Diesel truck alternatives

[Hughlysses]

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Before I found out about Mahindra, I did quite a bit of research on small diesel pickups. There are some other alternatives, but unfortunately they're going to require considerable time, effort, and mechanical skills.

Older diesel small trucks have been mentioned here, including Toyotas, Datsuns (now Nissan), Mazda, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, and even the Ford Ranger. Unfortunately the newest of these trucks were produced in ~1985. Most are non-turbo with low power, and of course a 1985 pickup's not going to have many of the amenities we've grown used to over the past ~25 years.

A lot of people have made their own small diesel trucks by swapping in various engines. Among the popular engine choices are the Cummins 4BT, the Cummins 3.3BT, the Mercedes OM617, and various VW TDI's.

The Cummins 4BT has been used in small trucks, but it's far better suited to a full size truck due to its weight of around 800 lbs. These engines are basically a 4 cylinder version of the 6 cylinder used in many 3/4 ton and up Dodge pickups, and they're readily available from wrecked or discarded bread vans. There's a lot of info on hot-rodding these engines and they can easily produce over 200 HP and 300 ft-lbs of torque.

The Cummins 3.3BT is a newer design engine and IIRC is actually someone else's engine built under license by Cummins. They are harder to find than the 4BT's but they are smaller and lighter. Info on hot-rodding these engines is a little harder to come by. IIRC, they're available in ~85 HP and 120 HP variants and can be purchased new.

The Mercedes OM617 is a 5 cylinder turbo diesel used in Mercedes 300D cars. Evidently these engines routinely last well over 300,000 miles, have decent power and could provide over 30 MPG in a ~4500 lb Mercedes sedan. They're a good fit for many small trucks and aren't too hard to find.

The VW TDIs are well-suited to many small trucks and they're available in many varieties. The newer the engine the more complex the swap due to the electronics used in recent years.

Another popular source of diesel conversions is to import diesel engines used in foreign models of trucks sold in the U.S. These are available for Toyotas and Nissans. At least one business specializes in purchasing and importing entire front clips from these trucks so that the engine and all supporting accessories can be swapped to the receiving truck. Unfortunately these are NOT cheap to do, costing around $8k for just the imported front clip.

Here are a couple of forums with good info on diesel swaps:

The 4BT Swaps forum concentrates on the Cummins 4BT, but includes info on the 3.3BT, the OM617, TDI's, and many other more obscure diesel engines:

Cummins 4BT & Diesel Conversions Forums - Powered by vBulletin

There are some really good conversions covered on the site; my main complaint is the majority of the conversions involve 4 wheel drive trucks intended for SERIOUS off-road usage. The threads as a result tend to provide more information on suspension modifications, body lifts, oversize wheels and tires, etc. than they do on the diesel engine installation.

The TDI Forum includes a section on TDI engine swaps here:

TDI Conversions - TDIClub Forums

Google turns up many other diesel truck forums, most of which have sections on diesel conversions.

The major challenge I see to a diesel conversion is there are virtually no ready made conversion kits out there; all of the swaps I've seen require quite a bit of engineering which would beyond the abilities of many of us. Of course, depending on where you live and the emissions laws there, a diesel conversion may be impractical or impossible.

If anyone else has any resources or has thought about a diesel conversion themselves, please post up.

[Andy]

I love having a forum full of diesel heads. This is a great article. Thank you for taking the time to write it. With the price of a new vehicle, it does seem like a guy could take their favorite small pickup, and do an engine swap.

Again, thank you for posting this great information and merry Christmas!

[gomjabber]

Any of you diesel heads know much about the two Jeep offered a few years ago?
You can still find Libertys and Grand Cherokees with low miles.
Can't say I ever heard much of anything good about the diesel liberty (Italian source of some type?) and I have heard nothing about the Mercedes sourced 3liter in the Grand Cherokee.
Just curious what you all have heard about them.

[Hughlysses]

GJ- I have never heard much good about the Liberty diesel either. Neither the power nor the mileage is very impressive. I do seem to recall reading there are some simple aftermarket mods that will improve both. I have read good things about the 3 liter V-6 diesel in the Grand Cherokee. A guy on a motorcycle forum I frequent has one and he swears by it.

