This is on the heels of the thread by naker, I'm wondering the exact opposit. I have a 1978 Ford F250 2x4 with a 460. A friend of mine keeps telling me to replace the 460 with a Diesel. I want to know if that is feasable or not.
How involved would this be and is the price of conversion worth whatever the gain?

Thanks

 

It might be but in 78 there was no such thing as having a diesel in a pickup. It would be switching a lot of electric componets around and rewiring and trying to get the tranny hooked up to the motor. In the long run it wouldnt be worth it. So i would say no. Unless you wanna put 7000$+ in that old truck. Your better off buying a new truck in the end.

 

Feeling a little foolish for even having asked, I rather figured that would be the case. Thanks for setting me straight....

 

If you are very interested in doing this, the best thing to do is to find someone with a 73-79 Ford who has done this before. It might be very tough to find someone who has, but I think that there are a few people on this site who have put a 6.9 or a Cummins into an older Ford. You would probably want to buy a wrecked 2wd pickup with a diesel engine in it, so you would have most of the needed parts. Those older Ford pickups like yours look great and hold together better than newer ones do, so if you really like your pickup, it might be worth it to look into.

 

Check out this site www.fordcummins.com it was in a previous forum. they have the total kits but its to much for my pocket book.

 

It is not as hard as alot of people think, I am going to drop one in mine, just cant come across an engine yet. The engine only needs 1 wire for it to run which is the fuel shut-off solenoid on the injection pump. Stuff like Glow plugs are basically just sarting aids, however of course you do need them. You will have to make up mounts, chances are you will just have to modify your existing mounts. You can probably use the driveshaft out of the truck the engine came out of or it might be the same shaft that you already have. I need more information like what tranny your using and stuff.

Brad

 

Switching to an IDI diesel should be simple, the engine and tranny mounts are really the only thing you need to do. Wiring is very easy, you have the injection pump cutoff and the glow plug controller, if you even want to run that. A lot of people will wire in a button so that would be no extra work compared to a truck that already had a diesel. You'll have to hook up a oil and a temp gauge but those are easy, just one wire a piece. Just make sure you clean out your gas tank really well before you start it for the first time.

 

My F250 has a C6 trans.

These last posts sound more encouraging. I figure if it would cost 7 Gs (as the Kid F250 says) to convert the truck over it to diesel, it would be better just to buy a pre-existing diesel truck. On the other hand, if it isn't all that difficult to make the change and the cost is not prohibitive, I would give it a go. Getting the engine is the easy part. I have one that I can buy, just needs a rebuild.

nlhawk

 

MJD
I just want to add, that I love my truck. It looks good and I'd like to keep it as long as the grass grows and the oil flows....
...so to speak...

 

Thats good. I want to get a 73-79 Ford 3/4 ton 4X4 sometime. I have a 73 F-100 that I should fix up.

 

nlhawk, what kind of rear end do you have now?
Do you know if it is a heavy duty or a light duty?
You will have to replumb the entire fuel system, diesels have return lines that gassers do not.
You may have radiator issues as well, diesels have bigger radiators.
You will have to change trannies, gas trannies will not bolt up to diesels.

Not trying to say it can not be done, it will be a lot of fab work (read as time and money) to get it right though.

Till you rebuild the diesel and get it in the truck and running, 7 G is not to far out of line. But you will have something that everyone else does not have.
You may be better off finding a running motor, diesels are not cheap to rebuild.

 

If you dont have a SD frame, dont even try. There are numerous crossmembers that are different for the added weight(6.9's weigh over 1000 lbs) and torque the diesel put out. Even stock members creak and pop under the added stress.

 

Rear end is a Dana 60 possi with 4:10 gears, radiator is extra large.

This really is looking like a major reconstruction project. I have rebuilt gas engines, but never a Diesel. I was hoping I could do that rebuild myself. A buddy of mine has a garage where I would rebuild it, IF that is practical. If not, I won't buy the engine. I'll just wait until I find a Diesel truck and keep my gasser the way it is.

 

You will lay out a big dollar amount for machine work.

Go look at a 80 something diesel radiator, I bet it is lots bigger than your 460.
The Dana 60 will take the diesel OK and that may indicate it was a heavy duty truck unless it has been swapped in later.
While you are looking at the radiator, also look at the thickness of the frame rails. The light duty version of the 250 frame looks like sheet metal when compaired to a heavy duty frame. That light duty frame will probably hold the motor, but sooner or later you are going to want to put all that power to use hauling or towing something. That is when the problems will surface quickly and possibly in an ugly way.

I just went down the same engine rebuild road, after checking all the machine shops locally I decieded that a reman engine was the cheapest way to go. Besides it has a warranty, that I did have to use to get a replacement engine 51 days after installing the first one.

The range locally was from 5 to 7 thousand to rebuild a 6.9 and it was going to take about 3 weeks.

I purchased a 7.3 turbo upgrade for 6500 and the swap took one day and ran 850 for labor.

So for between 350 and 2350 I got a warranty and 24 Cubic inches and a turbo and a complete 3" Walker exhaust system.

And when it blew up 51 days later I got a complete motor for 68 dollars worth of sales tax on the second remove, diagnose, and replace.

I am a fairly good mechanic, have rebuilt several diesels, grew up on a farm with diesel equipment, drove truck long haul for 13 years, and running heavy equipment currently.
After looking at everything from every side I could think of, it was a lot of money to lay out. But as it all turned out I am glad I went the route I did, it was the only one that really made sence time and dollar wise.