TDI Ranger Build

[greengeeker]

I'd love for you to find two diesel gas stations right off the highway about 60 miles apart or so, fill up until you can see it in the fill tube, reset the odometer (assuming it's accurate, which it should be), and record mpg to the far station, and again at the starting station. Set cruise at 70mph.

Regardless...congrats! What's left?

I've been commuting with it for a while now and have put on a couple tanks driving a 50/50 mix of city highway with max speed of 65mph. I always fill right to the brim like you describe as it really is the most accurate way to fill up. The problem with this method, my additional capacity and the fact that the diesel foams pretty badly means it takes me almost 10min to fill up the truck. I'm thinking the foam is the result of the anti-siphon screen in the bottom of the fill tube? I'm definitely going to remove this bad boy if that is the case.

Anyway, here are my first few tanks:
642.1 miles on 16.636gal = 38.6mpg
587.6 miles on 14.997gal = 39.2mpg
304.5 miles on 9.616gal = 31.7mpg

Last fillup was to calculate mileage pulling these around.

 

[greengeeker]

Regardless...congrats! What's left?

Really nice job!
Congrats,

Richard

Looks and sounds great, I'm jealous.

Thanks a lot guys!

Chuck - List of things to do:
- Replace heater core
- Go through brakes
- New brake cables (really miss my ebrake!). Any recommendations guys?
- Swap out rear axle for a 3.08 to drop my rpm's on the highway
- Reinstall lower condenser shroud (plastic surround) to force air through intercooler. It is doing a good job but will improve cooling further.
- Fix what appears to be a boost leak. I'm suspecting my EGR delete.

 

[joecool85]

Wow, almost 40mpg, not bad.

I forget, is this a manual or automatic? 4wd or 2wd?

Also, how well does it tow with the new diesel?

 

[greengeeker]

Wow, almost 40mpg, not bad.

I forget, is this a manual or automatic? 4wd or 2wd?

Also, how well does it tow with the new diesel?

2wd, 5spd.

I was surprised how well it towed both Jettas. Didn't push it at all, cornered really well and had sufficient power to keep up with traffic. What I am a little concerned about is if I swap out the 3.73 rearend for the 3.08 that will make taking off a little more difficult. That was my only gripe: 1st was almost a little too tall, especially when starting on a hill. All in all I was very pleased with how well it pulled them and even more impressed with my mileage while doing it! I imagine when I do the 3.08 rearend my highway might go up a little with my towing going down a hair as well. That's not the end of the world though since I'm not planning on towing too often.

 

[fte]

Nice work! Glad to see it on the road! If you had concern starting in 1st empty, then I would say no to the 3.08's. Not sure what tire you are running, but I have 3.45's with 29" tires and I have plenty of low end and cruise in the sweet spot @ 65 mph. I have a larger diesel, 2.2L so for me 3.08's would hurt me. I get mid 40's combied, not done much towing. Maybe you could experiment with different tires before a gear change.

 

[goranger]

firs off great build. i dont know how much power your truck has but i put 3.08 in my 83 with a stock 302 7.5 axle and even being extremely gentle the ring gear stripped teeth in less than 500 miles. 3.08 gear sets are just too weak to handle any torque in my experience. i would stick to changing tire sizes.

 

[joecool85]

Nice work! Glad to see it on the road! If you had concern starting in 1st empty, then I would say no to the 3.08's. Not sure what tire you are running, but I have 3.45's with 29" tires and I have plenty of low end and cruise in the sweet spot @ 65 mph. I have a larger diesel, 2.2L so for me 3.08's would hurt me. I get mid 40's combied, not done much towing. Maybe you could experiment with different tires before a gear change.

What 2.2 are you running?

 

[fte]

What 2.2 are you running?

I am running a Kubota V2203 DI that I have turbo'd, I have @ 11,000 mi on the swap.

 

[greengeeker]

Nice work! Glad to see it on the road! If you had concern starting in 1st empty, then I would say no to the 3.08's. Not sure what tire you are running, but I have 3.45's with 29" tires and I have plenty of low end and cruise in the sweet spot @ 65 mph. I have a larger diesel, 2.2L so for me 3.08's would hurt me. I get mid 40's combied, not done much towing. Maybe you could experiment with different tires before a gear change.

