kblackav8or said:
The truck is in Oregon so no CARB there at least for the time being.
Oh, okay..I saw "San Diego" in your location and assumed that the truck was in the Peoples' Republic. That's what I get for assuming, eh?
I drove both the Toyota and Nissan Patrol with the diesels in Africa last year. The Toyota was one size down from the Land Cruiser and had a 4 cyl diesel. The Nissan was a 6 and had much more power to the point where I think it would be a good choice.
Do you know what 6 cylinder the Nissan had? I know that the Patrol used the SD-33T (a 3.2l straight-6 IDI turbo; they also had the SD-33 n/a) for quite a few years, but I don't know the exact year range. If so, International-Harvester used this engine series between 1976 and 1980 in the Scout ('76 to '79 had n/a SD-33's, and 1980 models had the turbo SD-33T) as a fuel-efficient alternative to the 8 cylinder gas engines that most Scouts had. My first diesel was actually an SD-33T-powered Scout II...one of the slowest things on wheels, but it was a fun truck until the piston cracked
... Nissan also brought these engines to the U.S. in forklifts, so parts still exist...but I don't know how much work putting a forklift SD-33 into a truck would be.
Oregon is fairly open to conversions to diesel or alternative fuels so I would think it is just a matter to doing it right. I sure wish people would embrace modern diesels in smaller vehicles like the rest of the world. TDI VW's seem to have quite a following. Ford actually made a MK 7 with a BMW diesel in the 80s but they are very rare. I think if they build a 35+ mpg car that has decent performance, they will sell and sell well. Just requires a change of attitude, especially in CA.
You and me both!!! The head **** of the CARB actually admitted (through clenched teeth) that diesels were better than g@$ engines regarding greenhouse emissions, but he pointed out as quickly as he could that there are other problems with them (without even bothering to mention what the "problems" are
)...what a joke. I'm not anti-environment by any means, but the American environmentalist movement is so mis-guided and have gone to such extremes that it's impossible to take them seriously (and a significant portion of my family would burn me at the stake as a heretic for even thinking about this; they think that hybrids are the best thing since sliced bread
). I can't wait to get out of this state...6 more months
I actually saw a diesel MK-7 on eBay in 2002...would probably have bought it if I had been able to sell my old E-350 van before the auction ended. I wound up getting my Benz instead.
I want to see the TDI sold more widely out here (not to mention the new Jetta being sold in wagon form)...although the new TDI's apparently don't get quite the mileage that the '99-'03's got (which could kick a hybrid's butt around the playground
), it's still pretty darn good...and will hopefully improve. When $$ allows, I intend to replace the Benz with a TDI...
I would hate to see what the frame and body mounts look like...
