Please note: We are relisting this truck due to a non-paying bidder. If you choose the buy-it-now option for purchase, we will need to receive your full payment within 7 days and the truck must be picked up within 3 weeks, unless other arrangements are made prior to purchase.

Here is a really nice 1981 Isuzu Pup 4x4 diesel pickup truck. I have owned (or looked at) quite a few of these trucks but have never seen an all-original, 4x4, diesel Pup with a body and frame in this nice of a condition. This little pickup truck has a straight frame with no rust or dents any place that I could find. It even has its original paint! I was told that the truck was garaged most of its life, and when it was not garaged, it spent much, if not most, of the rest of its life being towed behind an RV. It even still even has the tow hitch brackets on the front of it. Everything looks really great on this truck; even the chrome bumpers are nice, which are almost always beat up on these trucks! The running gear looks great too! (Even the CV boots on the front axles are in great shape!) It also has really nice wheels and all terrain tires. The truck comes with a red stock tailgate, and the tailgate net that is currently on the truck. As you can see, this truck even has a nice deluxe interior with a console, bucket seats, etc. Usually the seats, door panels, etc, are beat up in trucks this age, but these items are in good shape. Even the dash is in good shape with no cracks!

The only thing this truck needs is to have its new engine installed. The previous owner had a serious problem with the engine and it ended up over-heating and seizing. The engine block was severely damaged (cracked cylinder walls), but it will be included in the sale so you will have extra parts if you want it. Fortunately for me, before I bought the truck, I had already located a really solid Isuzu C223 engine (the same model diesel engine that was originally in the little red Pup), and was able to track down all the parts to rebuild it (not an easy task), had it professionally rebuilt, and ready to install in a little Isuzu truck. (For a more detailed description of the engine, see the description three paragraphs down.

The odometer says the truck has 118,960 miles on it, but the previous owner told me it quite working about 20,000 miles ago, so the truck basically has around 138,000 original miles on it. However, like I mentioned earlier, the truck was towed around a lot, so the transmission, etc., actually has a lot fewer miles on it.

Don’t forget, included in this sale is a very nice, professionally rebuilt Isuzu 223 diesel engine that is just like the one that was original to the truck. I have had the engine for a while and have been searching for a vehicle to put it in, so I was pretty happy to find such an incredibly nice truck to put the engine in. Unfortunately my work now requires that I pull a tandem axle trailer with my full size pickup truck. Also, my work schedule is so hectic, I just don’t have the time to finish the project. It really bothers me to have to let the engine and truck go because I will probably never again find such a great Pup body / engine combination in this fantastic of a condition. However, it just doesn’t make sense to keep them in storage any longer when someone else can get them on the road again and give them a good home.

Now for some information on the engine:

This 2.2 Isuzu diesel engine was professionally rebuilt (with receipts) and was originally in an early '80's Chevy Luv pickup truck. It took me weeks to find the parts I needed to have this engine rebuilt. After many hours on the phone and many more on the internet I found what I think was the last .40 over pistons in existence. I had them shipped in from overseas, then I found some of the bearings and rods from a place in the Midwest and a gasket kit from back east, etc... I literally bought the parts I needed from all over the world! If you have ever tried to do a complete rebuild on one of these engines then you know that it is practically impossible to find ALL of the parts to do it. As far as I know I have the only one that has been bored out with new pistons, rods, bearings, valves etc.. It is a complete rebuild, not just honed out with some new rings put in. It is complete with its radiator, starter, injection pump, and all of the goodies you will need to get the truck up and running again, with the exception of maybe a few nuts and bolts for a bracket or something. As you can see in the photos I left the head off of it and took photos of the cylinder walls, tops of the pistons, and valves on the head so you can see the cross hatching of the pistons and see that the pistons and valves are new. If you know much about these little engines, then you know they are a commercial grade engine, used on generators, semi-truck refrigeration units, etc. They have a cast iron head and are very, very tough, built to last many hundreds of thousands of miles (and do!).

This is an incredible opportunity to build one of the most highly optioned, nicest, most dependable, and mechanically sound Isuzu Pup diesel 4x4 trucks you will ever find. Don’t forget that with proper maintenance, these little diesel truck are legendary for going many hundreds of thousands of miles without any major repairs, and get incredible mileage doing it!

If you have any questions or need more photos, just let me know. Thanks for viewing this listing!