History of my 747k mile 1982 D50

So over the past couple weeks I’ve taken a dive into the history of my old pickup. It started when I was finally able to open the glovebox to see what’s inside. The latch for it has been broken the entire time I’ve owned it, and the prior owner who’s a friend of mine, so it was like opening a time capsule with no knowledge as to what’s inside. I didn’t want to damage it any more than it currently is either, so that’s why I’ve taken so long to do it.

Anyways, let’s get to the juicy stuff! Cracked her open and found all the original paperwork, owners manual, service records from 1982 to 1991, and the original owners very detailed book of maintenance, mileage, and fuel economy. The original owner had it from 82-91 and in that time he put right at 500,000 miles on it! He kept records of when he adjusted the carburetor, changed filters, fluids, tires, average fuel economy, and where he travelled. That is certainly one amazing find for sure!

In 91 he sold it to the second owner, who I also know. He owned it from 91 until 2010. He used it in the beginning to drive back and fourth to work and the beach, but he didn’t record anything like the original owner. He did say though that he tripped the odometer over twice in that time, once shortly after he bought it and another a while later.

The third owner is a close friend of mine. In 2010 he bought it and used it to drive to work only, but he drives about 60 miles a day. He tripped the odometer once. No records were kept on anything, but he did just basic maintenance.

So now it comes to my part of the story. I bought the truck in September 2019. The odometer currently reads just over 47,000, but given the information I have it’s actual mileage is 747,000! I’ve had to replace just about the entire ignition system. The only thing I haven’t replaced is the actual distributor, but the module and harness, cap and rotor, wires, coil, and plugs I replaced. I also replaced the original radio (I still have the original it just doesn’t work), speakers, installed a tach, oil pressure gauge, and another coolant temperature gauge, and I just replaced the wiper motor with one out of a 1994 Mighty Max that I had to modify to work. I average about 20 mpg from the old 2.0 4 speed and I put nearly 70 miles a day on her. Surprisingly I get a lot of attention in it too. I’m always having people give me thumbs up or rolling their windows down to tell me it’s an awesome looking truck and that they love my bumper stickers.

I have no plans on selling it. I want to ride it out as far as it’ll go and then when the engine decides to finally give up I plan on swapping in a BMW K1200 motorcycle engine into it. Something about seeing a truck like this driving and hitting 12k RPM’s just seems way too cool to not do lol.

Thanks for reading this! Hope you all have a great day and if you want drop your story for me to read below!

And I thought I had a lot of miles at a little shy of 260k! Cool story, glad you're still driving it.

Wow! I have quite the opposite, a 50k mile 1982 4x4 long bed, rare in itself. It's fun to see the extremes of the automotive world, makes it exciting!

o/p,
I am not an early or late 1'st gen expert & as such had to rely on search engines from the web...
? does Your 1'st Gen have a 7 segment odometer -
With very humble respects may I impose for a picture of the odometer in your vehicle ?---

A near three quarter million miles. How many vehicles make 300,000 before they get junked... that is amazing :thumbup:

Was the bottom end ever redone? Must have been the best motor to leave the factory!

It doesn’t have the 7th segment, but the book left from the original owner in the glovebox confirms the mileage to around 500,000. I don’t have it on me right now so I can’t say the exact number from when he sold it, but I’ll confirm it when I get home and I’ll even post a picture. Odometer in the truck currently reads 47,204.

Looking at the condition of the engine and it’s surrounding components I would guess that the bottom end is stock. Nothing in the records indicate that the original owner did anything major in the engine and the other two owners I know personally and have said they did just what was needed to keep it running but never anything internal.

It leaks oil a fair amount at about 3/4 quart a week. Coolant is fine with no leaks and stays pretty green.

^
Humble Thanks Sir!!
Looking forward to the the picture of the odometer.

If it legit, then it's time to pull it out and give it a freshen up. Especially with the amount if oil it's going through, the head will DEFINITELY need an overhaul - valve float and seats, new valve stem seals, a hot tank and pressure test is on the cards. If by some miracle the bores are still within spec you may get away with just replacing the rings and giving the block a light hone. Be also aware that getting a replacement 4G52 head is going to be difficult. They are not the same as a 4G54 and things like the rocker cover won't swap over.

Here’s some pictures of the current odometer, the owners manual, and the booklet the original owner kept. Attachment 25227Attachment 25228Attachment 25228Attachment 25229Attachment 25230Attachment 25230Attachment 25231

I’m not going to be doing any rebuilding of the engine. If it’s a simple repair or anything external of the engine then I’ll do it, but if something internally fails that’s pretty extensive I’ll just go ahead and start the swap over to a K1200. The way it drives right now leads me to think it’ll last a lot longer anyways. It’s not perfect, but she seems healthy still. The exhaust is completely fallen apart, the mounts are all worn out causing it to clank into gear, the shifter is sloppy like stirring a bowl of soup, but all of that has been that way for years now.

I might address some of the issues it currently has, but honestly I think it gives it the character it has. I’ve got quite a few other cars to drive when the day comes that the little 2.0 gives up so I can take my time doing the swap.

A shifter rebush is easy and will fix the sloppy gears - this is a common problem that only takes a few nylon bushes from ebay to rectify. Is it a 4 or 5 speed? I would tend to do a full drivetrain swap out of a later Gen 1 with the belt drive G63B 2.0 and 5 speed. The K1200 will struggle with the weight of the truck (if this was a Suzuki Mighty Boy I'd say GO FOR IT) I have found replacement heads (and other engine components for the 4G52 engine) for as little as $200 USD on forklift parts sites, so that offers some hope.

KGR,
thank you for the pictures !!!
I had no doubt about the mileage, I (as stated) have limited experience with early & late 1'st gen platform...
Google is a good resource sometimes, I however prefer facts for My education > Thx Again!!

No problem at all!

It’s a 4 speed transmission. I’d like to swap it to a 5 speed, but the issue is finding one. I haven’t looked too hard though. I also would like to look at a full write up on everything required for a swap to it.

As for the K1200 and the weight of the truck, it’s more for the sound and cool factor tied into it lol. Currently the truck would probably make 60
horsepower, so I’m sure the K1200 paired with a sequential transmission would be fine.

Gen 2 trucks had G63B 5 speed combos so you aren't locked into finding another Gen 1 D-50/Ram50 for a donor. The 2.0 should've been about 93 HP, so you've lost a chuck of HP and torque using the K1200 engine. I'd take the fuel delivery off the K1200 and modify the 4G52 intake manifold to mate them together. Nutty torque and throttle response, improved fuel economy :grin:

Motorcycle engine swaps are usually in extremely lightweight vehicles. While I do think it would be cool and sound ridiculous, I think you'd be spending a lot of time and money and sacrificing a lot of performance. Motorcycle engines tend to make their power pretty high in the rev range. Stop and go driving would really get tiresome. Clutches would probably have a fairly short life, and both would be noticeably worse with moderate loads in the bed if you used your truck as a truck.
But cool is cool. I might trend towards an engine from a Yamaha V-Max or a Suzuki GSX1300R. A bit more power output for the added weight.