Hanging head in shame... engine swap content

Just returned from a 2 week vacation.  It was lovely, thanks for asking 

I took the  94 Fordzda Branger and my boat.  4.0L OHV, M5R1 5-speed.  The truck handled the 3500-lb boat amazingly well (as I expected, since I have done a few trips with it before.  Brakes good, cooling good, sway non-existent (thanks mostly to the brilliant trailer).

Power?  not so good.  Awful, in fact.  Factory rated at 160 hp and 225 tq, it was hurting.  On the mountain highways, it was common for me to be going 55 in third with my foot to the floor and the engine screaming.  I have a feeling I might be getting a somewhat clogged cat, so I'm going to temporarily remove it and do some back-to-back tests (needs a new mid-pipe anyway).

I have long dreamed of a diesel swap, but none of them have really stood out as viable options.

OM606; great engine, easy power upgrades, but expensive to buy and limited transmission options
CRD from Jeep Liberty; no.  Just no.  Max buy-in for lowest-bidder Mercedes complexity.
1.9L VW TDI; actually a pretty easy and common swap, but I'd have to turn it up to 11 to make decent oomph and I don't think it would last long
Other VW TDI; mostly unobtainium or too complex
Modern Ecodiesel/mini powerstroke/half-ton diesel V6; great power, but insanely expensive and incredibly complex.

So I'm thinking of taking the pathetic way out (options below) unless you guys have one more shining example of something I could dieselify

Pathetic way out:  Hop up the 4.0L or stab in a 302 and make it a B5000. 

Hopping up the 4.0L is a bit of a wasted endeavor.  There are no aftermarket performance heads, and there were only two OHV heads made by Ford - both of them awful.  Porting them will get the flow quantity I need, but the port shape and orientation will never get the quality I want.  I'll be shifting the torque peak up from 2400 to 3500 or more which isn't what I need.... especially with stock cast pistons which like to explode after about 225-240 hp.

The 302 is also well-rehearsed and the aftermarket makes drop-ins pretty easy, but do I really want another engine build clogging up my garage?

And no... the answer is not F150.  Had one.  Too big.  Sold it to buy this one.  One thing that will help is I'm planning to sell the boat and replace it with something less elephant-like... more on the order of 2500 lbs with trailer.

Any thoughts?

LS all the things?

I don't know of a small diesel I would be willing to use other than a 4bt. But then the vibrations would be less than fun. 

Seriously, LS. Cheap, plentiful, good torque, decent fuel economy. What's not to love. 

12v Cummins with hater pipe?

Navistar VT275 ?

m4ff3w said:

Navistar VT275 ?

Not a terrible idea, but does it have all the fun EGR, oil-cooler, and head gasket problems of the 6.0L it shares the architecture with?

Cummins 4bt is apparently somewhat of a popular choice for swaps. It would need some hop-up parts to make more power than the stock engine though.

I like the sound of: "B5000"

slowbird said:

Cummins 4bt is apparently somewhat of a popular choice for swaps. It would need some hop-up parts to make more power than the stock engine though.

A 4BT is 80s tech as well.  They rattle like crazy and they're expensive to buy.  A fine way to make power, but it would also wake up everyone in the campground/neighborhood/three city blocks.

For the same reason I have mostly ruled out NPR, Hino,  UD, and similar.  The VT275 mentioned above is pretty rattly, too, but it does offer pre-engineered Ford architecture.  Possibly mate it to a M5R2 so I can keep my transfer case as well.

Forced Induction?

Mr_Asa said:

Forced Induction?

Possible.  The stock engine is at 9:1, so not much room for boost, even on 93 octane and cast pistons.  I suppose I could rebuild the shortblock, but that is really polishing a turd.  The pistons and rod bolts can only take about 240 hp tops, and in a towing situation I can't imagine they would take it for long.

Tow with your Impala?

I think that the 5.0L is going to be the simplest way to your power goals.  Use a RV roller cam with a set of 1.7 RR and the GT40 or GT40P headed engines that came on the mid 90's Explorers.  You want torque not HP for towing.  You should be able to make 230-240 HP and over 300 lb-ft of torque at a much lower rpm that what you're having to do now.

And yeah, the 4.0L is nothing to hop up.  I have built a number of Ford Colonge V6's.  The last one is in my current project car I'm doing for a friend. In the 2.6-2.9L range the heads will do OK but trying to feed a 4.0L with the stock port heads only works if you supercharge or turbo it. And that gets expensive.

What about swapping in the V6 SOHC from the 2001-2012 models? Almost 50 HP extra and it uses the same tranny. Would that be enough of a drop-in to not clog your garage for too long?  Nothing groundbreaking power-wise, but 25% more is a noticeable bump.

Before we realized how much rust my brother's Ranger had we were thinking of one of the 2.3 Ecoboost mustang engines. They even sell a stand alone swap computer for them.

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

Tow with your Impala?

I would have to ask EastsideTim if I could borrow it back

Why make it complicated? Pushrod engine of your choice.

I've always liked the small 5.0 windsor engine swap for rangers, or an LS is a much more modern, and still compact and highly available choice. I don't know about transmission/tfc compatibility, so I can't comment on that.

