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Hello from Arkansas. Any Cummins fans here?

ShadeTreeMech

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Year, Model & Trim Level
'91 XLT
I have a '91 XLT with a great stock body, but what I would consider as a weak drivetrain. At 4btswaps.com I've been exploring (pun intended) the possibility of putting a I-4 cummins into my truck without changing the whole driveline. Other than swapping out the A4LD for a 5 speed, and the engine for a diesel, I want to use stock components as much as possible.

I have a couple Explorer specific questions that no one on 4btswaps could answer very well.

1. How much engine weight can my front end tolerate?
2. Will my Ford 8.8 survive 270+ ft/lbs of torque?
3. What should I use for a 5 speed that can handle the Cummins?
4. I want the higher gear ratio differentials available in the SportTrac to better fit the lower RPM's of the Cummins. Is a gear swap or complete axle swap possible/advisable?

Why a Cummins for the venerable 4.0? I am looking at nearly 30 MPG after the swap. Right now I am getting 13 MPG, and hating every bit of it. My motor and tranny both have about 40K, having been replaced by a shop before I bought the truck. I am currently running 235/70's, so I might be losing 1-2 MPG there since my odometer wouldn't be reading quite right, but not THAT far off.

Thoughts?
 



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Welcome To The Forum! That'd be a cool diff. build, I had seen an explorer sport with a 4cyl chevy diesel motor from a van in it that used the same tranny with I think a custom built adapter to use the stock t-case. I don't know alot about that truck though.
 












1. How much engine weight can my front end tolerate?
2. Will my Ford 8.8 survive 270+ ft/lbs of torque?
3. What should I use for a 5 speed that can handle the Cummins?
4. I want the higher gear ratio differentials available in the SportTrac to better fit the lower RPM's of the Cummins. Is a gear swap or complete axle swap possible/advisable?
1)The front can tolerate a 4BT -- EDIT: if you really need it, you can get stiffer or taller coils, good thing you're putting this on a first generation :D

2) the 8.8 can handle a lot of torque, plenty of people pushing deep deep ratios and 36-40 inch tires.

3)I'd say whatever fits. I mean you're probably limited in the number of transmissions cauz its not a divorced setup.. so take whatever fits.

4)A gear swap is advisable and depends on the transmission (overdrive or not). But this would be last on my list if I were doing the engine swap.. t eh actual engine swap itself is the nitty gritty.
 






I love turbo diesels i wish they made like a powerstroke or cummings or duramax turbo diesel in an explorer.
 






Hey dopler, the chevy p-30 breadvan is the #1 place to get a 4 cyl 3.9L CUMMMINS motor. Chevy doesn't have the common decency to make us a good 4 cyl diesel on their own.

I'm likely to put in the 5 speed first (before the cummins 4bt) and maybe the gears in the diff. if it sounds like an attainable goal. Problem is, a 4bt is expensive and it'll take me a bit of time to come up with the dinero. But a 5 speed from the bone yard and new clutch components isn't likely to break the bank. That being said, what 5 speed is likely to bolt right in? I was under the impression '91 didn't have a 5 speed option.

Also, can I just swap the gears in my diff, or do I have to swap out the whole axle? Never taken gears out of a diff before, but I am a quick learner.
 






The 91 Came with a 5spd option, the M50D Tranny is the tranny that went into the explorer/ranger/navajo, I think any 5spd from 91-00 would work.
 






cool on the five speed. Anyone played with the differential gears? Can I go to a part dealer and tell them I want the spider gears from a SportTrac and put them in, or is there more to it?

Has anyone put in higher gears into their 4x4 to increase fuel ecomomy? how did it go?

I wish I could get 30 mpg like Aldive. I read half of the thread from the beginning, but got dozy. Lots of good general info, but my OHV loves gas too much.

Anyone added biodiesel to their rig to increase performance? Check this link out
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make2.html#gas
Talks about 2 stroke motors then goes to 4 stroke motors.
 






Wish I could answer ya on the sport trac rear vs. your rear, I thought they were same size and you could just interchange the gearing but I don't want to tell ya the wrong thing.
 






Detroit Diesel Option

I nearly bought a Detroit Diesel four cylinder engine with five speed that had been pulled from an explorer. It was on ebay about a year ago and I have no info regarding the original vehicle it was in. Perhaps a test mule or maybe a Canada edition. I'd check with Ford and see if they'll tell you anything.

