TDI Ranger Build

Awesome swap! I just read all 38 pages over on TRS. Did you ever come up with a conversion kit?

Thanks D-Cell!

Got a local shop all ready to go, figured out my sourcing for the new flywheels and will be tackling this after we move in a month or so.

Any idea on price range? Comparable to the acme adapter kits?

Dorkage said:

Any idea on price range? Comparable to the acme adapter kits?

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Yes, comparable to acme's pricing

I just looked at the acme, they seem to primarily sell the Suzuki swap kit the goes for between $425-995. Which will your kit compare to?

I need to finish up my samurai swap asap so I can start one of these! You aren't doing motor mounts too are you?

greengeeker said:

Yes, comparable to acme's pricing

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How about just for a plate and bolts?
Or even just a nice plasma cut plate, ready to be drilled and tapped.

I've got a 2.3 ford and T5 out of a mustang, and a 1.6 IDI out of an '86 golf. They want to make sweet love under the hood of a '63 datsun 320.

Awesome swap awesome thread.
I'd love to talk a Ranger buddy in to this swap.

I'll offer my services for a cut rate if you need adapter plates plasma cut.
I don't have anything crazy for equipment, just a 4x4 plasma cam with advanced height control and a Hypertherm Powermax 45. I cut parts out of .040 aluminum all day everyday.
But I did burn out a few pieces of 1/2" mild steel with shockingly good results today. I've been wanting a Powermax 65 (for the fine cut consumables) and if that made this happen I'd probably be in. My steel supplier is Oneal metals and I buy under a pretty big account so I get basically the best steel pricing available.

Pictoral update

Do people ever look at you weird when you tale pictures of a ford ranger at a gas station?

JFettig said:

Do people ever look at you weird when you tale pictures of a ford ranger at a gas station?

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People are always looking at me weird. I never pay any attention to them.

Very nice project. I'd be taking pictures of that truck at a gas station too. With a weird look on my face as well. lol

greengeeker said:

Thanks D-Cell!

Got a local shop all ready to go, figured out my sourcing for the new flywheels and will be tackling this after we move in a month or so.

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Any updates on this? I got a friend selling his 4x4 ranger for really cheap because the motor seems that it's about to die.

great to see shots of your truck in action.

Do you get many questions or confusion at the pumps?

Nice to see those pictures! I love how level it sits with loads and trailers on the back. Great work!

TDIsyncro said:

great to see shots of your truck in action.

Do you get many questions or confusion at the pumps?

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So far I haven't gotten any questions at the pumps which is surprising as there is plenty of opportunity with my 15min fill up time. The times when people have commented they act as if they unsure of whether or not it is a swap. "I didn't know Ford put a diesel in the Rangers"

NarfBLAST said:

Nice to see those pictures! I love how level it sits with loads and trailers on the back. Great work!

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Thanks Narf. I had to install the airbags to haul the scissor lift - it most definitely would have been sitting on the axle without them.

Kinda like this :

Gauge install

Well I finally took the time to install my McNally pyrometer/boost gauge.

First thing I did was to swap out the thermocouple that came with the guages for a MCA setup. You can see how much longer the probe is with the MCA which will provide much more accurate temps in the center of the manifold.



I really dislike mounting the boost sensor right on the manifold or charge air piping so I decided to remotely mount the sensor on the firewall and run tubing. I also don't really care for the hard plastic tubing running everywhere so I slide it into some spare vacuum hose I had sitting around.



Here's everything mounted up in the engine bay.



How the gauge looks in the truck





And since I forgot to post pictures of my cruise control stalk install. Seems to work pretty well for me. Haven't hit it once with my knee and have very good access to it. I'll call that a win.

Is that cruise control out of the donor vehicle? It almost looks original to the truck, you wouldn't really know it wasn't if you were just glanced at it.

Thanks! Yes, vw stalk. I sanded off the little indicators for functions that are no longer operational (high beams and turn signals).

greengeeker said:

Thanks! Yes, vw stalk. I sanded off the little indicators for functions that are no longer operational (high beams and turn signals).

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It looks great. I'm envious of your work. I wish what I did turned out even half as good as the stuff you do.

I guess I have someone question me 1:5 times about the diesel in the '78 Ford.

The funniest was one time when I didn't leave it running like normal and a guy comes up who was concerned about me pumping diesel into the truck.

He could not bring himself to come out and say "hey moron you are putting diesel in your gas truck." I just played along oblivious.

I think the 12 valve Cummins scared him as I fired it up as he walked away. (^;

Nozzleman said:

The funniest was one time when I didn't leave it running like normal and a guy comes up who was concerned about me pumping diesel into the truck.

He could not bring himself to come out and say "hey moron you are putting diesel in your gas truck." I just played along oblivious.

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"well, I can't use unleaded, they didn't put the hard valve seats in these trucks."

Heavy towing tank

I've now put on an entire tank of fuel where I was always towing something heavy and/or had terrible aerodynamics (flat front trailer).

Trips on this tank:

• Two trips towing the scissor lift
• Four trips using same trailer hauling stuff: building materials and then misc household items (helped someone move some stuff out of their house)
• Two trips hauling dolly empty
• One trip hauling Eurovan
• One trip hauling mk4 Golf

Mileage: 28mpg

I should also note that while towing I was pushing the truck trying to test out my pyrometer. With the EV in tow I was able to rev out to redline (at WOT) through 3rd gear before I was starting to run into EGT issues. I think under these circumstances it hit 1500F (limit on this turbo is 1650). Cruising down the interstate doing 65 I would also hit 1500F after a long grade climb.

Do you have much smoke?

vanbcguy said:

Do you have much smoke?

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Only at WOT or if I give it too much throttle at tip in. I'll have to make a video to show how much I have with the R520s and vnt15. Jon said we can easily dial back the top end fuelling to reduce the smoke.

Yeah was mainly wondering about WOT. I haven't increased my fueling beyond about 1250°F yet but I'm getting a decent haze at WOT on my build. I think I need a steeper cam plate to shorten the duration a bit. Thanks!

Nice build. Good to see the documentation on the wiring.

A-man930 said:

Nice build. Good to see the documentation on the wiring.

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Thanks! I hope others can benefit from it on their builds.

green---i have skimmed most of this thread and have not found any links to Ranger sites, is there one you can recommend. i am going to look at an '88 that was in the immediate family until '02 (then went to my uncle) but has been sitting for 5-7 years (garaged and needs a clutch plus all that sitting for so long will entail) and was hoping you could push me in the right direction. (do not really want to have to deal with a vortex type site).

I work with tools (trim carpentry) on a daily basis but have little automotive experience compared to most on this site. Thanks for any recommended reading I can do before going to take a look this Sunday.

oh yes, nice swap, maybe I will follow suit if this baby is worth the effort.