1991 Ranger 4x4 with v2203
 

Started my new conversion about 2 weeks ago and just got the chance to start my thread. First off I wanna thank FTE and usedkubotaman, along with a few others that helped me compile the knowledge to start this project. So far I have pull my 4.0 motor out along with the transmission. I also pulled the core support because it didnt take long, and allowed for more room to work. I have a v2203DI motor and I am sticking with the kubota flywheel and starter. The governer spring has already been changed as well. I also have a Turbo to put on the motor but I think I will go naturally aspirated for a while first. Here are some pictures off what I have so far. after measuring the ford flywheel we bolted the kubota flywheel into the CNC mill and are currently trimming it down and re drilling it to fit the ford clutch.

Good looking truck. I'm almost done with mine, similar truck. Just to let you know, look for a bobcat with the same motor that someone is parting out, lots of useful brackets and linkages on them that will save you some work

Thanks for the shout out Gaines12, love to see another Kubota build come to life! I ran mine NA for a bit when I first built it, it ran ok, it didn't have enough power but it gave me a great base line to work from. I was very impressed when I installed the turbo, it made a huge difference and then when I did the injector mod it made as much or more difference as the turbo did. Anyway, keep us updated, load up plenty of pics. :pca1:

Wyoranch please post pics of your build if you don't mind, what'd you do for your oil pan? And no problem usedkubotaman I appreciate all the help you guys have been. I'm very excited about my build, ive got all the teachers at the tech center and all their technology behind me so im hoping it'll go pretty smooth! It is a school project for me so it'll take a little more time, but I'll post lots of pics as I go!

Bought my oil.pan off eBay. Got lucky and found one for sale for.a bobcat but seller didn't know what motor. Counted the bolt holes in the pan and took a shot, paid $50 for it new. Had to modify it for my crossmember. Didn't do a rear sump as there wasn't enough room. I'm running a large remote Baldwin filter for capacity and running a higher oil level than most. With the pan off you can rotate the motor and the bottom of the crank gets 1 5/8" from the bottom of the engine so I plan on running an oil level about 3/4" above the top of.the oil pan. As for pics, I just use a phone for internet, no computer. So I can't post pics

Darn! Sorry to hear that, if you have picture messaging you can send them to my phone if you likee at 6362902667, I think I'm might do like fte did and build a pan from scratch and extend the pickup tube.

Cool. Ill send you some. Ill have more in the next couple days. Got all my mounts done and I'm finish welding and painting them today. Ill take pics as it goes back together for the final time

Awesome, diefently excited to see what you got so far. I'm hoping to have my flywheel done tommorow so we can start the final measurements for the adapter

Haven't had a lot of time to work on the ranger but the flywheel should be 110% done tommorow with the ford clutch then its off to finish the adapter, my machine tool teacher has been so busy with contest. Wyoranch how's yours commingle along? And also, usedkubota man what size turbo did you end up and what boost are you running? I don't really know much about turbos.

Not so good on my end, somehow.we had the flywheel adaptor measured wrong and I have to get a spacer built now. Set me back a little. I'm working on everything else I can right now, hope to get most everything finished up tomorrow so I can be ready to go when I get the spacer. Ill actually have help tomorrow, I've been doing this by myself since the beginning, will be nice to have a friend helping me.

Ya weve been having some problems with my flywheel as well, hopefully it'll be done this afternoon. Still can't wait to see the pictures of what you have! Keep me updated!

Did you.get.the.pics.gaines?

Haven't had a lot of time to work on it by I did get the bed off and the fuel pump unit out, I'm going to take off the pump and put it all back together. Hoping to get the adapter plate done next week or the week after, but spring break starts Friday so progress will be slower. Used kubota man, is a 44mm turbo to big?

Not sure, if that's bigger than the GT1752 then I would say yes, it's too big. The TD04 is too big if that helps, they causes high EGT temps.

Where did you get your turbo off of? And your inter cooler? My c26 needs work anyway

The turbo came from a Saab 9-5 and the intercooler from a Volvo 760.

Haven't had a chance to get on here for a while but I've got a lot of things done on the swap. We made a power steering bracket and an alternator bracket. Made an adaptor for the turbo and also changed the fuel pump out and extended hose into the tank. Working on the adapter plate still, were almost done with that and then it'll be time to drop it in. I will post pictures of all the adaptors and the flywheel that we milled down and retapped for tthe ford clutch

Man, that's a sweet turbo flange adapter! Mine looks redneck compaired to that, I just cut out two flanges out of 3/16 plate and welded 1 1/2 pipe between.

