http://www.auszookers.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=19276&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=diesel+vitara&start=0
IMO Its not really about engineering it ts that nobody yet, in Australia, has found it a worthwhile project.
The idea of a diesel zook excites me as well but it is just too hard to get everything right. If you can get everything to fit, suspension and brakes corrected for the extra weight, gearing for a diesel is just to complicated and expensive. Petrol zooks like to rev around 4000rpm and up. A diesel likes to rev around half that. IE you need to make your overall gearing about 40-50% taller (which is opposite to what most zook owners want to do) That means you need big tyres and pissy little gears which with the torque of a diesel behind it (more than twice what your car was designed for) means things will snap.
Some ways around this. Look at Diesel Jimny's from europe. LHD only but the Renault engines are unrealiable, i have been told (from european jimny drivers)
There is the Pug and Mazda-powered diesel Vitaras from Japan but you can't import them directly, (front cut?)
I briefly looked at the Hyundai 1.6 diesel engine from the new i30. Its as efficient as diesels come with common rail injection but it's still too long, manifold was the wrong way round, and there is no suitable gearbox to fit it to. (i was quoted $4500 for an engine+turbo+ecu+ignition that had only done 5000km before the i30 maxed out into something)
I would love someone to convince me otherwise.