80/100 series motor upgrade

Try Brunswick Diesels
www.brunswickdiesels.com.au

They seem to have a good reputation
Regards Harry.

Hi Guys

My best mate Reg had his 80 series fitted with a 6.5 chevy at Brunswick diesel Perth, the truck was excellent. But on some hills it was a bit slow with the BT in tow because he did not get the turbo version and always wished he did.

The job they did on his truck looked like the vehicle was born with the V8.


Besr wishes Scott

G'day Terry,

Here is a first hand report on the Brunswick conversion.


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

Terry, my current 100 series is a 2004 naturally aspirated diesel which I have now had for two years. When I bought it second hand ( for $38k), it only had 57000km on it. I immediately added a Garret turbo and a gas conversion which brought the total cost to $43k including Govt rebate on the Gas ($2k). It is a far better tow vehicle than my previous V8 petrol 100 series, and the fuel consumption dropped from 27l/100km to 17 when towing, and 12 without the van. It now has 115,000km on it and I've towed the BT for 26,200km of that.

When Neil was here in Nelson Bay with his rig, (about 2005), I hooked up the BT and took it for a short run. My impression was that the pulling ability was only slightly better than the V8 petrol, but as Neil says, the fuel consumption would be considerably less. So, I can't see a warrant for spending $25,000 on the conversion (which would have brought my vehicle's cost to $63,000 (less trade-in for existing motor)), for very little gain in performance, when the turbo/gas does the job nicely.

Food for thought and good luck.........Rob

Try this link:

Site Link

I would suggest looking to a toyota 1hdfte conversion rather than the V8 diesel conversion.
This motor is the late model factory turbo diesel from the 100 series cruiser (motor prior to current V8), the perform better (both power and torgue) and you will get better resale being all toyota parts.
I know a company http://www.totalcare4wd.com.au/home.php that has done this conversion on many 100series cruisers (both 1hz and petrols) and the final product is like it left toyota that way.
Having owned a cruiser fitted with a chevy diesel before, they are no where near as good as you'd think, and i'd suggest the 1hdfte motor over them any day.

Don't forget that they changed the chassis when they introduced IFS suspension, so a late model 100 TD motor may not fit in the solid front axle (pre 2004) models.

Also, if you are contemplating a gas conversion, the bottle can fit beside the chassis on the pre-IFS models, similar to the muffler on the RHS. It won't fit on IFS models so must go where the spare wheel is located, and the spare has to hang off the back bumper.

Rob

Looked into the option (also looked in to 1HDFTE transplant) momemtarily too. A comparative nightmare - time, money wise etc. We've decided to simply recon our 1HZ (with retro fitted turbo and intercooler) in order to keep the beast we know so well.

Maz.

We have just (Aug 2010) done the Brunswick Diesel Chev 6.5L conversion (non turbo)
in our 2001 Troopy which was am turbod & inter cooled and dieing.
Cost 25k less 5k trade on our old motor. which included a auto locker for the front diff.
At first Greg at BD put 3.7's in the diffs (against my concerns) as we've got 3.5t in the BT and 3.3t in the troopy.
It would not pul.
so they changed them to 4.3's
The originals are 4.1's
now it pulls really good but doesn't feel comfortable rev wise over 110kph but then we never travel over 100 without the van and 90 with the van so it suits us fine.

we are now basically one gear up all the way over the old 1HZ before it started to die.
Fuel wise is no improvement. around 5 kpl .
It is noisier.
But I haven't been able to get the temp gauge to move yet around the east goldfields of WA.
Summation,
40-50k still in our pocket versus a new Tojo troopy .& swap extras.
No electronics to complicate thing. KISS.
Same fuel costs.
noisier. (turn down hearing aids)
better cooling,
stronger clutch.

IMHO well worth thinking about.

PS I'm now told of another mob in Perth who do it for less. but don't know who they are or how well they do it.

Despite a negative experience with them, we got a quote for putting a v8 into our 3 litre Patrol a few years ago. Over $20,000 including the necessary changing radiator and gearbox, in a vehicle probably worth around $30,000 or so at the time, and would be worth no more after the expenditure. The motor trade in on the Patrol motor only applied if under 100,000 kms. It did not make sound economic sense. Still the possibility of overheating and oil leaks as on some of these motors. We may still have had the same load restrictions. Getting a different vehicle was a sounder financial decision.

Motherhen