I want to convert my 90 ranger to a 4x4 turbo diesel any Ideas???
Keep an eye out for a complete donor truck. Just make sure it runs before buying it because parts can get pricey in a hurry if you are dealing with a 2.3TD and you are not careful.
If you end up finding a 2wd diesel, you can get another transmission out of a 4x4 from 1986 or older. This will allow you to take the bell housing and slave cylinder off the 2wd diesel trans and install on the front of the 1986 or older 4wd transmission. Using the complete 1986 version hydraulic clutch setup should result in a bolt on deal unless changes were made in the pedal or other linkage that I am not aware of.
If you are able, you can also convert the 2wd diesel transmission to 4wd since that will allow you to keep the original geartrain. I've been told the diesel 5 speeds have a close ratio gearset but am not able to confirm this.
The alternative to replacing the your current 4x4 transmission with an older one is to modify the front case housing of the 1990 to accept the older style slave cylinder (the newer slave cylinder will not fit the diesel bell housing). This is actually what I did, and it saved me from having to replace any of the drive shafts. The alternative to replacing the 1990 version master cylinder is to cut off the quick connect from the bottom end of the plastic hydraulic clutch line and use some heat to slip it onto the fitting of the older version slave cylinder. Again, thats what I did. Bit of hack & mod involved if you decide to do things like me, but I've never had any problems after several years.
Engine mounts can also come off the donor and bolt into your truck. The passenger side mount has an extra steel bracket that bolts onto the frame because the engine mount bracket offset to the rear of the engine on that side and misses the location of the mounting point on the cross member.
Do not reuse any of the EFI fuel pumps (remove the pump in the tank too). You will need to swap to a carby style pump mounted in the frame rail that doesn't push nearly as much pressure otherwise it will inflate the diesel filter. Since you will likely be reusing the rest of the fuel system (unless by some miracle the donor truck has a tank that isn't rusted), be aware that you could have clogged filters for a little while as the diesel tears crap loose from in there (although modern diesel isn't as bad as the older high sulfur variety from what I'm told). I reused most of the gasoline fuel system other than the fuel pump for reasons stated. Keep spare fuel filters with you just in case and things will clear out on their own eventually.
The glow plug system is a little complicated and even has a solid state controller mounted inside the cabin (roughly the size of a small PCM) but its well worth keeping and swapping all of it over to your truck. One of my regrets is not doing this and going with kubota dual coil plugs instead. They don't get as hot as the ceramic mitsubishi plugs and take forever to warm (over 40 seconds in cold weather).
The fuel filter and water separator setup for these rangers is identical to the chevy 6.2s of the mid 80s so if you search for wiring diagrams of those trucks you will be able to wire up the fuel heater and "water in fuel" light. In our case one of the indicator lights in the dash that was left blank actually had a water in fuel warning decal already there (in a gasser!) so it was easy to set it up looking nice and clean like it was original.
Oh and swap over the filler neck too. Diesel filler nozzles are larger than for gasoline.
Sorry for the hijack, guys.
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