ALH into 95 Ranger 4x4

[HoneyBadger]

Figured its about time to start my own thread. I've been nibbling on this project for a little over 2 years now, and am now starting to make some noticeable progress and figured I should start documenting what I've been doing to keep track of everything and to help any one else looking to do one of these swaps.
I want to give a shout out to greekgeeker also because his thread is what got me to actually pull the trigger on doing this project. I plan to follow his lead and put my own twist on the swap. More details later.
Seeing his actual mileage numbers took a lot of my doubts about the benefits of doing this project away. I'm tired of getting 14-17mpg in my ranger. Looking forward to 30+ hopefully 35-40+ !
The base:
1995 Ford Ranger 4x4 5 spd.

The donor:

Pulling the TDI:


Clean block waiting for primer:

Primered:

Painted:


Wiring Harness as I pulled from the donor:


All the gunk that was in the intake:


Reassembled:



I will not be pulling the motor out of the Ranger until May or June after I move. Right now I am just doing a bunch of prep work to get the new motor ready to go in.
Up to this point I've pretty much been doing maintenance to the engine and a little bit of stalling hoping that GreenGeeker was going to get his adapters for sale. Ended up with one from TDconversions, still in the process of getting it installed on the motor.
Things I've done so far:
Painted the block
Cleaned the intake
Timing belt replacement (and all associated parts)
replace broken parts from the accident
Started to remove unnecessary wires from Jetta Harness
Acquired an engine/trans adapter from TDConversions

Planned:
NB Radiator and fans
Similar intercooler as Greengeeker mounted in the same fashion
Use fuel pump from an 87 ranger diesel as a lift pump
Install a second fuel tank and have the lines installed(ready to install) before starting the swap then add the ability to use both once swap is running.
My ranger was offered with the passenger airbag as an option that was not installed, so if it doesn't become a giant PITA I am planning to mount all TDI related fuses and relays in this compartment as its empty real estate and would keep all of these components easy to access and safe from the elements.

I know there is more, but that's all I can remember tonight. Will update as I remember and think of other things.

 

[curtis75]

I am doing a similar swap but haven't got around to doing a thread. Mine is a 02 fx4. There are a few things that make a 4x4 swap a little more challenging. The big one is the front diff. The diff is on the drivers side right where the alh ac compressor would sit. It's not a show stopper but be prepared to relocate it if you want to keep ac. I used the ac compressor off a Passat which is on the opposite side.i can see if I can dig up my plans for my adapter plate for you. The only draw back is I rotated the engine to be at 20 degrees like it is in the Jetta and I kept the ranger rad which mean most of my plumbing is on the passenger side so it is pretty tight. I believe greengeekers adapter is straight up and down which might give you some more room.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Thanks Curtis,
My truck has the older style twin traction beam front suspension, so I'm wondering if I'll have space for it. My truck did not come from the factory with A/C and I'm not planning to install the necessary parts. If there is room for the compressor I will turn it into an on board air compressor, otherwise I will delete it.
What's stopping you from starting your own thread?

 

[curtis75]

I'll put something together when it's done. It's a fairly slow project so updating it regularily wouldn't happen

 

[greengeeker]

Very cool honeybadger! I look forward to watchig your progress. I've been keeping an eye out for a 4x4 with a blown motor but still need to finish up the last few power mods on my current truck.

Subscribed.

 

[vwztips]

Cool project, subscribed. Hey greenkeeper I have an early 90's Explorer 5 door with a 5 speed manual I will be selling soon. It runs but barely

 

[HoneyBadger]

Adapter plate and motor mounts are installed:


Driver side mount:


Passenger side mount:


Starter on the mounting plate:

I learned something new about starters after a quick email to Randy at TDconversions.
When the starter is engaged it extends out to engage against the flywheel. This was different than I have seen on other starters and threw me for a loop. It's supposed to look like this when installed.

 

[Exenos]

I'll be watching this closely, I have a '97 4wd that I'm gathering parts for to do the same swap.

 

[HoneyBadger]

The engine is out!

Finally have an update to add! Just had to graduate college and move before I could start. The engine has been removed from the truck and I am finally starting the actual swap.

I purchased an auto coolant outlet and modified it so that it would work with the set up. Here's the difference between an manual and auto coolant outlet.
Manual vs. Auto outlet
an M12 bolt I shortened to fit nicely to block off the outlet to the oil cooler. I will provide a new passage for it else where.
shortened bolt
Installed. I'll put up a better picture later.
Coolant outlet
I plan to modify the air box so that it mounts nicely. I have access to a CNC Plasma so I'm going to cut out some thin sheet steel and mate it to the air box. I'll post more pictures as I get into it.

