QuestionQUESTION: I have a carbureted d21, that blew a head gasket among other repairs needed, in my '89 hardbody. A friend wants to sell me his ka24 (fuel injected) one to replace mine. I'm pretty good at working on things mechanical, it's the electrical that I don't understand. (1) How intense is this going to be? (2) Will things such as motor mounts, transmission mating, etc be potential problems to look for? (3) In the way of electrical/computers, is it going to be too much of a challenge for me to do?
ANSWER: Kauai,
Unless you get the whole engine and harness and computer and fuel system it would not be worth changing to fuel injection. The engines are not interchangeable so it would be quite difficult.
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QUESTION: Sorry, I guess I should have been more clear. He's actually proposing to sell the whole truck. It seems that he rolled the truck and the body is toast (more than he wants to deal with). Assuming I had whatever harness, computer and fuel system that was with the fuel-injected engine... would it be worth it? Is the engine any better than the D21? How much of a challenge is it to swap? Is it a lot of accessories when you refer to "fuel system" or are you just referring to fuel lines and pump?
ANSWER: Kauai,
If you get the whole truck and you have the time you could do the swap of the fuel lines and tank and pump and harness and modify the engine mounts as required for the swap. It will work if you have everything from the doner truck. Remember that you will need a return fuel line from the fuel rail to the tank. So, you will need both fuel lines off the old truck. You can do this. But, I would get a Haynes Manual or a factory service manual for reference.
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QUESTION: Right now my choices are to (1)Swap with the fuel injected engine, (2)Swap with another D21 (NapZ), or (3)Just get the heads on this one redone... BTW, I just found out that the part where the heater hoses connect to the engine is corroded. He could neither plug it to stop radiator fluid from leaking nor could he reattach the hoses. I don't have the engine here. Is that hard to replace... if even possible?
What kind of manual would I get? Is there one for the swap? I assumed the fuel lines, but is the tank different as well? (forgive me, I don't do injected engines... yet) In order to modify the mounts, is there welding involved or just drilling new holes or something?
AnswerKauai,
If his heater hoses are corroded that means the internals of the engines water passages are too. I would pass on this engine. You could either rebuild your head and replace the rings and bearings or just get a wrecking yard engine as you described. I like low mileage wrecking yard engines since you end up with an entire engine of spare parts... If you were going to do the swap with a fuel injected engine it is best to get the gas tank since fuel injected engines of the time use a return line to dump excess fuel back to the tank. Having a tank modified really needs to be done by a welding shop since you do not want to go boom. They wash out the tank and vent it to get rid of the gas vapors prior to welding. So, you see a gas tank replacement is the easiest way. Plus, the fuel pump and sensing unit is already in the tank. Where a non fuel injected pump is on the engine.