I almost think 1st is too short with the truck empty but when I was towing I was thinking it was a little too tall - I had to ride the clutch just a hair to get the truck moving. Again, I'm not too worried about the towing aspect as I don't plan on towing that much with this truck. Heck it might even be normal.

I'm running the stock 225/70R15 tires which equates to 27.5" tall. If I were to switch the 29" tires on my B4000 (235/75R15) that will only lower my rpm by 120....not that much of a difference when compared to the 400rpm that I would get from the 3.08's.

 

[greengeeker]

firs off great build. i dont know how much power your truck has but i put 3.08 in my 83 with a stock 302 7.5 axle and even being extremely gentle the ring gear stripped teeth in less than 500 miles. 3.08 gear sets are just too weak to handle any torque in my experience. i would stick to changing tire sizes.

Interesting. I plan to go past the stock 302 power level and I'm not keen on redoing things. To be clear I'm not planning on swapping gears in my 7.5 but rather swapping out a whole 8.8 axle equipped with the 3.08 gears. I wonder if the 8.8 would be better about stripping the teeth? I seem to recall reading on here that the 8.8 didn't provide that much more strength in this regard?

The other reason to switch ot the 8.8 are the locker/limited slip options are more plentiful.

 

[greengeeker]

Had a buddy come up this weekend to help take some videos playing around with the Ranger.

Casual-ish drive by: http://youtu.be/D1HxsW9LfDU

In-cab 0-75(?) mph acceleration: http://youtu.be/mtfQAkjLmp4

Mini burn out : http://youtu.be/JcnavuUXc6w

 

[joecool85]

Interesting. I plan to go past the stock 302 power level and I'm not keen on redoing things. To be clear I'm not planning on swapping gears in my 7.5 but rather swapping out a whole 8.8 axle equipped with the 3.08 gears. I wonder if the 8.8 would be better about stripping the teeth? I seem to recall reading on here that the 8.8 didn't provide that much more strength in this regard?

The other reason to switch ot the 8.8 are the locker/limited slip options are more plentiful.

I would consider a 3.27 or 3.55 rather than dropping all the way to a 3.08. A 29" tall tire with a 3.27 rear would be the same as your stock tires on a 3.08, but stronger. Or a 31" with the 3.55 rear would be close to your goal...or if you want to keep your rear (bad idea since it's a 7.5 anyway) you could run 3.73 gears and lower your rpm to your goal with some 33" tires.

Of those options I think the best is the 3.27 w/ 29" tall tires. It'll look better, drive better, still have cheap rubber (things get expensive once you get 30" and bigger) and have a stronger setup vs a 3.08 rear. Too much larger on the tire and you start losing mpg as well. Although a 31" w/3.55 wouldn't be too bad if you like the bigger rubber.

 

[triumphrider-1]

What about an overdrive unit? You can switch it on and off when needed, giving you better torque, or lower RPM.

 

[Scrambler82]

Nice !

I have thought of this type of conversion but with my rep for slow starting and not finishing I would have a truck sitting in my drive all apart and a wife p!ssing at me.

I was impressed from the first page.
Did you do the welding, the TIG/Aluminum stuff, nice work.
The motor mount look good, ¼” plate should be rugged enough.

40 mpg, working on 50 hey, something Ford should be doing, all of the American Auto makers should be looking at this… they all have too big a portion of the Oil Industry too, can’t lose all of the profits.

Nice work and great write up.

 

[greengeeker]

Nice !

I have thought of this type of conversion but with my rep for slow starting and not finishing I would have a truck sitting in my drive all apart and a wife p!ssing at me.

I was impressed from the first page.
Did you do the welding, the TIG/Aluminum stuff, nice work.
The motor mount look good, ¼” plate should be rugged enough.

40 mpg, working on 50 hey, something Ford should be doing, all of the American Auto makers should be looking at this… they all have too big a portion of the Oil Industry too, can’t lose all of the profits.

Nice work and great write up.

Thank you!

While I can do some TIG I let my more experienced friend handle the charge air pipes. I think I used 8ga steel for the mounts...not 1/4". We'll see how they hold up but I don't really think I'll have any issues.