Marty
Former owner 2000 AWD Limited, lowered, supercharged
Current owner 1994 Eddie Bauer, Meyer Plow, Flowmaster, 17 inch 2000 Limited wheels.
 






Ford tends to be very unhelpful with us older vehicle owners, at least online. Might have to got to a dealership to ask. I bet the detroit was from Canada; all the cool stuff always goes over the borders.

I'll bet that Detroit was HEEAVVVYYYY.
 






I imagine I found these pics on explorer forum somewhere along the line a long ago and saved them to my computer but I really dont remember. Looks like a factory install thou. If/when I get another explorer I would really like to do this swap as well so if you plan on actually going through with this I sure hope to find a nice how to thread with plenty of juicy pics and factoids on how to make it all work ;) A few problems to overcome in some regards such as intercoolers (if equipped, where to cram) Fuel system wouldnt be too much of a problem if it relys on mechanicals to get the fuel to the injection pump and of corse electrical :p Painless wiring recently released a harness to swap cummins I6's into various branded trucks, they may have somthing for you (if this engine is even electronically controlled :p I havent really looked into it at all)
 

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If you want to get some serious info on a Cummins repower go to www.4btswaps.com.
Lots of good people and loads of information. I think I saw that explorer on there once before...it gives me hope :)

There's a guy with a '85 F-250 crew cab long bed getting 28 miles per gallon from his 4BT. Another guy with a 54 f-100 gets 30-39 mpg. Check out the site...lots of cool info.
 






i didnt even think this would be very possible so i didnt look into it.. but i would LOVE! to get a diesel in my explroer.. i am lookin into a motor swap now. but im lookin at good ol small blocks.. i imagine the doesel 2.3L from ford wouldnt be enough to turn our trucks efficiently?
 






To my knowledge the only bellhousing adapters for the Cummins engines are to ford small and big block V8 patterns. So you would need a 5 speed from a full size, which would also require a full size T case. The M5OD in from the Explorers and Rangers couldn't handle the torque for long even if you could bolt it up. F150s had beefier M5s and some had some really strong ZF 5 speeds.

I am assuming your 91 has 3.55 gears right now (ring and pinion, not spider gears) and there are many different ratios available for the 8.8 and D35 but I doubt that it would be worth changing since your fuel economy will be great with the 4bt regardless.

I would love to do a 4bt swap in my Ex but I can't justify the $3000 it will cost once you figure in all the parts needed. Plus my truck gets over 20 MPG on the highway as it is. If you are really after economy I saw some posts on a diesel swap site about a smaller 3.3L cummins that would get even better mileage and still have as much torque as the original 4.0 OHV.
 






If you want to get some serious info on a Cummins repower go to www.4btswaps.com.
Lots of good people and loads of information. I think I saw that explorer on there once before...it gives me hope :)

There's a guy with a '85 F-250 crew cab long bed getting 28 miles per gallon from his 4BT. Another guy with a 54 f-100 gets 30-39 mpg. Check out the site...lots of cool info.

Thank you Very much for this link, I drove a diesel consistantly where I used to work and have missed the diesel ever since. Wouldnt mind converting a few things to diesel :3
 






The M5OD in from the Explorers and Rangers couldn't handle the torque for long even if you could bolt it up. F150s had beefier M5s and some had some really strong ZF 5 speeds.

I'd prolly shoot for the ZF if you had to get a new 5 speed for the swap. The F150 M5OD R2 has had some problems from what ive read on f150/bronco forums and the ZF is the common Beefy swap on the forums. Some people have problems with the syncros and have issue with grinding when changing gears. My 91 F250 doesnt stay in 3rd if i dont hold it there and will grind if you shift too quickly in and out of third and it has a M5OD R2. My 89 hasent had any issues yet but I recently pulled the tranny to change my Slave cylender (another issue) and found one of the shift forks worn to about half the original thickness. Some report issues with overheating from towing heavy loads and have problems with leakage from the top of the tranny (my 89's was leaking but i sealed it up with sealant) Then again ive hauled quite a bit of weight in my 89 across about 650 KM of highway without failure yet (made a funny noise after one particular trip but it went away XD) Also many have had problems with the concentric slave cylenders failing after a short period of time.

Mind you many people have had issues with the A4LD and others have defyed the laws of A4LD's relyability and made them run much longer than one would expect, Im sure many of the issues people have had with the M5OD R2's in half tons were from lack of TLC but ya may wanna look into it just in case.......that is if you can even use that tranny with that diesel.....

rant over?
 









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