At long last, a thread to which I, a diesel dinosaur, can relate. All you guys are very experienced and technically and technologically adept - to say the least.
I have a Jeep M170 which has hada Toyota 2LT in it for the past 13 years. I bought the engine from Shersha Kabari market in 2001 Jan, and except for one year (well eleven months in 2004), I have used it nearly everyday ever since. And I finally rebuilt it in Sept/Oct 2013. The credit for which largely goes to Suhaib Kiani. (He convinced me to rebuild the engine rather than putting another one in).
My experience, with this engine so far has been that if one's cooling system is fine, and you dont tweak around the fuel pump too much, it well serve you reliably well, like a sturdy mule. It doesnt have tones of power like a 1KZ-TE does, but it usually has enough power to get your out of four wheeling trouble if drive it right. The Toyota 2L-TE is I feel a more powerful engine, but the saada non-EFI 2LT isnt too bad either and has good fuel economy too.
The most notorious of the L series engines, in my opinion, is the 3L. Nearly everyone I know who swapped a 3L in his Jeep cursed it, because it invariably cracked heads. One friend went through 3 heads and two engine, before he finally swapped a 1KZ-TE.
I might be wrong about the 3L, but in either case, I would like to hear your views on it.
Last but not the least, has anyone here tried boring out a 3L block to accomodate 5L pistons? (In effect, rebuild a 2800cc 3L into a 3000 cc 5L). Is it worth the time and money? Do the gains, if any, justify the effort?