bherde

In CA, you must install a diesel that was certified for sale somewhere in the US, and must be model year or newer, then meet the smog requirements for that year. I ended up going with a JDM replacement motor for my 97 4runner. Saving the diesels for the real jeeps. Agree with you on not trading past the 3rd gen. I bought an 04, and while the engine was much stronger, the suspension was awful on road and off. I got rid of it and re-motored the 97.

Dude! That is one awesome build! Thanks for posting. You answered quite a few questions I was pondering. I have not done much with my project as Honey decided it was time to remodel the kitchen and both baths. Yes I ended up doing that too. With some luck I hope to pull the frame up and get to it this spring. I am considering stretching the cab a bit to make room for my long legs and give it a bit more custom look. My frame is also from a double cab Dodge, so there is plenty to work with. Just need to pick up an extra door somewhere to get the body to match without having to bend it by hand. What did you finally decide to do for guages? I am going to want to have a tach, but would also like to keep things period correct.

My 69 J3000 has been a real horse. But I beat it too hard. The first update was when the Buick 350 broke in half, so it got replaced with a SB400 and a NV4500. The 400 had lots of power and I broke a couple rear axles, so I went looking for a stronger axle set. I found them on a 92 Dodge 4x4 that had been T-boned. Now with a little encouragement from my trusty tape measure, it looks like with a little moving radiators and fans, I could get that Cummins under the hood with just a little body lift. I picked up a straight frame from a 98 Dodge extended cab 3500, and it has axles as well, so now it looks like the smarter thing to do is make the dodge frame the right size and put the J truck on top of it. Anybody out there have any insight on such a combination?

Would love to see what he ends up doing to fab the body mounts. Knowledge is power, and I would love to see some details of what surprises he comes up to and how to get around them. Most interested in what parts he chooses to be Jeep and what becomes Dodge. My tape measure tells me I will need to lift the body up about 2 inches from where it would have been sitting on the original frame to get the 6BT under the hood without making a bump, and I will need to move radiator forward about 4 - 6 inches. (depending on how tight I can get on the firewall.) Fan becomes an electric pusher and I picked up a chevy hydraulic brake master as there will be no room for a big vacuum assist. Steering column... well that may end up being a lot of fun. We may have to open a new thread on this. What will we call these? "Deeps"?

Will do. I guess I will have to divert some attention to refreshing the Toy first, then I can pull the J parts back in the barn.

For the J I have an entire Dodge frame with axles from a 96 cab plus model. Front coils will be nicer. So that makes a D70 in the rear, and a D60 in front. These have 4:10 gears in them. I have another set of axles with 3:54s in them and that rear is just rebuilt. I think the later set will give me the cruising mileage I want, and if it strains too much I can change them out. With all this stuff going on, it looks like I will have no choice but to raise everything up at least 10 inches, and at that height, well it will just look stupid with anything less than 35s or so on the rubber. I will shorten the frame and then put the J on top of it. I am seriously considering stretching the cab about 6 inches to make room for some nice seats and my 6 foot larg-ess. Should give it a different custom look. The story behind this truck is that this is the second time I am building it up. The first time was when I blew the Buick 350 up and replaced it with a small block 400 married to an NV4500. I kinda went overboard on the chevy engine and it was putting over 400HP to the wheels. (at 8MPG!!!) We all know that just because you have all that power does not mean you have to use it, but.... I twisted the axles right out of those 44s. It was fun, but towing it out of the middle of Glamis was a bit expensive. Nowdays I don't need to go as fast, but I still like to get out to places where there arn't a lot of tracks to follow, ... and then make it back!

You have your information to the book Moses. To do the Toy to diesel I would have to keep it registered at the farm address in Indiana. Which would be tricky should someone ask to validate that I maintain a RESIDENCE there. Well there is only barn, a springhouse and an outhouse on the property, so I suppose someone COULD reside there, but...... Right now CA law says that if you reside in California, any vehicles you drive here have to be registered here. Currently they want to see your drivers license or your state tax return to prove residence. (So buying a PO box does not work any more) For the J3000 should be OK, since part of the diesel conversion would involve the refferee who will certify that it is a diesel and has all the appropriate stuff as you say. Then it has to pass an opacity test. I do not have confirmation that it will be elligible to be removed from the smog test program, but a conversation with the local refferee last week indicated that he believed it would. We are scheduled to talk again for confirmation. If it is not removed, the bi-annual test will remain a tailpipe opacity test.

I am beginning to wonder if I need to register in Indiana where I have a farm, then re-register back to CA. Does CA to your knowledge have issues with a vehicle legally modified in another state then registered here? It appears that CA would rather have old worn out gassers on the road than to let me get an oil burner and start running my biodiesel through it. I have a Jetta TDI that makes the daily drive, and get 45mpg on biodiesel, and in the summer about 43 on WVO. (yes I pay the road tax each year.) It may just be the case that I have to rebuild the gasser and keep it rolling along. I have another conversion project in work that actually will be much more fun and CA may have to leave me alone on it. I have a 69 J3000 that the engine broke in half, (Oops) and is growing up to sport a 6BT and all the rest out to the wheels from a rolled 92 Dodge 3500. So from your feedback, (which is a much clearer version of what CARB told me) I should be OK with everything there. Newer engine, and CA approved. Kind of a shame, the 4runner is superb in the back trails, just needs better low end torque for the slow crawl.

I am running a 97 4runner in the golden state and after a quarter million miles of abuse it is time to 'refresh' the motive systems. My desire is to get a diesel clip from a surf model and make the changes, but CA has it in their mind to save the planet one obstruction at a time. After a lot of ping pong between the DMV and the CARB I still don't have anything to substantiate just what requirements I have to meet to complete the registration. (beyond move to Arizona.) A couple post from Moses lends to a suspicion that there may be some real documentation somewhere. So I am putting out a plea to anyone who has been, or knows someone who has been, or may be in a similar situation, and has the chapter and verse if this can be done in California. Thanks in advance! Bill