This Oliver crawler loader popped up for sale, and I had to buy it because it was cheap. When I looked at it, I discovered that it was really unique, because someone swapped in a SD22 Nissan diesel 4-cylinder with half of the transmission from a 720 pickup truck. This is my kind of toy!

The original Hercules IXB-3 gas engine produced 29 hp at 1700 rpm, and the gearing in the OC-3's transaxle was known to be too high. The new (80's) 2.2L diesel should put out 61 hp at 4000 RPM, and with the half-transmission reduction it will have plenty of torque. Now I just need to make it work...