Diesel Conversion

[JZeldorado]

i love the vx machine. i am going to buy a vx and change engine to a diesel. i have been researching the project only to find trooper swaps. i would like to keep the auto trans as they have there advantages. i would cchange to a standard if necessary. is there anyone out there who has done this, or knows someone who has, could they please have them contact me. in particular i need to know the distance from the transmission forward to the farthest point on the cooling fan in the gas model. in the trooper(there are diesels) changes had to be made front of the waterpump. any help, and direction will be rewarded. thanks JZeldorado.

[Maugan_VX]

the engine is the same as the trooper.

why would you want to convert to diesel?

buy a VX with a blown motor if you do that. Don't ruin a perfectly good engine.

[Joe_Black]

I'm planning on doing this with the two VX's we have and have been looking at the 3.0 and 3.1 intercooled turbo-diesels as used in domestic and European market Troopers. Pretty much a drop-in replacement, although the latest version of the 3.1 has an ECU which means some harness integration may be in order.

For tuning the diesels look at the Australian Trooper forums, they've been getting quite a bit out of these engines. Diesels have a tremendous capacity for power output and will run until they melt down. I seriously believe that the VX could turn quarter-mile times in the very low teens with diesel power. Not to mention Isuzu makes the worlds best diesels.

The best part is that we've begun putting together a biodiesel processor which means our net cost for fuel will be less than $1 a gallon for a domestic clean running fuel that's better for the engine, economy and environment.

What I've found so far is good, but pricey availability from the UK (mostly with 5-speed trannys) and have also been turned onto Poland as a better source. I'm also looking into a Jamaican Isuzu connection and hope to have more info over the next couple weeks. If I can get a good package price (engine + transmission) I'll share what I learn with the group.

[blacksambo]

While diesels offer so many great statistics (fuel economy, etc) what they seem to lack is a positive tactile senation and a genral lack positive throttle response. I was just in italy driving a very current diesel specimen, and every time I stomped on the accelerator it just left me feeling flat and unsatisfied. Until this "vagueness" type quirk is ironed out of all diesels, I think to do this type of to conversion to a VX would be an agregious crime against the intent of vehicle's original design purpose. Remember, the JDM's were only 3.2's versus the U.S.'s 3.5 to help enhance the gas-type of throttle resonse magic I just mentioned.

[raver_boi_88]

yeah but one of the fastest trucks in the world is a diesel, It can be made faster and more throttle response just from the switch of ecu's, it just depends on how much you want to spend...

[Joe_Black]

Americans in general have a very dim view of diesels as whole based mostly on sheer ignorance and ill-concieved bias. Your average citizen takes television as gospel, and last time I paused to consider the tube there wasn't anyone talking diesel. Many here are still smarting over GM's diesel-converted 305 that spontaneously self-destructed in many Oldsmobiles and the lackluster performance of miserly VW Rabbits sold en masse during the last fuel crunch.

Now, the Italian ride mentioned previously was almost certainly a normally aspirated economy car. So of course it left you feeling flat. I've got an '82 Mercedes 300D Turbo with a manual tranny and that thing scoots. And I haven't even turned up the injector pump yet, which would turn that 2-ton sled into an actual drag car. Diesels are amazing in that all you really need to do to get more performance out of them is get more fuel and air into the engine. That's it.

Diesel fuel also has benefits as there's more energy in a given volume of diesel than gasoline, one reason they typically get much better economy than gas vehicles. Throttle response has much to do with the configuration of the engine and vehicle as well. Turbo and supercharged engines drive much like a gas vehicle in responsiveness. My big International has a supercharged 2-cycle V8 and it responds VERY quickly! A friend has a new VW Golf TDI and the VX has a time keeping up with it, and it's not even tuned.

Now of course that kind of performance comes at the price of economy, much like any combustible-fueled vehicle. But the nice thing of a diesel is that if you don't drive it hard you keep almost all the original economy, which isn't typical of gasoline engines. And if you use B100 economy isn't as much an issue if you need the speed. You can then not only beat cars light-to-light, but also pump-to-pump.