mercedes or toyota engine for conversion?

[vinyard]

Hello everyone,

I'm a carpenter and wildland firefighter originally from northern New York. I'm beginning the research necessary to convert my 89 4-runner to a diesel and then biodiesel. The steps will probably be far and few between do to my transitory lifestyle. But my first step is deciding what engine is the best choice. As I understand it; a toyota diesel is the easiest (which is important to me) to convert to, however finding one in the USA for any price I can feel good about is another issue. While mercedes diesels seem to be a dime a dozen. I'm wondering how much more difficult they are to install and if there are any disadvantages to using an engine that is not specifically designed for my truck. Which engine will give me the most power, and which will give me the best mpg? And for that matter are there any other engines I should be considering?

Any advice anyone can give me will be greatly appreciated and assimilated. Thanks!

[michigandon]

Good luck on trying to mate a Mercedes diesel to your Yota transmission. If you could make and market an adapter to do that the world would beat a path to your door! If you had a 2wd truck I wouldn't think installing the MB diesel and matching auto trans to be all that difficult though.

Don

[vinyard]

Why do you think a 2wd would be so much easier? Yes, I'm mechanicaly ignorant, but I'm ready to learn and that's why I'm here.

[nick]

Here is a bit of a link, I spent 3-4 mins doing a google search on toyota/MB& Transfercase and came up with this
toyota MB stuff

I think a 2wd swap would be super easy!
Nick

Cool my first shortened link!!! thanks Radio! :thumbs:

[vinyard]

So now I have the chance to buy a mercedes 300td for a good price. But it's automatic. My 4-Runner is manual. I'm wondering how much of a problem putting this engine in would be. Hopefully keeping the 4-Runner manual of course.

[nick]

IIRC you CANNOT make the 300 a standard due to vibration, people have tried and failed, the torque converter acts like a balanced flywheel. also from what I remember you adapt the auto to the toyota Transfer case, with pieces from the MB and toyota t/c parts. find more links that the wanderer4x4 posted, or contact him as he has already done this swap.
Nick

[vinyard]

Well, maybe I should be considering other types of engines. Like a VW or Isuzu or something. Somebody's got to know what the best options are for this.

[Barry]

Personally I am looking for a VW engine for my conversion. They had a 2.4L inline 6. Stock it made 109hp and 190ftlb. It wil rev up to 5500rpm.

[michigandon]

A VW diesel can be easily mated to a Toyota tranny via an Acme Adapter. I personally wouldn't consider nothing smaller than a 1.9 liter TD for such a swap.

[Barry]

the acme adapters kit will only allow you to mate to the 4 cylinder vw diesels. the 5 and 6 cylinder use a different bellhousing pattern and flywheel. I personally would run the vw/volvo tranny and a divorced t-case.