i have a 1988 Ranger STX regular cab, AT and a 2.9L V6. i dont like the motor, and my dad and i both want a diesel to tinker with. we have access to MANY diesel engines, perkins, cat, cummins, john deere, ect. we are wondering how much work there is to puttin one of these in aside from the ovbious mounts, tranny adapter, electrical, and exhaust work. how many of you have done this before? any tips or tricks? just planning on goin with the minimal amounts of electrical, no A/C. the truck wouldnt be under any heavy use. any questions, just ask

 

Man , you guys got a lot of ambition!! Adapters , oil pan , exhaust , fuel system , and a whole bunch more headaches come to mind. The tranny and transfercase will never take the torque from the diesel. Why not just throw in a 4.0L or even a 5.0L? At least you can find all the parts you need easily and cheaply compared to the diesel setup.
That being said... I admire your drive
Good Luck!

 

better look for donor engine with tranny, clutch and starter. I used to combine engines and trannies that did not fit... a lot of mashining works...

 

Ford put a 4 cylinder diesel in the rangers in the mid 80's, there drivetrain held up to the torque. The T-case and a 8.8 rear diff will be fine, You may want to upgrade the tranny from a M5OD out of an F-150 or a t-5 from a stang gt or turbo coupe. Advanced adapter's sells conversion kets for using a t-5 in a ranger, but thats mostly for a 5.0 swap. As dadlovesfords mentioned, you will have a lot of fab work a head of you, there's going to be nothing easy about this swap afraid. Also as dadlovesfords has stated, a 4.0 or 5.0 swap would be soooo much easier. Advanced adapterd and james duff sell the conversion kits to drop a 5.0 right into a ranger, plug and play. The 4.0 fits in place of a 2.9, it just needs the 4.0's wiring harnesss and puter. Good luck as you will need lots of it ha ha.

 

Many years ago, my brother took a Perkins diesel, added a turbocharger from an Olds F-85, followed by a pair of Ford trannies - one a wide ratio 3 speed and the other a close ratio 4 speed - and put it all in a Dodge forward control van. It took a lot of work, including a lot of fabricating of parts from engine to 1st tranny and between the two trannies. It worked out to a turbodiesel with a seven speed transmission (effectively) and lots of compound shifts. The fabrication was helped along because the place where he worked had a large machine shop and several guys who were as interested in the project as he was. That resulted in a lot of custom fabrication getting done for the cost of material. I rode in it once - a real neat vehicle. Unfortunately, about a year later he hit a deer resulting in the truck being totalled.

You can do it, but it will take a lot of work. The project will stretch the word "tinkering" to its limit. Keep us posted on the project. I have to admit I've thought about doing something like that myself. Unfortunately I don't have the knowledge or skills to do it.
I know, if you have enough money, you can do almost anything. But that's problem # 3.

Good luck.

 

well, the fabrication and maching is no scare for me. i do alot of that at home and for some of the people i have worked for. the resources arent bad either. i have access to steel, and the engines are easy for me, as i used to work for a combine scrape yard, i live about .75 miles away from them, and 1.5 mi away from a tractor place. its just a matter of pickin the ol brain a bit i guess and doin somme pencil pushin

 

If I may ask, what is the purpose of this swap, I mean what are you hopeing to gain? Is it better mpg, lowend torque, I'm just more or less curious.

 

If I was doing it, I would be doing "because I can". Basically just to prove to myself I'm not an idiot with a hairbrained idea.... Well maybe I am, but a lot of time I've built or drawn plans for some pretty neat chit. I think a 4cyl perkins or JD with a turbo from a small 6cyl diesel is what you're going to want. I would run an older all mechanical unit so you don't have to mess with electronics. Use an engine that revs a little higher (red line of 4500 if you can find one....) and a np trans or even an NV4500 (from a dodge) it will be a challenge yes, but it can be done. You may have to ditch the 4x4 or use an ungodly lift to get it all to fit without the oil pan getting beat to bits by the front axle.

 

YouTube - Cummins Ranger
Just fuel for the debate. I remember seeing the vid a few months ago while browsing Youtube. The front end was lengthened, but that's all I know of the mutant beyond the details he describes during playback.

 

ah yes. i have seen that video a few times. yet did you notice that the motor in that truck is a 5.9L cummins though, its a 6cyl and thats why the lengthening happened. and as to anwser your question wendell, im not lookin to gain a thing. its kind of because i can, but yet trying to be unique in the plain jane area such as mine. and to possibly prove myself and make people drool. and i know this can be done, i have seen a few 4bt cummins rangers, and a few 2.2L perkins rangers also

 

I didn't really dig enough to figure out which it was, but I did notice the I-6 setup, yeah. There are also 4 vids of a big yellow one with a 4bt on Youtube, but they just show it cruising down rural roads belching soot. I saw another vid of a Cummins in a very old Monte Carlo of late 60's chassis. So it's probably quite possible to diesel just about anything on 4 wheels without begging Ford for new diesel Rangers. You might like that justification.

 

I think a john deer diesel would be sweet, just for name sake. A john deer powered ranger even sounds cool. John deer green under the hood would be an attention getter.

 

Never thought of that. I know nothing of John Deere engines, but I used to make hydraulic pistons for them. Precision nothing special, but the specs they did demand were absolute. There is a good story here. We also made parts for Ford New Holland until they wanted us to make some dual counterbore pistons in 2 halves. I didn't see thier prints, but had me busting a gut laughing. Also wanted to strangle thier engineers & bean counters for the safety of the guys shoveling the dirt & concrete. The management of my boss for one reason or another refused to make them, so we just continued to make old-school single-piece dual counterbore parts. (Repair industry customer) I will say some guys including ou QC manager were idiots when it came to reading the print specs for concentricity, not that it mattered to the end product - most of the time.

 

i have heard that the cummins 4bt engine works well with a drivetrain that already supported a 4.0L. you only need mounts and a bell adapter.

 

Now that sounds like an interesting and educational project. If you don't already have one, you need a digital camera so you can share this on with us. Be glad you still have your father to do it with. What a way to bond!