Here's my standard email I send to people wondering about what small diesel trucks were available in the US. It will be very hard to actually find one, because they were last imported around 1985, and sell for 2 to 4 times the bluebook of a similar age gas pickup. I don't know what the towing capacity of mine is, but I think it's around 2,000 or 2,500 lbs. As far as automatic transmissions, I was under the impression that all of the ones from the 80's sucked pretty bad, and to pair one of them with an older diesel would be the ultimate in slow acceleration. Maybe I'm wrong. I've never seen any of them with an auto though.
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VW pickups came with a 1.6 liter NA diesel engine. Rated at 52 HP.
They are front wheel drive, with a unibody construction. A friend of
mine has one of these that is waiting for a new engine right now. The
same engine in a VW rabbit has suprising amount of power around town,
and can maintain 65mph on the highway if it's flat. If it's in the
mountains, it slows down to 45ish... The VW 1.6 turbodiesel would
also bolt up to the same tranny, although none came stock in these
pickups. People get about 40 - 45mpg in the pickups.
Isuzu PUP's and Chevy Luv's came with a 2.2 liter NA diesel engine in
the early 80's. Not complete sure of the years. I've never driven
one of these, but have heard that they are pretty gutless up at this
elevation. 62HP I think. They are known to be a bulletproof engine
that will run forever, but the bodies tend to rust out. I've heard of
getting 35mpg in the 4wd versions of these, but I'd suspect closer to
30.
Toyota pickups came with a 2.4 liter diesel in both NA and turbo
versions in the early to mid 80's. The NA version was gutless, but
the turbo is pretty quick I hear.
Mazda used a industrial perkins diesel in their B2200 (2.2 liter NA)
in the early 80's. 30+ mpg, but pretty gutless at this altitude from
what I hear. Around sea level it should be better. These were also
available in the ford ranger from '82 to '84. Known to run forever,
and it has gears instead of a timing belt even.
Mitsubishi made a nice 2.3 liter turbodiesel which was used in the
dodge ram50/Mitsubishi mighty max from '83 to '85, and the ford ranger
from '85 to '88. I have one of the Powerram50's with this engine, and
I like it. Plenty of pickup when the turbo kicks in. I can cruise at
65-70 on the freeway, and even go up hills pretty quickly with a heavy
load. 84 HP, but it goes up hills as fast as my 84 horsepower subaru,
which weights 1000 lbs less. I'm getting about 23mpg around town, and
26mpg on road trips. I have a shell with a roof rack, pretty
aggressive tires, and 4wd, so it's not as good as it could be. I've
heard of 35mpg for the two wheel drive version with less weight and
air resistance.
And I think that nissan made some four cylinder and maybe a 6 cylinder
diesel for the hardbody pickup in the early 80's. I don't know any
more details than that.
All of these are well made engines from what I've heard -- most do
have cast iron blocks and aluminum heads, so don't overheat them.
Obviously the VW is more available, due to using the same engine as
all the VW jettas/rabbits, etc. The others are all really rare, and
I don't know if you could find the engines to swap into a gas truck
very easily. I had to go to Yakima to get my mitsubishi, and it would
have sold for about $5,000 on the market (I got the family friend
special deal). Search Ebay for used japanese diesels -- I see a good
assortment of those going through, and they'd be somewhere near a
direct bolt in. They have alot of newer ones than what was sold in
the US -- probably more power, but sometimes the newer ones don't like
running SVO as well. I know of people who have run the old Isuzu, VW,
Mitsubishi, and Mazda 4 cylinder diesels on SVO and they seem to like
it. Mine is getting the SVO setup soon. I've been running it
on between B20 and B100 for the last few months -- clogged the fuel
filter once, but no other issues.
One other thing, is that you can buy adaptor plates to put a VW diesel
engine in a toyota pickup. A 1.9TDI would made a really quick and
efficient vehical out of an older toyota. but they're expensive. The
1.9 liter turbo diesel non-TDI VW engines were never sold in the US,
so you have to go to canada to get them. Little cheaper, and don't
require all the electronics of a TDI to put into something else
though. if you get a 1.9IDI VW engine, make sure it has the TDI crank
pully put on -- the IDI ones had some problems falling off after a
while, and people upgrade to the pully and crank from the newer TDI to
solve it.
Good luck
Topic: Diesel compact pickups that can tow? (Read 17070 times)
