1987 Toyota Pickup Turbo Diesel 5L Extended Cab Truck

1987 Toyota Tacoma

You read the title correctly! This is a 1987 Toyota 4x4 extended cab that has had an Australian Toyota 5L diesel swapped in and a Schwitzer turbo setup added as well!
It's listed as a Tacoma because ebay doesn't have the option to list it as a truck or pickup
There are a few reasons this truck is here. I said I would never sell it. I love my Toyotas. The transmission has started making a noise. It goes away when the clutch is pressed in. It is also audible when the truck is accelerating. It has not done it long. A few hundred miles at most. Literally the day I decided to park it to investigate the issue, I found a smoking deal on a ridiculously clean 1st gen Taco that I could not pass up. I have 5 other vehicles besides this one (including 3 other toyotas) so something has to go. I believe the noise from the transmission is the input shaft bearing. This has not been professionally diagnosed. The transmission still shifts clean and crisp. I wanted to park it and fix it before real damage was done. The kicker is, this transmission was rebuilt with a 12 month/12000 mile warranty. It only made it 10,000 miles and 2 years. Other than finding the Tacoma and having too many vehicles, I am also in the early stages of building a house and I also have a wedding to plan because I just got engaged less than 2 weeks ago! Anyhoo, enough of my life story....
The truck is not a beauty queen. The paint job is flat black over a black cab and front end and a blue bed. It looks good from 50 feet...not so much up close. I never cared about it being pretty. It however is a very solid truck for an 87. There are a few rust issues that I have posted pictures of and I will also list them here. Both A pillars on the interior side have a tiny bit of rust near the bottom of the windshield. (I have had 3 of these trucks and every one of them had a rust spot in the same place!) The drivers A pillar on the outside has some rust. The bed seams are showing a small amount. There is one rust hole in the top of the bed rail near the driver taillight. The bed is from a 2wheel drive truck so it does not have the fender buldges to match the front fenders. I happen to prefer the look and function of the top bed rail of the 2wheel drive beds. The tailgate is flat rusted out on the bottom. I am including a good solid tailgate to replace it. There is one small rust hole in the bottom of the rocker panel on the drivers side near the back of the cab. I have posted pictures of a few small holes in the bed floor as well. Nothing serious as far as Toyota beds go! There is a healthy dent under the passenger taillight. I am including a cut off section from another bed to fix this if you care about it. The truck has a toyota bedliner from another Toyota. . It doesn't quite fit it perfectly. The blue jug in the bed is fuel additive.
The chassis is good and solid. No rust issues. It's not a beauty queen chassis but its solid!
The conversion was not done by me. It was done by the prior owner. It was done quite well other than the wiring under the hood needs to be cleaned up. The truck was an automatic but was converted to a 5speed. This means the gauge cluster has the ECT Power but is obviously never used again.
The engine is a Toyota 5L Diesel. 3.0 Liter. Mechanical injection pump. This is an Australian engine we never got here in the states. The turbo is a Schwitzer and the kit to add the turbo was $3200. The odometer shows 259k but the previous owner stated the engine had less than 100K on it when swapped. I cannot document this. The engine runs great. It has sat for 3 weeks prior to today and it fired right up. The driveway underneath showed no fluid leaks during all that time. There is no issue with the 4x4/transfer case. It has manual Aisin hubs. The truck is pushing a modest 7psi of boost. It has more than enough torque to be fun. Yes, I have had it in the woods and on the trails. It's pretty capable as is. It would be a beast with some other mods. It is also a tank in the snow. There are 3 gauges under the radio, voltage, boost, and exhaust gas temperature. The engine is cooled by a Ford Taurus electric fan. It is currently only wired up to run on the low setting. It would need another relay added if you wanted to use the high setting. It has never needed the high setting so I did not worry with it.
Here's what the truck needs:
Some kind of transmission work as stated above
It needs tires. The spare tire/wheel is currently on the truck. There is a full set of matching wheels with one of them in the bed. I had a nearly brand new set of 31x10.50s on it that I put on my new Taco. The set of tires on it are basically just so it will roll. I would not trust them on the highway. The spare tire is good.
It needs a paint job and some body work if you care about that
The stock temperature gauge is erratic. I am including fittings to put in the stock temp sender hole above the thermostat to add an aftermarket temp gauge.
The heater controls are not functioning right in the dash. The sliders do not work. I am including another set of heat controls and you should be able to make one good working set out of the two. Right now the truck is set on warm defrost all the time and the heat door by the drivers feet has been manually opened. Basically in the winter I have defrost at the windshield and heat on my feet driving it. It's one of those things I intended on getting to but just never had the time. The backlighting also does not work.
When you turn the headlights on, they pulse. The voltage gauge also bounces back and forth between 12 and 14v at the same time. I am 99% certain this is related to the voltage regulator. I am 99% certain if it were unbolted from the fender well and had its grounding surfaces mated to cleaner metal it would stop this. If you unplug the regulator with the headlights on they do not pulse.
The drivers seat is in great need of some upholstery work.
Two of the gauges under the radio, the back light does not work.
It would benefit the eye greatly if someone took the time to neaten the wiring under the hood. It functions, it's just not as pretty as it could be.
There are 2 optima batteries. They have both been recently tested and are fine. Since there are 2, the windshield washer reservior had to be sacrificed. The alternator was also tested at this time and it checked out fine as well. (this was part of my diagnosing the pulsing headlight issue)
The truck has less than 10K miles on new upper and lower ball joints, new front shocks, pitman arm, idler arm, steering linkage.
It has new door locks, new ignition switch, door hinges (all 4, new belts on the alternator and power steering and a new aisin brake master cylinder.
I am including a good tailgate, spare 1/4 windows with gaskets, spare rear sliding window with gasket, spare rear interior panel for the back of the cab, fittings for adding a temperature gauge.
It has glow plugs on a manual push button under the steering column. It aslo has a recirculating coolant heater. During the winter I would plug this in on an outdoor timer and have it set to turn on 3 hours before I went to work in the winter time. It would have the top of the hood warm to the touch when I got in to crank the truck up in the mornings.
Please feel free to ask questions. I am sure I am forgetting something. Please keep in mind its an 87 Toyota. It didn't roll out of the show room yesterday. I am as honest and straight forward as they come. Please show me the same courtesy.
The truck is located in Radford VA 24141. I would prefer a bank wire as payment. If you have never done a bank wire and it sounds scary to you, it's honestly not. I was weary the first time I did it but its a safe way to pay. Paypal fees are ridiculous and I would like to avoid them if at all possible. I will also accept cash in person if you are personally picking it up. Storage is not an issue for a reasonable amount of time. If it will be stored here for more than a couple week period I will need at least a deposit on it.
Clean title in my name. VA state inspected until 5/17. Titled in VA as a Diesel.

On Sep-28-16 at 13:06:59 PDT, seller added the following information:

The truck was originally an automatic. It was converted to 5 speed. This 5 speed is the same transmission it would have had from the factory if it would have been a 5 speed to begin with.
The truck does not have AC.

• Condition: Used
• Make: Toyota
• Model: Tacoma
• Year: 1987
• Mileage: 259,453
• VIN: JT4RN67P1H5080955
• Color: Black
• Engine size: Toyota 5L
• Fuel: Diesel
• Transmission: Manual
• Interior color: Gray
• Vehicle Title: Clear
Want to buy? Contact seller!