Having read your posts on carburetors, I have to wonder if we're going to see a pushrod V8 with a quadrajet. I'd love to see your step-by-step on setting up that. Trying to find a spread bore manifold might preclude that option, though.

I like the B5000, too.

matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) said:

What about swapping in the V6 SOHC from the 2001-2012 models? Almost 50 HP extra and it uses the same tranny. Would that be enough of a drop-in to not clog your garage for too long?  Nothing groundbreaking power-wise, but 25% more is a noticeable bump.

I specifically bought an earlier truck to avoid the OHC.  Nicer power, but timing chains and guides not only fail consistently, it is a full engine removal to replace them, (cams are tied together with a chain at the rear of the block) and they have no timing marks.  The factory sets them with a special computer thingy, so when you replace them you have to fabricate a tool to hold the cams and pray to the heavens you don't move the crank.

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

Why make it complicated? Pushrod engine of your choice.

I've always liked the small 5.0 windsor engine swap for rangers, or an LS is a much more modern, and still compact and highly available choice. I don't know about transmission/tfc compatibility, so I can't comment on that.

I like the B5000, too.

5.0L sounds like the least involved.  Buy 302, stab in HO cam, mate to an F150 M5OD, plug and play.  Keeping it Ford will make things easier for things like the mechanical speedo, sensors, dash, etc.  Not that I couldn't figure out an LS and screw some Ford sensors into it for gauges, but this is one time that KISS is a good thing.

Normally I'm the guy who says things like "what V12 should I put in my boat, and how do I fabricate an ITB intake?"  This is clearly a case for simple is better.

Because this thread has too much sense and not enough crazy:

Boosty Lima! They bolt right in, Uber cheap, cool, sound better than that 4.slow, Ford, tons of aftermarket, and cool. 

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

Having read your posts on carburetors, I have to wonder if we're going to see a pushrod V8 with a quadrajet. I'd love to see your step-by-step on setting up that. Trying to find a spread bore manifold might preclude that option, though.

I like the B5000, too.

I'll find some way to make it complicated.  Someone on the intarwebs discovered that LS heads are frighteningly close to a bolt-on for a Winsdor.  The bore spacing is really close, so you have to hog out the head bolt holes so the outboard bolts will have room.  Fab up some shim gaskets and a sheet metal intake and you're in business.  All the benefits of a mostly bolt-in block with the LS cathedral ports.  Still, lots of work for little benefit.

Qjet would be my first choice, but I do have emissions checks here.  I can sneak an EFI V8 past most inspectors, but a Qjet would be a no-no... unless I can hide it under something that looks like an EFI plenum.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) said:

What about swapping in the V6 SOHC from the 2001-2012 models? Almost 50 HP extra and it uses the same tranny. Would that be enough of a drop-in to not clog your garage for too long?  Nothing groundbreaking power-wise, but 25% more is a noticeable bump.

I specifically bought an earlier truck to avoid the OHC.  Nicer power, but timing chains and guides not only fail consistently, it is a full engine removal to replace them, (cams are tied together with a chain at the rear of the block) and they have no timing marks.  The factory sets them with a special computer thingy, so when you replace them you have to fabricate a tool to hold the cams and pray to the heavens you don't move the crank.

Close, but not quite.  Drivers head is driven from the front, passengers from the rear.  There is a timing kit available from OTC that does the timing reset job nicely.

None of this changes the fact that the 4.0 SOHC is a horrifying pile of scrap.

If you went to less boat would that then mean there is no need for an engine swap to the truck?  

This might be the easiest path.  

Rick Moore swap plates on 3.0 mounts., $80-90 total.

I hate carbs but it's simple with a Mallory 4309 regulator to return the fuel or even a bit more for the aeromotive one. Just have to swap in that 85 HO distributor for the roller cam. Msd or you can still get duraspark boxes.

F150 m5od-r2 trans. There is a thread out there on all the factory parts to make a starter and clutch work for not much.

The newer VW TDI - 2.0l common rail CJAA - isn't actually that unobtanium, surprisingly. I looked up the engine on car-part.com using a 2013 Jetta as an example, and there are tons of examples for under $800. I think people just aren't buying them. I have a suspicion that they can be swapped using the same bellhousing adapters as the 1.9 TDI, but probably best to check with an adapter manufacturer. Wiring would definitely be a tad more complex than the 1.9, but the VW engine swap aftermarket seems to have quite a few suppliers of swap harnesses and harness conversion services.

In a similar towing scenario, but with an '04 b3000 and various pull behinds in the range of 2000lb flat tow to 4000lbs plus a dolly. We both know that the heaviest combo was too much, and I only managed it very carefully for a short distance, just to get it done. Inbetween, I have done 3000lbs on the dolly thru the Appalachians, so I feel your third gear pain as well.

If you are planning on going to a smaller boat, tune up the 4.0 and KISS.
5.0 is the next simplest option, as you have fleshed out.
Trans decisions pending a final vote, and heavily impacting the budget, LS would probably be my choice if I was going v8 simply because you cannot get more for less, as long as you are fabbing your own mounts and such.

IMO neither v8 option is all that exciting, so thankfully function is the goal here. I chose to change platforms instead. I bought a Country Squire for me and will be handing the keys of my Branger over to my daughter.