Any V8 Diesel coverted Cruiser/Patrol owners?

Hello Matt,
I have probably already told you, but I did all of the leg work with four different Companies to do it to my Custom Stretched Cruiser TroopCarrier.... Abandoned in favour of the F-350 4x4 that I bought for $48,000... At the time the 6.2 was all you could do as the 6.5 modified the firewall... But now I have seen the 6.5 with the midships turbo.

I would guess that a solid dozen or more of our Clients did the plunge, and report better fuel economy, but I cannot think of one in the BOG.. I also cannot think of one since Ford came back into the country and it got "Easy" to move to Ford.

Be warned, I have heard of reports of the conversion going through transmission bearings quite regularly, sort of 50k to 75k when towing.. The radiator part seems easy with a bigger radiator. I have heard of D.I.Y. kits from W.A. from about 12-14 K$. And a drive in drive out at about $18k to $20...

I gave up, deciding it was overcapitalizing the Cruiser, and went Ford.. But you seem mechanically inclined, and might be happy with the performance of Cruiser with the big donk... I have seen about 20 of them. Now and again one shows up in 4x4 Trader.

Cheers

I note that the people with the F250s have the 7.3 motor. Has anyone towed a BT with the 4.2 litre? I know they are not a current model.

Motherhen

Where are you now Matt? If you're over the other side, there is linquip in Qld (nr Gynpie)

http://www.linquip.com.au/

Thanks for the ifo guys but i am confussed,linquip tell me that you dont have to have your diffs gearing changed, but brunswick tell me it is better if you do and for a total cost of around 23k it is not cheap.
But ihave got to get some thing done as i think my patrol has a cracked piston, and being a work vehicle as well i need more pulling power.Any more info would really be appreciated.

Hi,
There is one member on his 4th motor from Brunswicks, or he was a month ago, his is a long tale of woe, and no he would not do it again.
There was a new 7.3 F250 twin cab Blue at my local dealer last week.
Kinghorn Ford Nowra NSW.

Graham

Well guys now that you have scared me please tell me all you can about the f 250s, i would look at the super cab, as i need my vehicle for a living if i dont get the motor fixed in the patrol i will be desperate and will have a lot of angry clients ringing.
The 7.3 would be the way to go??

G'day all,

After first reading this post I recalled that my nephew in Margaret River, WA had done a trip around the block with an LC100 fitted with a Chev V8. I emailed him about the BOG discussion and here is his story:-

Rob re the V8 diesel. I brought the car (2003 GXL Manual Cruiser) off Greg Jones at Brunswick diesel. It was his own car and had approx. 30,000 k's on the clock when I brought it.Greg brought the Cruiser brand new as a 1HZ naturally aspirated diesel drove it to his workshop and did the conversion. The major components of the conversio included the fitting of the 6.5 chev turbo diesel, fitting hi-ratio diffs(3:7 to 1 I think) and a heavy duty clutch.
When we travelled around Australia as you know with the four kids and all the gear on the car and in the van we had a fair load. Including the van my best guess is between 2 and 2.5 tonne. With the Hi Speed diffs at 110kph the motor was doing just over 2000 rpm. The only time I did a rough calculation on fuel was when I did the sprint home from Torquay to W.A. The bit where I did the mileage test was between Torquay and Adelaide. Claire and the girls had flown home previously and I was by myself.I wouldnt like to say how fast I was going but no body was passing me and Im glad I didnt come across a radar. By my calculations on this stretch I got about 17 litres per 100k fully loaded and going much faster than anybody would go towing a van. Given the hi-ratio diffs and the low revs I would say that on average the fuel economy would be on par with a toyota turbo diesel and definately much better than a petrol cruiser.
In the northern territory somewhere between Darwin and the "3 Ways" I did have a heating problem one day. In fairness to the cruiser it must have been 45 degrees plus and to keep the temp down to normal I was doing about 90 kph. I didnt really push it because we were in the middle of no where and its possible that I could have maintained my normal speed (100/110 kph) at a higher temperature.The last thing I wanted to do was to risk boiling the thing out there in 45 degree plus temps. That was the only time on the whole trip including some heavy sand driving on Frazer that it even looked like getting a bit hot.
As a tow vehicle I would Say that the cruiser was more than adequate but Im not sure if there would be much in it as compared to the Toyota turbo diesel.The power output of both motors is very similar at about 155kw and the chev has roughly 50 nm of torque more tha the toyota turbo at 500nm. The hi ratio diffs do take a bit of sting out of it and its quite different to drive compared to the toyota turbo.I think that the big chev comes into its own when you get into some really serious heavy off road driving.The low down grunt is fantastic .When we were on Frazer and also around the beaches north of Noosa the sand was deep and soft. On Frazer we didnt have the van so the cruiser was packed with camping gear the 6 of us and all the other stuff. We were definately heavy and the sand was deep and soft With the tyres around 18/20 pounds we were unstopable .Where most people were bogged the cruiser was cruisin. Most my 4wd experience has been on the beaches and dunes of the SouthWest so I pretty much new what I was doing but having that big chev roaring under the bonnet was brilliant. Even Claire who couldnt care less said she loved that car at that time.
In finishing is it worth the effort to go the chev diesel? I probably wouldnt have gone in and got a conversion done myself but Gregs car was already complete and had a lot of other modifications when I brought it.When I brought the cruiser the cost of the conversion including the diffs was about $25,000.00 less your existing motor which Greg will trade. I had previously owned a couple of 60 series cruisers with firstly a 6.2 chevy and then a 6.5 so I was alresdy a convert to the chev V8 especially in the bush. The 100 series was a quantum leap up as the car was effectively brand new.Brunswick Diesel are very proffesional and the conversion looks like a factory fit.If you want a beast for the bush that grabs a lot of attention then this is the way to go.If your just towing a van with no thoughts of real offroad the toyota turbo is probably just as good.Either way if you did decide to go this way Id say give Greg a ring 0897261431.Smaller operators may be ok for the naturally aspirated 6.2 & 6.5 but the turbo is a completely different matter and Id recomend going to the proffesionals
Rob hope this helps you and any of the Bush Tracker crew .

Cheers

Neil

P.S. Sorry for any typo errors .I dont write many emails so my skill level is definately low