New guy with Diesel ranger!

[mechjames]

Hi, I'm James, live in Richmond, BC, Canada. I was on this site a few years back when I was trying to fix some issues on a 2.9L Bronco II.

This is my new project:

It's an 1986 Diesel Ranger with the Mitsubishi 2.3 Turbo Diesel. 5 speed 4x4.

Seller thought it had a blown headgasket because of driveability problems. I found a leak at the water neck thermostat housing. Someone siliconed it on because the gasket was obsolete. I made a gasket and its a lot better. Didn't seem to overhead after purging air from the system. I will have to drive it longer.

The drivability issues was it was losing power and stalling out after a few secs of driving it hard. It would idle ok and rev ok under no load. I found an auxilarry fuel filter that someone added inline on the frame rails a long time ago, that was plugged so much that nothing was getting through when I turned it upside down. Changed that and it drives like a champ.

Going to hopefully insure it this weekend and drive it to make sure there is no head gasket issues. It is still a possibility if the other guy ran it long enough on low coolant. It doesn't look hard to do.

Hoping to sell my Jeep and get some good MPG'S!

 

[Maniac]

nice find. i wanna get a diesel ranger here someday

 

[Ak907Girl]

Nice! I was wishin I could drop a diesel in lilly (my ranger).

 

[Twisted_Steel]

Nice find! It also has the dual tank set-up. Cool

 

[mechjames]

Nice find! It also has the dual tank set-up. Cool

Not anymore it doesn't. Just the front tank. Back one is gone. Must have rusted out.

The bed looks like it might not be original, and from a gas truck.

 

[hockeyryan]

nice ranger. hopefully ill see it on the road one of these days. im from ladner so i go to richmond quite a bit lol

 

[mechjames]

It's on the road now as of last night!

 

[mark23487]

I want one!!!!

 

[mechjames]

Yea they're really rare. I've only seen 2 pop up on craigslist over the past couple years, and this was one of them.

I had a Taurus SHO before this, and I thought that was rare, this is rarer!

 

[85beast]

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/cto/2888723368.html <--- just found one!

 

[mechjames]

Wow, thats quite the price, but probably the best example of a diesel ranger that you will find. Comes with enough parts to use it for at least another 25 years.

I got some spare parts with mine, but my truck has quite a beater though. I'm getting 28MPG in city right now, and hoping to get that up to 35 MPG city with a few adjustments to the injection pump I made.