Ya we drew it up in master cam and saved it so now all I have to do if anyone needs one is toss some metal in the cnc mill turn it on and walk away. I have a question for usedkubotaman or you or anyone else that might have an answer as far as the adapter plate goes. Where should we put the starter? Pictures would be helpful iffany one has any

I have mine in the stock location (I used the Kubota flywheel cover for 1/2 of the adapter) using the Kubota starter. Some have used the starter from the vehicle it's going in and located it to the trans bell, but I don't recomend that as the gasser starter won't be up to the task long term. My starter didn't line up with the starter wort on the bell, but the Kubota starter doesn't stick out that much, so all I had to do was a little triming.

OK we made a prototype of the adapter we designed but I broke it checking starter engagement. We did make another prototype but we will be running the real thing on Monday in aluminum. We also drilled the block for the new dipstick location just like the dealership clams it should be done.

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I'm not sure why but it won't let me upload photos today?

Got a lot of progress made, still having trouble putting up pictures, not sure why....

Any updates?

sorry been super busy with my new job at Kenworth and college! made a lot of progress and put about 200 miles on the truck. tore it apart to duplicate everything and make changes for our second truck! got lots of pictures! also looking into modding the motor to make some more power. been talking to the Kubota dealer about some bigger injectors from a 6 cylinder to cross. a little bit bigger turbo and some water meth injection to lower egts. we are thinking about starting to build these trucks custom ordered the way you want. Or selling kits. we have engineered a lot of parts to make it easy. I pulled my motor in 30 minutes the other day like it was nothing. let me know of any interest in swaps. also looking at installing into a jeep or samurai something 4x4 suv style. will try to get all caught up on pictures in the next few days. I still kept a ver detailed record of receipts and everything. just been busy! sorry!

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anyone know if they make a fuel water separator kit and lift pump for 4 cyl diesels? Id like to get one or build one

I'd be interested in a kit or two.

it could consist of a number of things depending on what was desired. An adapter plate, motor mounts that bolt to the block and then too the ford motor mounts. a turbo adapter which could be optional. and prolly a few other things. maybe even a modified wiring harness. Im gunna try and upload all my pictures in a few hours.

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also like a throttle adapter. I forget all of what we made. that's why im gunna finish uploading stuff them ill remember

here's some pictures of our adapter plate. we made a cheap prototype in wood to ensure everything fit before we ran it In the aluminum. it worked really well. this will work for the fm146 ranger transmission as well as the M50D transmission in both the 4.0 and 2.9 rangers. it may fit some others but im not sure. im sure we can modify it to fit any ranger transmission though. we have the ability to cnc it in about half a day.

After we made the adapter plate we bolted the transmission to the motor and set it in place. Then made the motor mounts. The motor mounts bolt onto the side of the block, and the mount to the original ford rubber motor mounts. That way the rubber helps keep down on the vibration.

nice work. A few questions. I don't have a CNC, does it cut the whole adapter with one cutter? Specifically does it change cutters for the different size bolt holes, or does it cnc with one cutter to the correct hole diameter. What Turbo exactly did you pick, Full model and dash # if available? On another thread I am trying to compile a list of all the Turbos used and tried on the v2203. Do you have any pic of the measuring process? Did you measure manually or CDM?

thanks

well I used an rhf4 ihi turbo. however im looking at cross refrencing some bigger injectors and installing an air dog system and them im going to try and run a little bigger turbo. also we measured it manually we had the ability to blueprint it but it was taking to long. so it was kinda rigged up. the cnc used three bits to cut the plate. one to machine the main outline. one to drill the holes. and then one to counter bore the holes to the proper size for the bolts to fit flush.

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I will try and get you the numbers off the turbo soon. im in Oklahoma at school the truck is back in Missouri. but im looking at switching to a rhb5 garrett t25 or a garrett t28 im not good with turbos to be honest. don't know enough about them yet.

thanks. I am looking for a gt1749 or 1849, or a 1752 or 1852 turbo. I am also looking to see if a bigger pump cassette will fit as well. It is not easy to find the Kubota part #'s. I am looking at a v2403t pump, p/n 1J860-51010 or "51012, and the v2403t injector is a 16419-53900 I think those are correct, but it is like pulling teeth to get Kubota part #'s, and god forbid you ask for something not standard
I did buy a v2003t pump to learn from $40 on ebay as a non worker.
From popular opinion the DI motors don't need much pump work
It would be nice to see some pics on your measuring if you have them.

