Proffitts Cruisers
Got a Land Cruiser? Proffitts Cruisers can perform an in-house conversion to the 3.3L Cummins, 3.9L Cummins, or a Toyota turbodiesel engine. The company says it has installed over 70 4BT conversions into a variety of Land Cruisers. When it comes to Toyota turbodiesel engines Proffitts says the most common engines used in its conversions are the six-cylinder variants offered from 1986-up, which are the 12HT, 1HZ, 1HDT, 1HD-FT, and the computer-controlled 1HD-FTE. Pictured here is a ’94 FZJ80 Land Cruiser fitted with the 1HD-FT Toyota six-cylinder diesel engine mated to a five-speed manual transmission. The company says this is the most complicated conversion it performs because the donor vehicle is right-hand-drive and it takes over 50 hours to mate the wiring harness to the left-hand-drive harness.
Contact: 877/PROFFITT, www.proffittscruisers.com
Diesel Conversion Specialists
If you want to repower your Ford truck with a Cummins turbodiesel engine you can either send the truck to Diesel Conversion Specialists and have them fit it for you or you can purchase the conversion parts and do it yourself. The company offers engine mounting kits to fit a 12- or 24-valve Cummins turbodiesel engine in ’69-’79 Ford trucks and 12- or 24-valve or ’03-up Cummins common-rail engine in ’80-’97 and ’99-up Ford trucks. Diesel Conversion Specialists also offers rebuilt and used Cummins engines as well as a wide range of parts and accessories including a number of transmission adapter plates.
Contact: 406/755-8878, www.dieselconversion.com
Rocky Road Outfitters
Just because you have a Suzuki Samurai doesn’t mean you can’t have a diesel. Rocky Road Outfitters offers the AXIS Power diesel kit, which allows you to fit Volkswagen turbodiesel engines like the ’83-’89 1.6L engine. Other VW engines will also fit, including the newer 1.9L engine, but modifications may be required. The AXIS kit includes an engine/transmission adapter kit, motor mount assemblies, alternator mount kit, A/C mount kit, heavy-duty starter motor mounting kit, throttle cable hookup, complete wiring harness and relays, turbo intake adapter kit, fuel filter adapter kit, custom exhaust header, heavy-duty flywheel, new pilot bearing, and a 73-page installation manual with pictures.
Contact: 888/801-7271, www.rocky-road.com
Need a Cummins?
One of the vendors at this year’s Red Rock 4-Wheelers Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, was ACD Engines (877/506-8667, www.acdengines.com). ACD is like a Cummins superstore. The company is a great source for new Cummins turbodiesel engines and offerings include the 4BTAA, 6BTA, and 6CTA. If you don’t need a complete engine ACD also offers long-blocks including the 4BT, 6BT, and 6CT. Also available are a wide variety of parts, rebuild kits, used engines, used transmissions, and even installation of Cummins engines into the Jeep JK.
H-Line Conversions
Since its start in the early ’90s this company has fitted diesels into a wide variety of vehicles, including a ’65 Chevy Impala. So far, H-Line has converted over 100 Hummer H1s and 60 Hummer H2s to Duramax turbodiesel power. H-Line can provide you with a do-it-yourself kit or the company can do the swap for you. In addition to the H1 and H2, H-Line can convert many GM fullsize SUVs to Duramax power as well. Conversion packages include the basic 500 horsepower economy package and the high-performance 850 horsepower package.
Contact: www.hlineconversion.com
Tennessee Diesel Conversions
Relax, GM owners, because Tennessee Diesel Conversions has the parts you need to install a 5.9L Cummins turbodiesel in your ’73-’91 GM solid front axle truck or SUV or ’88-’00 GM IFS truck or SUV. The company offers a wide range of parts including motor mounts, crossmembers, and a hydraulic package. Tennessee Diesel Conversions also offers parts and accessories, including 4BT and 6BT injectors, 50hp to 150hp fuel systems, injection pump rebuilding, custom machine work, complete air conditioning conversion bracket kits, and even twin-turbo kits.
Contact: 865/809-7402, www.tndieselpower.com
Eco-Offroad
Eco-Offroad can do an in-house diesel conversion on your Toyota FJ-45 pickup, FJ-40 Land Cruiser, Land Rover Series II, IIA, or III, or Land Rover Defender. Depending on your vehicle and needs, the company fits the Cummins 3.3L or 3.9L 4BT, 2.8L IH, Mercedes OM617, or Isuzu turbodiesel engines.
Contact: 541/550-6300, www.eco-offroad.com
4x4 Labs
If you’d like to fit a Mercedes-Benz OM617 five-cylinder turbodiesel into your rig, 4x4 Labs can help. At the time of this writing the company offers transmission adapter kits for GM manual transmissions (including SM420, SM465, NV3500, NV4500, and NV5600) as well as Toyota W56 five-speed, R150-151 five-speed, and Land Cruiser four- and five-speed manual transmissions. In development is an adapter kit for the Aisin-Warner AX15 five-speed manual transmission. 4x4 Labs is also starting development on adapters to mate later six-cylinder turbocharged OM603/606 engines to the same lineup of transmissions.
Contact: 530/477-0140, www.4x4labs.com
Domino Effect
If you convert your rig to diesel and the power output is increased over your previous powerplant, you may have to beef your rigs driveline. There are many variables to this of course, depending on which diesel engine you’ve installed and whether or not you’ve already made driveline upgrades.
We wondered how the OE manufacturers approached this increase in power, so we contacted Chrysler and asked about the driveline differences between a gas-powered ’12 Ram 2500 and a diesel-powered Ram 2500. The Cummins turbodiesel makes 800 lb-ft of torque, which is double the torque of the Hemi V-8. The diesel-powered Ram gets a beefier 68RFE six-speed automatic transmission, but uses the same transfer cases (manual- or electric-shift) as the gas-powered trucks. The driveshaft U-joints in the diesel-powered Ram 2500 are larger 1485 series ’joints as opposed to the 1415 series ’joints found in the gas-powered trucks. Finally, the diesel-powered rig is equipped with an 11.5-inch rearend, which has a higher torque capacity than the 10.5-inch rearend in the gas-powered truck.