There is a Japanese engine importer down in Atlanta or somewher near there that has half-cuts of Japanese Domestic market Hilux TD pickups with the 1KZ-TE 3.0 liter diesel. A half-cut gets you the whole front half of the vehicle for only $5800, and therein lies the rub. Most Toyota 4x4 hackers (like me) will find that a bit too rich for their budget. At first $800 for a VW TDI motor seems more in line with the budget ethos of "Early Toyota Trucks". Of course just as with a Chevy 4.3 swap, once you ad up all the bits and pieces you need in addition to the donor motor you are right up at $4000. The half-cut saves you from having to search for much of what you need including the motor, bellhousing, transmission, engine wiring harness, dash harness, computer, radiator, motor mounts, ect. The 1KZ-TE is rated at 116 hp and 232 ft.lbs. A chip upgrade is supposed to be able to push it up to 137 hp 290 ft. lbs. I think bigger power is available by stripping out the electronic injection and converting over to mechanical injection and an altered injection pump, but my diesel experience is next to nothing so I can only repeat what I've read in the Toyotadiesel forum.-- Matt

The Ross-Tech stuff is awesome, I had a VAG-COM setup when I had my '96 Jetta.

How bout mass producing those CNC motor mounts! Now we just need someone to make wiring harnesses and all us lazy swappers will be set <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

I'm hanging in for a few more years until daimler chrysler starts putting more diesels into the Jeep series (Liberty, etc).. I'd love to see a 3.0-4.0L Diesel, especially a turbo coupled to manual transmission..

The VW swap is great - there's one guy on pirate who did it so cleanly I'd eat off it, but it's still a little anemic for all that work.

The current Grand Cherokee is said to be available this year with a new Mercedes designed V6 diesel that puts out 376ft lbs torque while keeping emissions low enough for current California regs. Of course Toyota was selling the FJ80 Landcruiser with a 6 cylinder diesel as far back as 1990. The 1HD-FTE displaced 4.2 liters and was rated at 315 ft lbs and easily tweakable to 380 ft lbs. I still think the VW TDI swap is a good one for the mini trucks. It has a lot of support and trial and error already worked out. And after all, Germans invented the diesel. -- Matt

Go for the Toyota diesel... The 1KZ-TE is by all accounts a good motor. Especially if you have a half cut, it will NOT be a hard swap, assuming of course you have the tools and some mechanical ability. My swap is not a 1KZ, and I had no half cut, and even it was not that hard; there is just a lot of little semi-difficult stuff to deal with. You just have to take your time.

so, any update on this vw swap?

How common are diesel toys in Canada? I live in MN, so a road trip wouldn't be out of the question.

Diesels are much more common in the Great White North. However..getting one registered in the States is likely where you will have the issue. Probably not impossible, but much more difficult than the drive North from Mankato <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

T.

There really aren't a lot of them. Some old 2nd gen truck have a small diesel in them and a small few truck imported from Japan have diesels but they command a premium price.

They let you import JDM vehicles into Canada? So you could buy a Nissan Skyline and register it?!! Land of the truely free! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />