All right, I may have some excellent news. Recall how I had posted earlier that the 4JB1-T would NOT bolt right in? It appears, for now, that I was incorrect. Sometimes, it feels pretty damn good to have been wrong.

I've just finished bolting the engine into the truck, using the frame brackets and mount pads/isolators (the rubber part) that came with the diesel. This was meant to simply be a test fit, to see how everything lined up and what needed to be modified. Well, the engine went in just like it was from the factory! This should allow enough room for the fan to clear the radiator in the front, and it fits in the bay just fine. The heater hoses and A/C lines even match up!

This mounting will place the rear edge of the block about 2" rearward of where the rear edge of the gas block was located. This, in turn, should move the transmission rearward by the same amount, which means the crossmember mount will have to move back about 2".

Still with me? Good, because here's where it gets interesting. Upon inspection of the crossmember (it was still attached to the old transmission until this afternoon, when I had time to get it torched off - mount bolt was spinning and not backing out), and on JLEMOND's suggestion, there are another set of mount holes I hadn't noticed. Only these are forward of the holes used for the gas engine. Sounds bad, right? Hold on, the crossmember looks like it's symmetrical - there's even a front driveshaft indent on both sides, and holes for the bash guard on the front and rear!

Well, if the crossmember is rotated 180 degrees so that the previously unused holes are now at the rear of the truck, the other holes are about 2" farther back than the gas mount holes (I measured from the most forward outer mount bolt center to the transmission mount hole rough center with the crossmember in both positions, stock and 180 degrees rotated, to come up with this difference. The transmission mount holes themselves are about 3" apart, but since the unused holes are on an asymmetrical outcropping, this seemed the only way to measure. See the photos on my site...). According to my measurements, this thing should bolt right in! The driveshafts will have to be modified, but that should be all.

This is still all a very good guess at this point, but I've been shocked at how well the engine fits and am feeling optimistic. I'll try a test fit of the transmission and crossmember soon and post the results.

I'll be posting detailed photos on my site to illustrate this, as it's rather hard to describe, but it looks very favorable.

As usual, more later ...