This may be a bit off topic , but may have some relavence. Ive heard of cummins 4bt's being swapped into f-150s. I was wondering if this would be a suitable swap for a Crown Vic as well. The trannys in the f series and the Crown Vic are the same bolt patterns and the wiring is similar as well. What do you think? Could enough hp's be wrung out of one of these little cummins?
All comment and suggestions are welcome.

 

Weight would be a consideration. I don't know how strong the front suspension is. A car's front end is pretty fragile compared to a pickup truck and you would want to carefully consider how you would go about making sure the ball joints and other critical components would hold up, for safety's sake.

 

plus size. the bay of the crown vic is not that tall.

 

nothing is more comfortable than the old crown vics, but they swallowed gas like a CHAMP

 

What about one of those Thunderbird 4 cylinder turbo gasser engines? That would have enough power to move a Crown Vic and if you were disciplined enough to keep your foot out of it, some respectable mileage as well.

 

only if you have a 50 lb right foot. i have 3 of them. mine is a P71 police package car, and gets 11-14mpg in town, and 26mpg on the highway with the cruise set. my parents each have one. dads civilian model P73 gets 18mpg in town and 26 on the highway. moms grand marquis LS (same car) gets the same thing, 18 in town and 26 highway. i can guarantee if i gave mine to either of my parents it would get the same 18 in town, but i can't keep my foot out of it.

 

Thats what i had too! mine wasnt in great shape though, mostly black, numbers on door, brown trunk. Ford POS.
But, it had a 3 spd and 5.8L engine with 4BBl carbs and had serious *****.
Can it burn rubber? Yes, yes it can. It is very fast, and loud.
One day i tramped it from stop, it didnt shift into 2nd gear till about 110 KM/h!, and squeaking the wheels as it did!
But, as you can tell about my driving habits, if i was to give it to your parents it probably too would get 26mpg. Oh, well. sold it for 150$ scrap metal

 

Im not really looking for a lot more power, (although I have been told that these 4b's are capable of 300 hp) Im after a diesel. Reliability and the ability to burn veggie oil, while not being squeezed into a VW. I have nothing against VW but they arent anywhere near as large or comfy as a Crown Vic. Since Ford, doesnt build a diesel CV I guess Ill have to. From my research I think It will fit. It is only a few inches taller so if I had to, I could bump up the hood with a scoop or something. As far as weight goes I think it will be about 100 lbs heavier so I dont think there is much to be concerned about in that area. Now if I can only find one .

 

Everything that can be done to a car should be done. I think you've got a great idea here.

 

in your same boat... VW diesels are cool, but theres no way i'm get in and out on a regular basis, just too damn tall. International/CASE makes a 4.5L diesel that someone told me you can put in a ranger... What you need is the "overseas" ford ranger engine 2.5 turbo diesel. The ranger gets 36MPG, apparently, so the vic would get at least that.

 

Wouldn't it be easier to buy a Mercedes 300 if you need more room?

 

I seen this on ebay: 3 liter turbo diesel Mercedes motor in a ranger.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-...spagenameZWDVW

As for swapping to a diesel, seems to be a little of that going around

I just started a thread asking the same types of questions about aswappig one into my 73 F100 pickup, and if that goes well, I might consider getting a towncar to make diesel also. There will be a hotrod towncar in my future, I've had visions of 500+CID stroked 460, but how cool would a turbo diesel towncar be!

I already plan a V8 swap in the truck to rid myself of the 240 I6. It does OK, cuz I got a RV cam, and a offy 4 bbl iintake, and a 390 CFM 4bbl carb, but the mileage sucks, and if I'm gonna get crappy mileage, its gonn from a v8 wid some bawls

Anywho, I am wanting to undertake the bio-diesel production myself, which is of course the reason for the pondering such a swap.

I know of a few guys locally making their own, and one guy says he estimates making it for about 55 cents a gallon, I think he may be lying to himself about how cheap it is, but even if its around $1.50, I don't think you could go wrong.

I've also wondered about running striaght ethanol in my gas motors, but I don't know if that is really feasible, and I also understand it don't yield as much power; or if I can really buy it that easily locally Then there is the issue of tuning for it... So it looks like bio-diese may be the way to go.

I guess its time to start the research on bio-diesel before I get too excited; I reckon the esiest thing to do would be to go visit my friends of friends that make their own.

I know you can get some serious power out of these diesel engines too, we have a F250 diesel of some kind around here that I've seen run at the local 1/8th mile track, and he was smoking stangs, camaros, and a few vettes (on the ammature night of course) but MAAAN! That thing launched like it came out of slingshot!!! I don't know if its much more expensive than a gas motor to modify, but its seems that there may be some hot-rodding possiblities here as well. So I guess I need to research diesel performance AND bio-diesel.

Let us know what ya find out about the Vicki!

 

Then it loses the class of a Crown. Ok, I'm outa here guys!

 

Take a crown vic, modify the frame, put in a 6.0 PSD, and 4x4 diffs.
CAN IT BE DONE?
I saw a camaro the other day with a 454 and 4x4 drivetrain...

 

There is a Lumina Van body around here that has been swapped onto a 4x4 frame. It's lifted and has 40" tires on it. It's quite the sight to see.