I appologize for the blurry pictures, but hopefully they still get the point across. I'll try to get better ones before I install everything.

 

[HoneyBadger]

engine in the engine bay

Well I finally got a chance to set the engine in the truck. I wish I had better news for anyone else with a 93 -97 Ranger. The engine cross member is more in the way than it appears to be for the newer rangers. And the steering box is more in the way than a rack would be.

I tried to trim the bracket just a bit to make it fit, but it wasn't nearly enough.

The engine still needs to go back 2-3 inches to mate up to the transmission.
And when you look at it from a different angle you can tell that I'm not going to be able to keep the entire boss that holds the A/C compressor and idler pulley.

Time to look for other solutions. If anyone has any ideas I'd be interested in hearing them. Right now I'm considering cutting the bracket at the moment to be able to fit the engine. But I'm not sure if I'll be able to make this work as a permanent solution. Will keep you guys updated on what I come up with .
On top of the bracket not fitting, even with the extra spacing from the TDconversions adapter plate, the vacuum pump hits the firewall. So i'll need to make some more space for the engine there as well.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Airbox and Radiator

The reason I set the engine in the engine bay was to see how much room I had to mount the radiator and figure out what I want to do with the air box. Turns out I have a ton of space to work with.

The engine still needs to be pushed back another 4 inches or so to mate with the transmission. So I have around 16 inches (minus where the accessory belt will be) to work with to mount a radiator and run intake and coolant piping. At least this part shouldn't be that hard to make work.

Radiator mocked up/set in place.

I'm going to attach the radiator mounts to some sheet metal in the truck that lines up just about right. I just need to extend it up for the top radiator mount. The bolts for the drivers side will be blocked by the radiator when its installed. It'll need to be slid into the mounts once they are installed.

the passenger side will need to be built up a little bit as well. just on the other side so that the bolts will be accessible and easy to get to.

 

[Rockwell]

I would cut down the crossmember and reenforce what's left to clear the oil pan

 

[Exenos]

The interference issues are because of the thiner frame rail spacing of a ranger when compared to most trucks. I'm running into issues with the waterpump on my ahu interfering with the motor mount because of it.

 

[evguy1]

I purchased an auto coolant outlet and modified it so that it would work with the set up. Here's the difference between an manual and auto coolant outlet.


I sell quite a few of these.

http://gastodiesel.tdconversions.com/accessories/

Makes a nice clean install.

 

[ronnierider]

After swapping into my 87 4Runner, my advice is to move it forward. Less fab and more access to the rear of your diesel. Trust me, easiest part of the swap was dropping iff the driveshafts and saying change these by 3 inches. $150 boom bolt them up and go. Saved so many other clearance issues etc.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Rockwell: The oil pan clears, it's the bolt for the oil drain pan that sits in the middle of the crossmember. I'll just use an oil extractor when I need to change my oil. Otherwise I'll get a steel oil pan and put an accessible drain plug in.

evguy: I saw you had those after I bought the one from an auto, otherwise that would have been much easier.

Ronnie: I did decide to move the trans forward a few inches. I'm going to put up a post of this weeks progress soon.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Transmission mounted. Engine in place


The engine and transmission are now mated together, and the transmission mount has been relocated forward. I can't say for sure how much more though as I haven't gone through and actually measured it yet. One hole was moved forward 2 inches and the other set of holes about an inch. The transmission cross member was also slotted a bit more. With all of that, there isn't much certainty of how far forward the transmission ended up being moved.
I also had to replace the transmission mount, because while I was down there I noticed that it was broken. This caused me to have to drill a second hole because the broken mount let the transmission move more forward than it should have been able to do. But now I have a new mount installed and the engine/trans are sitting where I .

The tunnel had to be trimmed slightly as well. Didn't have enough time this weekend to clean it up, so another weekend it will have to be. This is also not where the transmission ended up. I'll post updated pictures when I get it all done. But a bent shift knob will certainly be necessary.

The bolt head looks close to the mount, because it is. But the engine is not quite in its final resting spot. It's going to be a tight fit, but it'll fit.

