump. I freshened the main and rod bearings with new ones, and swapped on the a/t flexplate and spacers and such from the truck. So I've done the m/t and a/t swaps in the pickup and the swb.

I think Charlie may have been the first one. I thought up mine on my own, having noted that the conquest donor had a 4g54 motor and guessing I could make it work. I had to have both shop manuals and lots of time tracing out wiring and tearing apart harnesses before I got it to work, but I was trying to transplant the cruise control over, too. I even have the old starquest fuse panel in the truck in addition to the truck panel.