Forget the 22RE: Toyota Pickup w/Mercedes Diesel Swap

We're pretty pleased that our experimental Craigslist Crawler found this odd duck hiding outside of Minneapolis. At first glance, we wrote it off as a rather run of the mill extended cab pickup with a "you're dreaming" price. Then we noticed that the crawler had flagged it as "turbo diesel" and suddenly we're interested. We love the 22RE, but a 5 cylinder turbo diesel is even more interesting.

The seller mentions this being a popular swap, but we have to admit that it's not one we are familiar with. It sounds like you get all of the benefits you would want though. It maintains the Toyota transmission and transfer case, just changes the motivating force to a Mercedes OM617 5 cylinder diesel. The engine bay seems to accommodate the German lump well, not surprising since these came with 2 very different engines from the factory.

While we are all about this swap, it's hard to imagine it being terribly practical to perform unless you happened to blow a motor and have the diesel laying around. The seller mentions it being both waterproof and EMP proof so maybe it was built with off road, or apocalyptic ambitions?

Everything appears stock from the outside save for the straight pipe coming out the back. Inside things look stock as well, though we would think there must be some accommodation for the glow plugs.

The frame looks good in the few shots supplied, and there is a bit of rust but the Oregon plates lead us to think that this truck escaped many harsh Minnesota winters.

$7,000 is steep for an average condition Toyota Ext Cab Pickup, but we don't think they're out of the ballpark with the work that went into this clean looking swap. For $6,000 we think it would be worth it just to roll into the local Merc dealer when it’s time to swap the glow plugs.

Find this Japanese / German Hybrid on Craigslist in Eden Prairie, Minnesota for $6,995.