[Hughlysses]

GJ- I found a very interesting post about the Liberty diesel on another forum today. Cross-posted below for info:

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The Italian VM 2.8L 4-cyl in the Liberty is a fantastic little motor, saddled with Chrysler's usual half-assed, band-aid emissions controls, and even more worthless automatic transmission (no manual was offered ). Stock, they average mid-20s mpg, and the plastic torque convertor will not make 50,000 miles.

However, the mid-20s mpg is still almost double what the wheezy minivan-based gas V6 can manage, and the 295 ft/lbs of torque is only 40 shy of their 5.9L V8... meaning it's a towing maniac.

Defeating the EGR, adding a 3" exhaust, and putting in a Suncoast TC will transform the Liberty: 30mpg is easily obtained, the power increase is very noticeable, and now you can actually use that pulling power without the tranny grenading.

When Chrysler test-marketed the CRD Liberty, they sold almost twice what they expected to. But of course, Big Oil special interests can't have a bunch of efficient diesels running around the US in place of gas-hog V6 & V8s, so the emissions standards for diesel NOx (only in light duty trucks & cars) got bumped to insure that wouldn't happen.

I've made my local Jeep dealer and Chrysler customer service painfully aware of the fact that I won't buy a 4-door Wrangler until it comes with the CRD & 6-speed manual trans, just like it does in the rest of the world. Until then, I'll keep my Xterra.

[gomjabber]

Interesting post, thanks. I have always been intrigued by the CRD liberty but afraid of the chrysler wrapper.
The 4 door wrangler with a crd and 6 speed would put me in a dealership tomorrow. Honestly. But I don't want the 3.8 liter that is in there now.

[tboydva]

I've had an '05 CRD liberty since 05 and aside from a few minor issues, I've been very happy with it. Mileage isn't spectacular - however, folks forget that this is a very solid and heavy vehicle. The engine runs very well as long as you routinely clean the MAF (or MAP, I forget) sensor which gets gummed up with carbon. There are various mods which I haven't taken advantage of. I've spent many hours on the Liberty CRD forum reading horror stories - but so far have been lucky to get a good one. For me (and my family), it's been a great vehicle. We have dealt with the occasional "limp mode" which is a pain, but so far has only required a stop, engine shut off, wait 10 seconds, then restart. From my memory this boils down to a computer issue.

Our needs were a reliable vehicle with 4WD capabilities (for the occasional snow, and worse, freezing rain we get in the DC area) and towing capacity. I have a boat and a trailer and I can say that the weight of this vehicle coupled with the CRD makes one of the finest towing rigs I've driven. I have had Dodge Cummins and Ford Powerstroke full size pickups and of course they make you forget you have something in tow. But for a family utility vehicle with reasonable fuel economy, the Liberty CRD is a towing dream.

Right now, our "other" vehicle is a '99 Mercedes E300D which is a dream to drive, but not terribly utilitarian. Like most here, I'm a total dieselhead, so I'm looking to replace the Mercedes with a diesel pickup. The Mahindra seems like a good bet. I miss having a pickup bed to throw stuff in. Let's hope it arrives sometime soon!

[blue7.3]

Diesel Power Magazine did an article on this engine in a Grand Cherokee maybe a year ago. They installed a custom exhaust in it w/ the promise of more to come as the equipment was designed. They had good things to say about the engine.
-pete

[Andy]

Originally Posted by blue7.3

Diesel Power Magazine did an article on this engine in a Grand Cherokee maybe a year ago. They installed a custom exhaust in it w/ the promise of more to come as the equipment was designed. They had good things to say about the engine.
-pete

I LOVE Diesel Power Magazine. I used to have a subscription but it finally ran out last year.

[Hughlysses]

Chrysler evidently seriously considered offering the Liberty diesel in a kit so that it could be swapped into other Jeeps. Too bad that never came about. I'd imagine it could be adapted to a small truck (especially a Dodge) fairly easily:

Jeep to offer diesel engine retrofit kit using 2.8 CRD four cylinder? — Autoblog Green