Jump to content

Novice Seeking Lots of Toyota Mini RV Info


Ken Smith

Recommended Posts

I am assisting a friend in looking at Toyota Dolphins. I have seen a few and am getting a better base of knowledge. I read "Diesel Mikes" post regarding his 1981 Diesel power RV. I assume that this is the same IDI engine that was use in all Toyota pickups and passenger cars during that era. I owned a VW IDI and it was no better quality than and did not get that much better mileage than the same size gasoline engine.

Questions:

1. Were there any DI or TDI engines ever installed in Dolphins or other Toyota Mini RVs?

2. Are there any retrofit kits for DI or TDI engines available or does anyone have any experience in trying to do this?

Commentary: I frankly would not advise my friend to get one of the IDI engines since they were mostly junk, inefficient and light duty not heavy duty Deisels. Any comments to that statement would be appreciated. Experience comes from toasting two 1.6 litre VW IDI engines. One lasted 90K and the second factory rebuild failed after only 5k due to a fault crankshaft. I sold it before it could do more harm to my pocket book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 2L (2.2-3.0 liter) series Toyota diesel is a nice cast iron heavy duty engine though in the early (1980-81) naturally aspirated (non turbo) it is a little under powered. The 2L-T turbo engines (1986) had much more scoot. The 3 liter 1KZ turbo diesel has almost the HP as a stock V-6 gas engine but was never imported into the US. The dates given (80-81 and 86) are the years that they were imported into the US, not the production years for the engine. The L series diesel engine was produced from 1977 up until 2000

A 2L engine can be turbo charged by the addition of a T exhaust manifold and turbo charger and a T progressive injector pump. Both engines were mechanical fuel injection so there is no electronic hocus pocus to fiddle with, just a bolt on upgrade. I have contemplated doing this for a long time but I have not found a donor turbo engine that someone is willing to part out as most are still running and on the road. Very few turbo engine trucks were imported into the US in 1986. Canada is mostly where they are found. There was a 2L-TE (EFI diesel) but none were imported into the US.

You can get a late model 3 liter 1KZ-TE half cut truck from Japan and retrofit any 4 cylinder gas engine truck with it. Pulling this off in California and other smog restrictive states might be a little difficult. 1KZ-TE half cuts are running $4500-$5000 + freight.

These are all truck engines. I don't think that they were available in Toyota cars even on a special order basis. The cars used the 1.2-1.6 liter C engine not the 2.2-3.0 liter L engine.

Just like the 22R and 22RE engines the 2L engine is no longer produced by Toyota but parts are readily available as this engine was in a lot of the exported trucks that were shipped to other countries around the world.

As far as finding a diesel Toyota motor home goes, only RBR Mini Cruiser made these and from what I have found only 5 were produced as special orders. They were all pickup conversions as the diesel did not come in a cab/chassis. No motor homes were made with turbo diesel engines.

As far as fuel economy, I get about the same as a gas engine Toyota motor home (18-22 mpg). The stock 1981 diesel pickup trucks got around 40 mpg. The turbo diesels get better fuel economy as they push more air into the engine and use less fuel as the injector pumps are progressive not flat rate like in the older engines. I have been told that the EFI diesels are better still on fuel economy.

The only maintenance that is required on the diesel engine is oil changes (7 quarts). Toyota recommends changing the timing belt at 60k mile intervals. Other than that, fuel is all that is needed. The fuel filter is a massive spin on (about the size of a standard gas engine oil filter) and there is a sediment/water separator in the fuel line under the hood before the filter.

When I was remodeling my home I let the diesel sit for 3 years without starting it up. When I went to move it back into the driveway I put in 2 batteries (it takes 2 engine batteries to spin the 24:1 compression ratio engine) and the engine was running by the time the 3rd piston came up on compression. It did not smoke. It did not shake. It did not hesitate. It just ran exactly as it did when I turned it off 3 years earlier. Very impressive. If it had been a gas engine I would still be trying to get it started.

Here is what the engine looks like The 2 batteries are engine batteries which are hooked in parallel to provide more cranking amps. The coach battery is under the dinette seat in the back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To: Toyota USA / Toyota Canada The goal of this petition is to request the importation or the release of diesel versions of all Toyota models available in North America. The World outside of North America and particularly European nations have had the luxury year after year to purchase a diesel engine in any Toyota model from the Yaris Diesel to the Land Cruiser Diesel (Not available in North America, and it should be). North America is fed inferior gas engines. Regulations have now put ultra low sulphur diesel at all gas stations, which is a much cleaner form of diesel. Diesel is a more efficient fuel and we as North Americans are demanding the fast tracking of diesel engines to the North American market by Toyota. We want it here now. We encourage all the Toyota owners , future owners and fans to fill this petition.

Sincerely,

http://www.petitiononline.com/TOYD4D/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To: Toyota USA / Toyota Canada The goal of this petition is to request the importation or the release of diesel versions of all Toyota models available in North America.
I tend to agree with the goal of the petition, but the American public does not agree with either of us and is not shomping at the bit for a diesel car or truck. They are still hung up on the failed GM 350 diesel and the stinky smelly diesel itself and its stinky exhaust.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I want to thank all of you for responding to my novice questions regarding Toyota Mini RVs. I especially want to thank and acknowledge "diesel mike" for his excellent and thorough explanation of the Toyota Diesels.

Just a comment from my knowledge of Diesels in general. The IDI or indirect injection diesel in the 2 litre truck engine with it's high (24:1) compression ratio (CR) is probably no more fuel efficient than a similar gasoline engine of the same horsepower. The IDI is inefficient becasue it uses a pre-combustion chamber to ignite the mixture and requires a very high (22 - 25:1) CR to do this. A common myth is that the higher the CR, the higher the efficiency of the engine. NOT TRUE, if one looks at the literature, one finds that CRs of 16 - 18:1 are the best efficiency and most modern direct injection engines fall between these CRs. The physics of this are that beyond some point, that is somewhere between 17:1 and 18:1 CR, excess friction of having to compress air (that's 18 atmospheres of compression) to that extent overcomes the counter effectiveness of the resulting combustion.

If one recalls from the terrible era of light duty IDI diesels in passenger cars, most of those cars like my 80 VW Dasher had engines that were around 1.6 liters. The output was around 48 bhp; whereas a similar 1.6 liter gasoline engine was pumping out around 85-100 bhp. So take into account that the IDI Diesel is almost 1/2 the bhp of the gasoline engine and the fact that distillate (so called Diesel fuel) has 15 to 20% more energy per gallon than gasoline (115,000 BTU per gallon for gasoline vs. 140,000 BTU per gallon for distillate) it is easy to see that the higher fuel economy of the IDI diesel is lower bhp combined with higher energy per gallon and really poor performance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I owned a VW IDI and it was no better quality than and did not get that much better mileage than the same size gasoline engine.

Ken, you need to find someone who owns a newer VW TDI (2002 and newer, but not the PD). Especially one that has been chipped and had bigger injectors installed. You will not believe what VW has done with that engine! And what can be don't to the engine once it is out of VW control!! Take a visit over to the TDI Club to see what you are missing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...