I thought you said in an earlier post that the A4LD did bolt up to some diesel engines. This is mostly what I am interested. For a donor, I don't want to have to swap a tranny, especially since I believe that the tranny can be effectively beefed up to handle the extra torque. You mentioned that the boost modulator is hard to find. In Europe can they be purchased new, or picked up from a wrecker?

Unfortunately buying a complete donor vehicle is pretty much out of the question due to shipping costs, and import restrictions, but I suspect that smaller parts, such as just engines probably could be shipped without breaking the bank. The problem is, I do not yet know which engine would really be my best choice, or what they cost.

 

What a reason to buy donor van. Buy powertraine only. But u'll never buy A4ld bellhouing for diesel, so get complite A4LD for diesel engine ore better engine+tranny+starter. Tranny will have all (modulator, bellousing, TC and governor apdated for diesel).

To rebuild 4-cyl diesel is not difficult. Manuals are available on-line. Usually old diesels have worn nozzels (use Bosch to replace, about $50 for one) and fuel pump, that needs ajustment. I'm not sure it is easy to find Diesel Pump testing mashine for small engnes in the USA, but you can order rebuilt fuel pump in UK.

A4LD for diesel have a bit different clutch packs and sometimes shorter ore longer rear end, so buy old DS to have a donor to make your DS longer ore shorter, but usually Transit DS is made of steel, so look for made in USA shafts for A4LD.

 

People say that transit 6 st tranny with T-case for AWD vehicles was used on diesel Land-Rovers.

This is Gretag MT82

 

Ok, so you say these come from the UK. Unfortunately, finding European websites when I am in the US is a little difficult. And I still don't know what any of this stuff costs.

Which is why you have been so helpful, you are kind of like our inside man to what cars are like in Europe.

 

easiest to obtain in the US would be one of the smaller Hino or Isuzu 4 cyl med. diesel truck engine/tran packages from a junke yard.
both are tough long lasting engines with readily avail. parts here in the US

expect to put in heavier front springs and extra hvy duty front shocks. powertrain will add 200+ lbs to front end.
expect to pay approx $2000 for a used 4bd2tc w transm.
don't know where you can stick the intercooler for the turbo

 

The problem with our US diesels, is that the smog restrictions on them are prohibitive, and I would need to swap both the engine and the tranny and fabricate mounts for both, plus driveline conversions and numerous other small modifications just to make it work. Getting the European engine that already bolts up to an A4LD simplifies things somewhat.

 

One more time.... your a4ls wont bolt on pegeot engine. You need a4ld with made in EU bellhousing for european ford diesel engines. There are many JY in England, nearle everywhere (London, Dovr, Liverpool....), there are many Ford Transit forums with well qualified gues on them... Onec I read about engine swap in old russian ZIL 131 AWD truck... not easy task. I belive they will help you. I advice you to get Euro-I o fully mechanical controlled diesel othe Euro-II, but look for workshop in UK where they will rebuild ruther exotic distributor type fuel pump, and replace nozzels on injectors (I belive you do not want your aero run in clouds of black smoke like a semi).

Some early Transits had VERY RELIABLE 2.4 diesel w/o turbo. Vry dood fuel milage (8-9 l/100 km on hightway, about 10-11 - urban area), but slow. In aero this diesel lets get better then in Transit fuel milage, but aero rauns like early 2.3 aero.

 

Ok, so where might I find this bellhousing and a workshop in UK. Our US based search engine don't seem to find stuff in Europe very well, I can't find much that matches what I am really looking for. Do you know of a UK based website for such shops, or how to get in touch with them?

 

try to find a good transit forum first. They'll help you!

 

It hardly pays to aquire a diesel these days, I have one that gets 36.1 MPG, but, a gas
engine that gets 30.6 is the same cost-per-mile..
(thats northern ill. prices of fuel, as compared to the benz's m.p.g. )
I bought an '02 Escort last night, ZX2. EPA hwy is 33, thats cheaper per mile than the diesel...What I was looking for, was a CNG contour..THAT is the way to go right now.
Maybe the future, no...I don't have crystal ball, but at this cost for fuel, i have empty wallet. Sad for the big truck guys, F250 costs $170 to fill up. I hope ford can produce
a smaller engine version ,FAST..the sales force needs it, the lots have a large supply of unsold product, not good. Our entire economy at this cost is in jepordy, I wanted to drive to Montana for a vacation, but i did the math, in the Aero, that is app. $550 in fuel costs. So, i dunno, then there is lodging, food, etc. All of the bills on my back.
Suddenly not so much fun. Maybe cruise around lake michigan, the state of michigan
needs the money..you guys ever drive through Detriot, not on the interstate?
Not good there, all ghetto and dangerous.

 

well, east Europe has altarnative - Compressed Natural Gas. USA have no so well developed NG networks. We use NG for cooking, for heating... 1 cube meter of motor compressed natural gas is $0.50. It is equal 0.9L of petrol.

But who knows the future. Seems to me it is noh H2 engines, not Hybrids, but pure electric cars. Volvo truck tests first FL9 8 tont truck in Ghent. Made in Canada batteries, German electric engine. 200-300 miles around a city and 6 hours to revolt. They say that it is only beggining. And they want to sell kits for trucks to convert it to electric power.
Some enthusiasts convertr theirs vehicles to electric power by theirself. I saw self made electric Volga (powertraine is interchengable with aerostar and ranger) with 50kwt engine from fork truck. Runs! Yeah, there are some problems, like no hot water to heat car inside and there is small Webasto AT2000 heater that use 0.5-1 L of diesel to heat car inside.

What car engeneer say abou electric cars... They say it is close future, people who'll convert theirs old cars to electric power will get tax discounts...
Of course oil exporters will drop oil price down to make these project not profitable, but goverments will provide new emission staandarts expencive to pass....

So 10-15 years later we'll have another world....

 

Agree on electric, to commute in urban areas, we really do not need hundreds of HP.
There is a CNG station about 20 miles from me, but that is not good enough to live with
on a day-to-day basis-and there is no plans or talk about building any more around here.
But hey, honda gets major press about their hydrogen car, never mind the facts about actually using the damn thing. This is becoming an entire nation of people who never made anything out of metal, or wood for that matter....and they hate the smell of diesel. I believe if the EPA was out of the picture, detroit could make vehicles that could get 60+ MPG all day..the jeep liberty diesel was a flop sales-wise, emissions regs.
caused the thing to only get about 24mpg..WTF?

 

Saw today my friend who drives his Aero with CDI from Sprinter. 34 MPG! Good! it is like 29MPG with regulaf gas (oct. 87-91).

BTW! 8 ton trolley bus has 150-250 KWT engine. Accelerates better then 600 HP semi becouse no delay on shifting. 50 KWT Volga runs ruther fast.

 

Where I am there is lots of natural gas, the problem with converting vehicles to CNG is the cost. It is hard to justify spending $4000 - $5000 to convert, especially since I also have to give up cargo space. It has other complications as well.

 

Replacement for the beloved bread box of ours? NO! What is the answer? Parking for now or limiting ourselves the urge of driving our Aero's every day. If I could find a reasonably prices little car with the drive to take me around the block at nothing less than 30 MPG. I could care less what brand or year it is.