Have fun in school

are your turbos any bigger? and do you need a bigger pump to run a bigger turbo? I have a guy oout of California that I work with hes a Kubota dealer pretty good at finding me parts. im not sure if I need bigger injectors or a pump to run a bigger turbo. also I heard theres some kinda shim you can take out in these motors that makes them get a lot more fuel?

usedkubotaman is the tuner in this area. We should defer to him. Hopefully he might show up. As far as I know no Kubota swappers are running non standard pumps or injectors, modded pumps yes, but not different. Usedkuboataman has a pump mod he did which clocks the barrels in the IDI pump for more fuel. For the DI engine mods are to replace the governor spring with a stiffer one in the pump for more rpm, and then a basic turn up on the fuel adjustment screw. The only shims I know of are to time the pump
I don't know much about turbos either. just from your picture yours looks pretty big. the turbos I specd, I believe are doing double duty in both gassers and diesels. I am looking for a Turbo from a euro spec 2.2l diesel car, or the SAAB. There is another fellow running compound turbos and water meth.

ya im getting water and meth injection. working on swapping to bigger injectors. im building a lift pump setup similar to air dog. im going to get a bigger turbo and a bigger intercooler. im gunna break some new ground with these motors. been working on finding some headstuds. talked about port and polishing intake. all kinds of stuff. my plan is to push this motor to the max. I know that the v2403 and v2203 are almost identical except for crank as far as im concerned. but im not sure. that's why I do my business with the Kubota dealership in like florida. they specialize in building these motors for all kinds of industrial setups. they don't mod them but they have access to all kinds of stuff and they are very knowledgable about this motor. and I don't wanna run tiwns just a single. I don't think I have room to mess with twins. maybe I will though, im not really sure to be honest.

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Ok, on to the good stuff…



Most of the time, the 2203’s that I’ve seen swapped, come from Carrier refridgeration units. They seem to be the most prevelant, and easiest to find of the Kubota engines. My guess is this may be what your family member is dealing with… I’ll elaborate a little bit, just in case this is what’s in-fact happening.



The 2203’s are good engines, however, they have a habit of overheating when the cooling system isn’t up to par. Typically they’ll scuff pistons and lose compression in one or two of the middle cylinders. Additonally, the Carrier spec engines are unique for a couple reasons



1. Most of them are what’s called a ‘long stroke’ engine, where Kubota stuffs a V2403 crankshaft into the V2203 block. Remember the 4TNV86 for Thermo King? Same concept… it’s a hybrid that only Carrier receives.

2. They are low speed engines. Most of the Carrier engines are 1500 RPM spec units, which are electronically governed.





What this means to anyone looking to use a Carrier spec engine in another application is; these engines don’t really like high RPM (due to the long stroke), and they’re hard to govern due to being equipped for such low speed from Kubota. However, all is not lost, as I have heard of guys swapping governor parts, and getting more RPM out of the engine (for starters, one can simply take the heavy governor spring, give it a twist, and reinstall it), which will net more RPM.



I could elaborate more, but this would be a mile-long email…



Next, finding a direct injected (DI) V2203/V2403 is the holy grail of this line of Kubota engines. They are out there, but tough to find… Most of the DI engines are sold to OEM’s, which essentially dies with the respective machine its in. They don’t come up for sale very often…





What I would look for is this; a V2403 (for the extra displacement), and a small turbocharger to bolt on. The IDI engines can handle a few PSI of boost, and from what I’ve read, respond very well to turbocharging. I might also suggest removing a thin shim from under the injection pump to help with performance as well.





As for actually locating the engines to use… that will kind of be a crap-shoot. I would suggest maybe contacting a distributor for the area (look here for the nearest DB Kubota Engine America - US Engine ), but they will most likely want to sell you a new engine, and not tell you where to find good used engines. For that, I might suggest speaking with the local dealers who work on the engines every day, as they will have access to more used engines than the DB. Making friends with the local Carrier dealer would be an awesome start too.





this is an email I received from a guy that's pretty high up on the Kubota pole. We asked him where we can source many of these engines from because we are going to custom build trucks for people. This was his reply

sounds like you have your work cut out for you. keep us posted

will do!

Im just starting my swap. Putting a v2203 into a 1990 ranger. What are some opinions on what turbo to run? I see about everyone is running a different one and didnt know what ones seemed to be working the best for this motor.

Wyoranch is running the Rhf4 Ihi, same turbo as I am, hes having a lot of luck with it but im having some problems. I think im somehow restricting the flow and I also it has a base gasket leaking. Hopefully when I add a bigger air filter, add a much bigger intercooler, and some bigger piping and then fix that gasket of course, ill be ok! Itll be a few weeks before I get the chance to find out though!

Im trying to figure out how to make this accessory plate also. I really like what usedkubotaman did with his.

Ya it gives it a nice look and better organizes everything. its defiantly the way to go if you have the capabilities to make it. Id like to draw one up in auto desk inventor and have a 3D model of it that can be plugged into a mill or water jet. I have the skills to operate the program just gotta make a model to follow.