Yeah walking away sure helps sometimes. I think the only reason I am as far along as I am is because mine is 20 miles away from home and I can only work on it on the weekends. Gives me time to stratagize the next attack. And to let the busted knuckles heal <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the morale boost guys. I appreciate it. Heh, the only way I can keep my brain around this one is to take the approach you suggest, focus on one system at a time. Crossmembers for now (I forgot to mention, the suspension (front) crossmember makes contact with the oil pan too, so that will get finessed in time- just a little bit), then I'll pick my next sub-project after that.

In my planning my course of action for the crossmember, I have come to realize that I can't convert the transmission to a mechanical speedo as the transmission has it's own ECU and needs the electric speed input to figure out what it's doing. So, I'll eventually figure out a speedo to work with what I have, or buy a GPS

With all that said, for anyone that is considering taking on this conversion, I highly recommend sticking with the MT and not bother with the AT. The Auto trans Bighorns seem to be a little more plentiful, but lead to a more difficult situation, potentially.

Paul

The oil pan hits, too? That's a shame, I had no idea of the differences between the engines. I guess you'll be pioneering this one for everybody else...

Any way to use the speedometer from a 92+ Trooper (I assume these are electronic units)? Or modify parts of that system to work in your vehicle?

Well, the oil pan "leans heavily" on the crossmember I have the crossmember out now. It should be as simple as trimming the stamped seam and welding a small brace across the affected area. Not too bad.

I think the post-91 body style is longer wheel base, so things just don't line up well for the 91 and earlier body style. You're lucky as your motor came from a 91 or earlier donor.

For the 4JG2's, to avoid the challenges I'm facing, the solution would be to use a 92 or later body.

In hind sight, that's what I'd have done, but then I'd be missing out on my hornets nest of challenges

For the speedo, I need to look at a newer one and see if there's a way to use a newer one in mine. I'm inept when it comes to making interior stuff look good, so if it isn't bolt in, I will end up paying someone to make a decent mounting shell.

I'm pretty sure the short term answer will be a GPS.

There is the nagging question for me: How hard would it be to source the bellhousing, flywheel and related clutch pieces to mate my old 5 speed to the AT I have? I don't think I want to really do that, but the question keeps rattling around in my head...

Paul

Concerning the possibility of using the manual transmission, the first contact I would make (after getting a parts list together, of course) would be to email the outfit that sold me my hood scoop. They were more than willing to ship to the US, which is more than I can say for the other suppliers I contacted.

Thanks Adrian, I'll keep that in mind. Hopefully the AT will work out for me.

A little bit of an update: I haven't dealt with the transmission crossmember yet but I did take care of the PS and AC hoses. Turns out that my original hoses all work with the PS pump and AC compressor that came with the motor.

The one bit of fabrication I had to do was cut the steel pressure line on my Trooper and then re-flare it as the PS pump is on the opposite side as my original was. Not bad, no hoses had to be fabricated.

I also measured the front driveshaft that came with the diesel and it appears to be the proper length. So, maybe another easy step in this process. I have to take care of the crossmember to be 100% sure, but it really looks good.

For my brake lines, I pulled them to the side of where my exhaust down pipe will need to be. (remember I had some interference issues with them). Question: How far do I need brake lines to be from the exhaust manifold. 4 inches, 6 inches, more? I'm trying to figure out if I can bend these out of the way in place or if I need to make whole new ones (providing me with lots of clearance). I just don't know how much heat to expect from it.

I finally opened the box of stuff that came with the motor. The box was probably a 3foot cube. It was almost all the wiring harness and computers from the donor vehicle. There is a lot of wire there. They really included everything from the donor - I'm impressed. I've set it aside for now though. The electrical will be my last piece of this puzzle.

That's it for this week. I'm working on my mock-ups of my transmission brackets. Hopefully I'll be able to have them welded up this weekend.

Paul

Ah some good news. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

For the brake lines....I'd think 3 or 4 inches would be suffecient. If you wanted you could wrap the down pipe with something like THIS. This stuff works well. I had a Mustang that starters kept commiting suicide on. Wrapped up the headers with this and no more problems.

A little more progress today. Before this engine showed up, I took an educated gamble based on other forums I had read and ordered a timging belt from Isuzu (#8943806790) and they were able to order it for me. Today I took off the timing belt cover and luckily that is the same number as the belt that's on there. So, if you need a timing belt, at least one with that number, you can get one from Isuzu. It was more expensive that what Anthony bought. I paid $150 and I think his was condiderably less, even shipped from UK. Just an option. That all went pretty smooth.

I also pulled the fuel tank today. I need to remove the petrol fuel pump. My quandry now is what to replace it with so I'll be able to use the full tank of fuel. (I'm haven't taken the pump assembly out just yet and am assuming I'll need to add a little lenght to the pickup based on research I had done for Toyotas). Adrian, what did you do for this? Your Trooper was originally petrol, no?

Still waiting on getting the transmission brackets made. Hopefully this week.

That's it for today.

Paul

Paul --

That is interesting news on the timing belt. I assume you ordered it from an Isuzu (car) dealer based solely on the part number? In the US? I had not thought of doing that, and I think our engines use the same belt. Following this logic, can any other diesel parts be ordered by-the-numbers, as it were?

For the fuel tank pickup, I've got some photos on my site detailing what I did to modify it. See here , first post on the page.
I can get the part number of the Carter sock filter I used if you would like it - it's -5* now and I need to do work for school, but I could grab it tomorrow night (it's somewhere in the garage).

Yes, it was a US car dealer (Auburn, WA) that I ordered the belt from. It sounds like they might be able to help with many of the parts if we just have the number to go off of. It wasn't something they had on the shelf, but they ordered it from a Chicago wharehouse and it was here in a week.

I also talked to a local marine dealer that sells Isuzu parts and they seemed very confident they could do the same. They actually had the 4JG2 and 4JB1 in their catalog, but not for our specific application. So, a potential source of parts.

Thanks Adrian, guess I had missed that page on your site. Please do dig up the part number when you get a chance. I appreciate it.

Paul