me and a friend of mine bought a chevy luv (never even heard of it) from another friend for an amazingly expensive 2 dollars it is the mikado version and i was told that it should have a 289 in it can any one verify this also it now has an isuzu 4banger in it and its only running on 2 cylinder ran a compression check and there in absoulutly nothing please help me figure this out i would be happy to see this thing running right
Don

P.S. yea its a chevy but it was 2 dollars and it had a snowmobile in the back so what the hey

 

wow....this is just a tad off topic don't you think?

 

yea but i know that the guys in here are smart cuz theve answered many questions of mine before so i figured that this would be a good place to start
Don

 

The Chevy Luv was Chevy's answer to the small truck market it was made in Japan by Isuzu it should never have a ford 289 from the factory the four banger you got is more than likely the stock motor.Now Chevy [GM] makes the Isuzu trucks.Thats how the Isuzu made DURAMAX diesel ended up in there full size trucks. The Ford Courier was made by Mazda in Japan now Ford owns Mazda and makes the Mazda trucks here in the states. The Dodge D50 was made by Mitsubishi in Japan for Dodge

 

My Dad had a Chevy Luv truck back in the late 70's. The crappy 4 banger made by Isuzu is the correct factory motor, but it is a peice of junk, so your friend is technically right: It SHOULD have a 289, or a 350, or a 327, or a 426 hemi, or ANYTHING other than the factory 4 banger. They are a popular truck with the resto mini-truck crowd, I used to see them in the minitruck magazines years ago when I was more interested in that than full size trucks.

Considering that your motor has low compression and is only running on 2 cylinders, what are your plans? Try to get it tuned up good, or replace it with a small block?

Good luck on your project.

 

Moved to the General Automotive Discussion Forum

 

Do you have any photos of it?
Is it similar in size to the Ranger of a similar era?
We still get the Isuzu Rodeo here (its not at SUV like what you get, its very similar to the Ranger).
http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/...w?modelid=9006

They are pretty simple mechanically if I recall correctly, but I have no experience with them before.

 

Like the guys said, this is an Isuzu built 4 banger. The Mikado was the "luxury" trim package as I recall. Chevy sold these trucks so definitely no 289 was ever offered as a factory option, that I know of. Some people did engine swaps but V8s were pretty front heavy for those Japanese trucks back then. A 289 is a V8 so the engine type you have should be night and day obvious.

I have had experience with 2 Luv/Isuzu trucks from the 70s/80s. One was a gas LUV 4 banger 4WD(friend's). The other was a Isuzu diesel 4 banger 2WD(brother's).

The gas truck ran pretty well but the build quality and durability were not good. I once was helping my friend work on the truck and asked, "why are those vice grips up there on the clutch mount?". Because, the vise grips were holding the stamped sheet metal mount together so the clutch could be used.

The Diesel ran Ok too, but during a snow storm, the speedo cable froze and snapped. I never saw that happen before and it wasn't that cold, maybe the teens. Don't know why but that truck had 2 blow outs in about a week, once with me sleeping in the back rolled up in a down sleeping bag whilce my brother drove through freezing temps at 70mph. When the blow out happened, I woke up with visions of feathers flying all over the freeway. Probably just bad tires or my brother driving like a jerk off road, with a 4 banger diesel yet.

I wasn't impressed with either and both owners sold their relatively new trucks as soon as they had a chance.

The Luv was kind of cute tho.

Jim Henderson

 

the chevy luv indeed could have the 289. if you look back at the time these trucks were made, 3 were being sold almost the exact same thing. these 3 mini trucks all had interchangable parts, i have owned the toyota and swapped many parts from the chevy luvs and the ford couriers.

 

One of my frequent customers has a 79 Chevy LUV....it is the Crummiest Heap Ever Visioned Rolling Over Land. Expect Trouble.

In any case... they are junk... I'd take it to the recyclers and get your $2 back...

 

yea weve kinda figured out that the pretty shotty rides but we just want to fix up the 4banger and not spend a bunch of money in the process hes thinkin that if he can sell his accord then he will swap in a 289 that his friend has layin around and purty it all up so it looks good but were not real sure yet so were just lookin to fix the 4banger for now and anything else that needs fixing.
Thanx
Don

 

My Bro-in-law has had a couple of them over the years, I guess he's a bit of a masochist! Personally, I never liked them.
1.- It's a Chevy. Yeah, it's really an Isuzu (Gezundhiet!) but it wears the Chevy name, the kiss of death as far as I'm concerned!
2.- It's ugly. IMO, the ugliest mini-truck ever built.
3.- It's a major POS. Reliabilty? Hah! Rolling deathmobile is more like it! It'll go just fast enough to cause fatalities when something lets go!
Were I you, at this point I would PAY someone to haul it off and count yourself lucky!
Just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions...! -TD

 

ok we figured out that its a rolling peace of crap and we dont really care im just wonderin if u guys know what could be wrong 2 of the cylenders have 0 absolutly no compression if u guys could help me figure out why this is it would help quite a bit cuz we really want to get it running and we more than likely will just go bajaing and beat the living crap out of it so not meaning to sound rude but we know that its a piece and that its not worth fixing up so please enough with that like ive said i already no that we wanna fix it and go bajaing and not be worried about losing anything that is expensive or somthin so thank you and sorry if i seemed angry im really not

Don

 

Are the 2 dead cylinders next to each other? If so, the head gasket could be blown between them. When you say no compression on those 2 cylinders, is it absolutely zero? Usually there is a little compression, unless there are holes in the pistons or the valves are not closing. Could have a couple of bent valves, sounds like the head's gonna have to come off. You should pull the valve cover off and look at the valves, see if they're all opening and closing properly, and then go from there. -TD

 

Out at the Las Vegas Super Run a couple of years back a guy had a Black Chevy Luv with a 350 in it. It had some huge tires on the back too. It was a real head turner, because when he would lightly tap the gas the truck would just smoke the tires.