Nice and clean.

<title>Ranger Cummins conversion</title>Ford : Ranger | eBay


Rog

 

That looks familiar, Rog.

 

Seems that there are a few folks following this vehicle. The question is though whether or not the folks at Ford are spending any time monitoring us. I suppose that they have some CS/Marketing folks that visit sites like these so you have to wonder if any of them are taking notes and escalating to 'boss'. One can only hope!

 

Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Nissan, Toyota etc all know Americans want small diesels, it is the EPA that makes it difficult to make that happen.

Plus, sure it's nice a person here or there is taking small diesels and transplanting them and I am sure those manufacturers take notice.

However, for every 1 diesel conversion there are 50 transplanting bigger V6 engines and others that are transplanting small block V8's. For example, there aren't that many going from 4.0 V6 engines or 5.0/4.6/5.4 V8's to 2.3 I4's etc. Drop in the bucket.

Same deal with the older trucks, not too many going from the 460/351 to the 300-I6 or the 73-79 FE big blocks and 335 series going to 240/300-I6. But plenty going the other way.

So what sells? A couple diesels or bigger more powerful engines?

I personally would love a small diesel in my Ranger, but I have been getting 23 mpg out of my 2.9 and spending $1500-4000 for all the parts and junk to convert to a diesel which would buy 430-1145 gallons of gas or enough to go 9,900-26,335 miles.

Economically it sadly doesn't add up.

Josh

 

my 99 ranger with a 4.0 auto is getting around 20 MPG , same as my 90 f250 with a 7.3 !
when the 4.0 gives up i have been playing with the idea of a Isuzu 2.2 diesel , i have 2 of them in older air compressors ! and then mating them with a 518 dodge tranny !

 

i was hoping to trade in my '83' diesel ranger for a new one. in the next year or two. but the new ranger won't be sold in north america, even if it did, i doubt if the epa would let the diesel be sold here.

ps: it averages between 30-38 mpg depending on the right foot.
uses #2, bio-diesel and clean veg oil.

 

I've not investigated the level of merit with the EPA's position on diesel engines. I assume, however, that the bar is set high in order to challenge manufacturers to advance technology in reducing carbon emmisions into our environment (be greener). Businesses often take the cheaper route in an effort to maximize profits. Therefor, the margins on a diesel vehicle might make that configuration unfavorable for production. And, if the diesel engines last and last, then buyers would be less likely to be back sooner than later. Future earnings are lower. So the dollars and cents may not make it practical/pragmatic for businesses to invest in newer technology to make small diesel engines meet the EPA requirements. But, if there were more buyers and therefor, a larger market, then they could potentially make strides to meet the need.

My buddy has a diesel Jetta: loves the car. Amazingly, it does better mpg's at higher speeds as well (or so says the onboard computer). We did 70-80 mph coming back from Boston and the display said we were getting 46 mpg's. Pretty impressive!

 

I agree with many of the short points brought out here...

Five Reasons Small Diesels Won't Dominate the U.S. Car Market

You also have to look at the past. Automakers tried offering small diesels in the 70s and 80s, but nobody bought them.

Likely because of points 1,4 and 5 in that article. It is strange that diesels DOMINATE in nearly every other country, but here. When Mercedes, VW and Nissan sell diesels hand over fist across the "pond" it has to say something.

My neighbor has a new VW Golf with the TDI and it is extremely quiet, no smoke and gets incredible mileage.

The again the new ecoboost Fords that basically mimic a diesel is the way they are looking. Booo!!!

Josh

 

Here's an interesting article re the EPA and it's future plans.

End of the Line | FreedomWorks

Rog

 

the largest problem is that diesels emit more c02 / mile compared to gas vehicles. in europe, diesels get a break on co2 emissions due to much lower #'s for all other emissions. our epa will not give the break for diesels here. they have to have the same co2 standards as a gas engine. so diesels must have extra treatment adding thousands to the cost of a vehicle. this on top of the extra cost of building a better engine...
my current full sized truck will be my last new truck... from now on, i'm just going to fix up older vehicles with newer drive trains.

 

That might be the case now... But nobody wanted the other diesels and didn't really catch on until the mid 90s when it was starting to get too late.

Would have been a different story if people gobbled up and actually bought the smaller diesels in the 80s

 

so true, Detroit left a bad taste in consumers. that's why the import brands do so well. the big three/four at that time. just didn't care about the product they sold. pinto, vega, pacer they all made junk until they saw their market shares go down. by then it was already to late.
most automakers already make very good, clean burnings diesels everywhere but north america now. so the problem of not having a small diesel pickup is in the governments regulations.