ALH/BHW hybrid or BHW with BSM delete?

Alberta 7.3

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
TDI
CBEA Ranger under construction
I'm a newb here, but have been lurking for a couple years, and have diesel experience with 7.3 Ford/IH PSD's

I'm looking to do a TDI conversion for a Ford Ranger to replace the exisiting 4.0 SOHC V6 (207 HP@5,250 rpm 238 ft-lbs@3,000 rpm.)

In my area there are a fair number of older TDI's cars for sale in the $1-2K range which would work well since I'd have a complete donor with all the wiring/ECU/etc. I'm debating whether to build a BHW with an ALH head (and 11mm VE pump) for a stouter bottom end like Jimbote did for his Tacoma, or just grab a 200K mile B5.5 Passat with a roached failtronic trans and do the BSM delete and run it for the swap.

Optimally, I'd like to have somewhere in the 175-200 hp realm, and the torque shouldn't be a problem (BHW already produces 229 lbf·ft@1900 rpm) As it is, I rarely push the 4.0 hard. Curb weight of the truck is ~3700 lbs according to Ford data.

Which would be the more reliable option? Which engine would be more costly to reach the power goal? Tuning issues when hooking up an automatic ECU to a manual trans?
 
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