hey guys! sorry i havnt been on.were trying to get our house ready to go on the market.well here is my dilemma...the motor i was looking at out of the pickup is just motor,transmission,alternator,starter,electronic fuel shutoff...etc.he scrapped the rest of the truck due to body damage.he was asking 1000.00 for the setup but will take 800.00.you guys think its worth it.if someone had to ball park completion what would you guess?i will be doing most of the fabrication myself.the rest of the machine is in good shape and hydraulics are suppose to be good as well.the machine has 1600 hours on it.i can not seem to find any good deals on diesel engines at the moment.anyways tell me what you guys think.thanks!!
Hi Jay,
When taking on a repower, a little planning goes a long, long way. I like to take a sytems level approach to the task, which means you look at every major system that interfaces with the engine, then work out a game plan of how to tackle each one; as well as how the modifications will impacts the over all machine. Normally, you won't have real good answers to some of the more minor things (i.e. thottle linkage, etc.) until you get into it, but as long as you knock off the more major ones, you should be in good shape. The internet is a great resource for gathering ideas, and parts to accomplish this.
Here is a list of things that I would want to figure out before picking up the wrenches (I think that we have already established that power will not be a problem, and we have spoke about the governor):
1. Space claim - will the engine (including the cooling system) fit?
2. Engine configuration - Is the general layout of the engine compatible with the layout of the engine compartment? i.e. comlpexity of intake / exhaust plumbing, accessory drive layout, etc.
3. Motor mounting - Is there structure in the engine bay where you need it? Can the engine be mounted without the transmission providing some level of support? Also, how is the starter mounted? Can you do away with the bellhousing?
4. Battery - Going from a gas engine to a diesel, you may need to mount a larger battery.
5. Starting Aid Actuation - you will need to set something up to operate the glow plugs. (the TD23 being an indirect injection diesel, it will likely have them).
6. Charging System Capacity - probably not a big deal, but worth mentioning
7. Direction of engine rotation - once again, likely not a big deal, but I know of a few cases where this was overlooked with disasterous results.
8. Drive connection - A big one, make sure you have this one well thought out before you start.
9. Budget - likely the most important factor. Most of the above can be solved by adding money, but if you don't have it... The biggest cost saver will be the ability to make/modify your own parts, or have friends that can (especially if they owe you money or favours!!)
There are more that I could add, but I think you get the drift of where I am going.
One other thing that is a good confidence builder is to find out whether someone else has performed the transplant (or one similar) to the one that you are about to undertake. Once again, the internet is a wonderful tool. In my case, I actually found a company that had developed a kit to put a 24 hp Honda into a gas powered 4XX-series Bobcat, so I knew that it was possible before I started. I looked at a few pictures of what they did, then went for it. I substituted a 20hp Chinese copy of a Honda for the engine (less than half the price of a Honda, and 1/4 of the price of another 16.5 hp Kohler, which was what was in it from the factory). The end result was a transplant that almost looks factory, and works way better than it did when it was new.
Besides all that,
anyone can put the original engine back in... ;-)
SR