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Does anyone know if a 2.8L V-6 from an 1988 Trooper will connect to the transmission of an 1981 Luv without any problems? Mine is a 5-speed standard currently running with a 1.8L 4-banger.

Isuzu trucks and Troopers supposedly have the same engines and transmissions up until around 1989.

you REALLY don't want that 2.8, if it's a gas engine. it was possibly the worst engine GM ever made

yea, i've heard people say its best to use the 2.8 as a boat anchor, and it has a different bolt pattern than the 1.8, so you couldn't use your trans, the 1.9 is the easiest swap, but if you want more power, the 2.3 will bolt up to the trans, but i think the motor mounts are different.

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1980 chevy luv 4x4 1.8 liter
1979 luv long bed parts truck
1984 2wd isuzu pup parts truck

"A man who says it can't be done shouldn't interrupt a man doing it."

I was looking for some sort of easy V-6 swap. So the Isuzu 2.8 is crap then? Is there any Isuzu V-6s with the same bolt pattern?

none of the isuzu v6's have the same bolt pattern, you'd have to change out the trans too. if i was gonna swap in a v6 i'd use a 4.3 v6 out of a s10. but for the money you might be better off with a 350 swap. a v6 would be easier to fit though.

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1980 chevy luv 4x4 1.8 liter
1979 luv long bed parts truck
1984 2wd isuzu pup parts truck

"A man who says it can't be done shouldn't interrupt a man doing it."

I have an Isuzu 2.3 (4ZD1) in an '87 4x4 spacecab. It originally had a 1.8 (G200Z), but I dropped in a 2.3 when it the odometer hit 230,000. It is still too weak for anything off-road, especially sand.

I later bought a '88 pickup which had the same engine 2.3 (4ZD1) and tranny. One of the upgrade options for that year was a fuel injected Isuzu 3.1.

Is it correct to assume that the 3.1 and the 2.3 have the same bolt pattern since it connects to the same tranny?

Swapping out a 350 or an 4.3 kind of makes me nervous. How would the wiring and instruments hook up? I guess I thought that an isuzu v6 would easily fit in with no major modifications.

if you're scared of wiring, you can _easily_ find or convert a 350 or 4.3 to it. edelbrock and holley sell carb manifolds for the 4.3(non vortec ones anyway). then the only wiring you'd have to do is the choke and gauge sensors for the most part...maybe a fuel pump

the 3.1 sounds promising, but i bet it won't bolt up, i've done alot of research and never heard of swapping in a 3.1, i bet it came with a different tranny, also on clutch applications the 1.8, 1.9, and 2.3 are all listed as using the same clutch, but the 3.1 is not listed so i think different clutch means different tranny.

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1980 chevy luv 4x4 1.8 liter
1979 luv long bed parts truck
1984 2wd isuzu pup parts truck

"A man who says it can't be done shouldn't interrupt a man doing it."

On troopers with the 2.8L as an option (88 or 89 and up into the early 90s I think) the trans is different between the 4 cyl (2.6L in these years) and the 2.8L but only in the bellhousing area. Since the bell housing is integrated into the whole case, it can't exactly be swapped around. You'd need the trans from behind the 2.8L to make a go of it. Motor mounts are also different between the V6 and 4cyl models making it complicated in other ways.

IIRC, the 3.1 is just another version of the GM 60 degree V6 (like the 2.8L) with bigger displacement, as is the 3.4L V6. Isuzu made V6s would be the 3.2L and 3.5L that showed up later in the 90s.

Granted the 2.8L is not the best motor GM ever put out, but Isuzu didn't use them until a few years after GM started putting them in S10s and such. That gave them a chance to mature a bit, and many of the 2.8L horror stories were from those early GM rigs. With some TLC a 2.8L will hold together and there are some easy bolt on power upgrades if you already have one in a Trooper, but for a swap you could find a much better donor. If you're going to fab mounts, swap transmissions, wire up all the sensors and engine computer, and fit it all into a LUV, you'd be better off with some other V6.

My original plan was to drop in a v6, but that isn't going to work. Sounds like I'll have to find a Chevy 350 and another trans to fix my beast up. Hopfully it is mostly nuts and bolts.

Would a 350 bolt up to a SM465?

yup.

i'd go with a 4.3. smaller than the 350, and more power than i'd ever need in a mini truck. any tranny that will bolt up to a sbc will bolt up to a 4.3, iirc.

aren't the 4.3's just SBC's with two cylinders cut off? Or is that the other V6 chevy made.

yes it's the 4.3