Putting a Toyota diesel in my Toyota Pickup

[Johnstra]

I have a 92 4x4 Toyota pickup I bought new when I lived in Achorage and I'm converting it to diesel. I bought a half-cut with the engine/transmission combo I wanted. It's a Toyota 1kz-te 4-cylinder engine w/ a 5-speed manual transmission.



First thing I did when I got the clip was get the engine running. Once I figured out how to hotwire the thing, it started right up. Couple of things I'm kinda worried about, though. It has an idle miss that kicks in after the engine has been running for a few minutes. It gradually gets worse as the engine warms up and then it eventually goes away. I suspect I'm getting air in the fuel, but I don't know why the problem goes away when the engine gets up to operating temp. The other thing that's bothering me is I'm worried the engine might have a blowby problem. When I take the oil fill cap off while it's running, I can feel a strong flow of air coming out of it. It's not smoke or vapor, though, just air. I pulled all the air intake plumbing off to check for excess oil (this engine has a closed CCV that routes from the valve cover to the air intake just in front of the turbo. There is only a little bit of oil in the piping - not what I'd expect from an engine with a blowby problem. Oh, and there's no grit or dirt in the intake piping to speak of.



Somebody I talked to said this particular engine is pretty durable but it has a problem with deposits forming on the ring lands. If there is a blowby problem, would it make sense to pull the pistons and clean them and the rings?



The engine has 77k miles on it.



Any thoughts on this problems? I'll be doing a compression test when my test kit comes in. Until then, anything else I should look at? As for the idle miss, I'm going to see if I can find any air leaks. I also bought a new fuel filter that'll go on as soon as it arrives. It's possible the injectors are dirty, so I might try running a strong dose of injector cleaner through the system to see if that helps.



Any input appreciated. Sure keeps me up at night thinking I bought a half-cut with a bad engine in it. Once the thing gets up to operating temp, it sure runs smooth, though.



-john

 

[Johnstra]

Anyone have any suggestions for what might cause my nasty idle miss. I've confirmed that I do have air leaks in the fuel lines, but I eliminated them and verified with clear tubing between the fuel filter and injection pump. Even with no air at all in the input lines I still have this miss. It seems to hit on random cylinders and puffs gray smoke when it coughs.



Any ideas? Bad or dirty injectors maybe?



I did a compression test and all cyliders are pretty even @ around 380 psi.



-john

 

[LMcCary]

white/grey smoke like unburned fuel fog? Not enough fuel, check filter, line restriction, fuel pump etc.

 

[Johnstra]

Cylinder pictures

Here are pictures cylinders 1, 2, and 3. There are some minor scratches on #1 and some rust on #2. Do you guys think this is bad enough for new rings and hone job? Compression is good, but I'm wondering if coolant was causing the miss.





ToyotaConversion_013 - Photo Gallery



ToyotaConversion_009 - Photo Gallery



ToyotaConversion_003 - Photo Gallery



-john

 

[Dieselnut59]

Junk the blowby to the intake system. Eliminate the hose that goes into the intake before the turbo and run it down somewhere to a point below the engine oil pan level. I usually run mine down between the starter and engine block, then terminate them about 4 inches or so below the oil pan to keep residue off the oil pan, bell housing, etc, which might be confused as a leak. Blow by fumes and oil residue built up in the intake system can cause spitting and sputtering. It also decreases the engine's efficiency over time, as the crud builds up in the intake system and on the backs of the intake valves.

Random skipping as you describe could be the settled out intake oil/fume deposits "burning off". Either way, I would eliminate the routing of that crud back to the intake.

 

[WDixon27]

the breather into the intake system also has potential to make the engine run away with a bad enough engine problem, it'll run off the oil mist

 

[Johnstra]

I've already rerouted the CCV. It's now a draft tube just like my Cummins. I've also removed and blocked off the the EGR. The EGR on these little Toyota diesels multiplies the problems caused by the closed CCV system.

-john

 

[Dieselnut59]

How did you come across this engine/trans? Was it out of a wrecked truck from overseas?

I would LOVE to do something similar. On another post on here, I thought about doing something similar with a forklift engine. Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi all build forklifts and use engines like the little trucks run in the rest of the world. Isuzu also makes engines that other forklift manufacturers use. These projects seem like they would be rewarding because you would have a vehicle totally unlike anything available here. I would love to do it, although I have no real NEED for it.

 

[Skydiver]

A reply to Dieselnut59 question.

Nearly 15 years back when I was working part time for a diesel mechanics shop we had this Mexican man come through wanting to buy any medium of heavy truck he could find. He would take trucks that were running and cut the frame off just behind the cab thus making 2 pieces. He was paying way more than scrap metal prices. These trucks were headed to the ports for a ride to another country. May have been c u b a.

 

[Johnstra]

The feds have made it much harder - and by extension more expensive - to buy diesel front-cuts, but they can still be found. If you dig around you can find various places that sell different engines that can be transplanted into a truck. What kind of engine you go with is largely driven by your skill set. My welding and fabrication skill are weak, so I'm not going to try something that takes a bunch of frame/body fabrication to fit an engine and mate it to any old transmission. I needed a matched engine/transmission that I knew would fit in my Toyota truck, so I just found a Japanese market engine/transmission. I'm doing it basically for fun; I don't need it either.

-john