02 Ford Explorer TDI Swap

Fordguy100

New member
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
Messages
1,059
Reaction score
0
Location
Silverton, Or
Well our family is getting to big for our B4V, and the Excursion is gone now (no more car payements!). So I was browsing craigslist and happened upon an Exploder with a bad head gasket, and no trans/transfer case (auto/auto sensing transfer case). So I got permission from the wife, and $400 later I had a rolling shell. The thing was friggen dirty, it had a water leak and had mold growing on the seats, dog hair everywhere, etc.

I got it home and drained about 20 gallons of gas out of it. I say that -$50 (gas was higher then). Then I found myself a ~170k ALH complete with all the wiring, for $1000.

So we set to work cleaning the interior. Shampo'ed everything like crazy, went to town with industrial type chemicals, and got it cleaned up real good. I think we will swap to leather in the future, and I will swap in a 3rd row bench as well (the whole point of this was to be able to hold more people!).

So out came the 4.0 SOHC that was locked up. Got it out and pulled spark plugs, 2 of them came out with rusty tips. Poured some random motor oil down the holes of all of them and let is sit for a week. Came back with a prybar and worked the flexplate back and forth, and got it free'ed up. So it will go on craigslist here soon and fetch me back a little money. My parents traded in an 05 escape that had brand new tires on it, turns out they would give them the same price if the older worn exploder tires were on it, so we had them swap some brand new tires on.

As far as the TDI goes, I took all the wiring off and labeled it, along with all the hoses and other stuff. I'm going to tear it down and check bearing tolerances, but it should be fine. It will get some ARP head studs, and I'm half tempted to do rods as well. It came from a manual car, so it only has a 10mm pump, which will limits its power output (but it should limit EGT's as well). As far as boost is concerned, I'm thinking I'm going to run compounds, using the stock VNT-15 as the HP, and a turbo in the 30-35 lbm range for the LP one. 10mm pumps in cars will do about 170hp, so I figure in this setting it should do 150-160whp, and hopefully north of 300 wtq. It will be set up fine for an 11mm pump, which should bump it up into the 200whp and 350wtq range easily. Keep in mind, the stock 4.0 will do roughly 170whp and 200wtq.

I have a large distance between the back of the engine, and where the shifter needs to go through the trans tunnel. So after measuring, I have decided to use a R150f out of a 95.5+ tacoma 3.4 V6. Not only does the shifter have the right length, but it also allows me to run a 10" clutch. Plus the fact that they are fairly cheap. The reason the 95.5 one is needed, is because the transfer case is a drivers side drop on it. Another thing that is steering me in this direction, is the fact that I can buy an adapter for it already.

Explorers could be had as manuals, so picking up the parts to convert it wont be to hard to come by. I will have to tackle how to get the gauge cluster to read properly. My goal is to be able to do the same as, or better MPG's than a Jeep Liberty CRD, which I think I can do considering the manual trans. If I can crack 30mpg on the highway, I'll be one happy camper.
 

Fordguy100

New member
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
Messages
1,059
Reaction score
0
Location
Silverton, Or
1c0937ee-9e77-4d2a-8b19-d0a131811cd9.jpg

a43c7a55-d9de-4595-ab61-4ba34ab62a6e.jpg

161ee470-d35b-4568-b8f2-4f415ea558e4.jpg

bd4bc9ec-a19b-4d97-b757-80e6fff7150b.jpg

C72818C2-1765-4FBE-9DFA-5870B685B83F_zpsrvfnmzsb.jpg

1BDC48A3-7783-4937-8E01-AADA1D175869_zpsktf9ue3g.jpg

F89FD1DE-6523-411C-8F5E-1FFF1ABCFCF0_zpsb3lnpr5f.jpg

FFD46A49-B290-493A-BB1A-7571D83B2AFC_zpsux3nsjrw.jpg
 

Fordguy100

New member
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
Messages
1,059
Reaction score
0
Location
Silverton, Or
7914b22b-e9bc-4ddc-b77b-84a7398865ea.jpg


7e0f7ce1-3458-4f93-91f6-ce11d4d21322.jpg


77802107-8aad-4e08-9116-3891de7e1cc9.jpg


explorer2.jpg


explorer1.jpg



I'm sure with accessories on the TDI it will look better, but right now that V6 looks massive compared!
tdi%20vs%20v6_1.jpg


I think I will have to notch the oil pan by the diff, hard to tell in the picture though.
explorer3.jpg
 

gwunter

Active member
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
1,118
Reaction score
0
Location
Logansport, IN
Looks like your off to a good start. I dont think youll have too bad of time getting everything to work. Whats your plan to get the throttle working?? Its sad the PO let the interior get like that. If you need anything machined, let me know and maybe i can help.
 

JD3020

Active member
Joined
May 18, 2011
Messages
4,002
Reaction score
0
Location
Farmersville/Dayton, Oh
Cool project for sure, be interesting to see how that engine handles that much weight though. In stock form these CRD's put out 150/300 and its pretty doggy in a vehicle smaller and lighter than the explorer, tune puts them close to 200/400. And thats with almost a full liter more, and common rail.
 

Fordguy100

New member
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
Messages
1,059
Reaction score
0
Location
Silverton, Or
They sell 1.9's powering Amaroks all over the world, so I'm not to worried about. Like I said, it should put out an easy 160-170whp and 300+ ft lbs at the wheels with the stock pump. 11mm pumps take that into the 200-250whp and 400+ ft lbs. It really will boil down to what kind of clutch I want to run. 400+ ft lbs capacity start getting into the ceramic zone, which makes it not so nice to DD. But I do agree, it is at a disadvantage compared to the 2.8. But it seems like the TDI has a better aftermarket support. Plus it wont have an automatic behind it. Really what I'm shooting for is matching the 4.0's HP, if I can do that I'll be happy. Plus I'll have a lot more torque.

Yeah, its pretty crappy the PO let it go this bad. I actually bought it from a small dealer (Mexican Buy Here Pay Here type place). It probably needs brakes, steering componenets, suspension work, etc. It did have 220K on it.
 
Last edited:

ja_cain

Active member
Joined
Aug 10, 2013
Messages
4,597
Reaction score
2
I love these grocery getter/family hauler repower threads. Can't wait to see it running down the road. Btw, looks like you have a sweet shop. I'm jellous! Lol! Good luck!

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 

Latest posts

Members online

No members online now.
Top