The motor brackets I got from tdconversions weren't going to work for my generation ranger, so I cut the tabs off to start over with the plates that mount to the engine. The driver's side mount is hard to see, but it's there.
I also decided to use the stock ranger motor mounts as well as they fit nicely and it would have required quite a bit of fab to get the ones supplied from tdconversions to work. It would appear that the frame rails were changed quite a bit between the gen 3 and gen 4 rangers. Which makes sense as they switched from TTB to A-arms at this time also.

With some cardboard, plates are drawn out oversized and will be trimmed to fit.

And that's where the work this weekend stopped.
I'm also looking to try and find a non a/c accessory bracket if anyone has one. I want to see if it'll fit before I have to start brainstorming ways to reroute the accessory belt.
From what I can find online, they were only put on cars that went to Canada and Mexico. But if anyone knows where I might be able to get one from, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[aadonline]

The non A/C brackets will have the PS pump where the A/C compressor is. I don't think that will work for your setup.

 

[HoneyBadger]

aadonline, I'm aware of how it's set up. The reason I think it may work it because the power steering pump is smaller than the A/C compressor, and it looks tucked up closer to the engine than the A/C compressor is. The pulley may stick out in front of the steering box enough that it'll work.

I bought one on ebay yesterday and should have it in a week or two. Hopefully it'll work and I won't have to fab one up, but if not I figure there are people in the US looking for them that I should be able to resell it if it doesn't fit.

This is not something I know to be a guaranteed fit, more like a last ditch effort to avoid the extra work to modify the current accessory bracket.

I appreciate the warning though. I fully welcome everyone's questions and feedback.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Well I've been pretty bad at posting updates these last few weeks. But I've gotten quite a bit done.
Engine Mounts are welded up, I'll put a rib on them later when I pull the engine out to cut a clearance hole for the starter.


Radiator is mounted in, the passenger side mounts get removed, and then the radiator slides out of the driver side mounts. I used some existing ribs in the sheet metal to attach the radiator mounts. And could only make it so I would have access to one side of mounts.


I'm almost done with trimming down the cabin air box. It hit the EGR system so it had to be modified. After some cardboard templates I felt confident in my model to cut some steel.

And on the fourth try I came out with a piece that fit exactly how I wanted.

Waiting on the paint to dry and I'll be able to assemble it. Hopefully tomorrow, or next weekend.

 

[aadonline]

https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5589/22769547508_88f25b3455_b.jpg[/img][/url]
Waiting on the paint to dry and I'll be able to assemble it. Hopefully tomorrow, or next weekend.[/QUOTE]

HoneyBadger, How did you remove the air box. Is there a 4th bolt at the bottom or another bolt behind the dash. Seems like something is catching after removing the 3 nuts that are visible.

 

[Exenos]

Look inside in the passenger foot well on the the fire wall. There should be a nut there.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Correct. There is a stud on the box that pokes into the passenger compartment. I grabbed you a picture to help find it.

 

[aadonline]

I found it ! Thank you very much.

 

[aadonline]

Honeybadger, Did you get your non A/C bracket ? Did it work out for you ???

 

[HoneyBadger]

I got the bracket, but didn't have a chance this weekend to try it. So it'll have to be next weekend.

 

[HoneyBadger]

No luck with the non-a/c bracket. The bracket still hit the box. So now on to plan C. Using the USA bracket, cut off the A/C compressor mount, move the idler pulley, and create a new tensioner. I started working on this over weekend, More pictures of that to come.

Cabin air box just needs some RTV around the seams and it's done. Hoping to get that done during the week, and I'll post up some pictures when it's done.

 

[JohnnyCanuck.Comox]

That's going to turn some heads when you go to fill it up at the diesel pumps, nice work,

 

[HoneyBadger]

Finished the cabin air box, it leaves a lot more space than was there before. Overall pretty happy with how it turned out.



Better shot of how much space I now have. The box was contacting the engine before I shaved it down.


I can make more of these if anyone is interested. Not sure if this is something other people really need or if they changed the shape of it after 97.

Also working on my new belt routing. After cutting off the boss that the A/C pump hung from, I had room to fit the alternator and ps pump on the bracket. Built a little piece to space out the idler pulley. Now to create a tensioner. My plan is to mount it above the ps pump and have it rotate to the other side of the pulley. Should turn out pretty clean I think.

Pulley Routing by erikb10, on Flickr

 

[1.9ZOOK]

I did something similar with the pulley,used the two alternator bolt holes with 100mm bolts and two
14mm spacers,and a straight bracket with oblonged holes.