I am watching this thread with anticipation. I want this swap in the near future. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Dylan,

Between the two of us, we'll get this sorted out and we'll have a nice diesel swap thread on the wire when we're done!

I dropped the gas tank from the Montero this morning and the radiator and tank are going off to the radiator shop on Monday. (tank will be boiled out and the radiator rodded/reconditioned)

Check out all of the breathers on the top of the tank! There is a fuel supply and return from the side and then three breather tubes on top. The fill nozzle also has a breather next to it. Something tells me I'm not going to need all of that breathing when I have my oil burner transplanted.

Okay, got a few things done.

1) Oil cooler lines: the old ones had these cheapo, quick disconnect fittings on them (bottom). Got some new ones to replace the leaky old ones (bottom)



2) Clutch setup. As some of you are aware, I was having troubles with clutch differences, since the ranger was hydraulic and my pickup has a manual clutch. Shouldn't be an issue on the Montero. Anyway, took it to a reputable clutch shop to seek advice. Left it over the weekend, got a call Monday to come get it. Owner found me a new pressure plate with a very similar height and release points to those on my Mitsubishi pressure plate, but it's from a small Ford truck so it fits on the Ranger flywheel. I'll get the part number later and look up exactly what vehicle it is from later. So this should be problem solved.

Machined flywheel:



New clutch setup:



3) Oil pump pickup: I'll be using the pickup from the 2.6, since it is designed for the front sump pan I'll be using. However, the mounting location for the pickup on the diesel block is different. Here is the pickup mountd on the diesel block:



Sits outside the pan rails, no good. I will be removing the mounting flange on the pickup and re-indexing it so it will drop in the center of the oil pan. It will still be too short to hit the center of the sump, so I'll also cut a section out of the middle to give it about 2.5 to 3" more reach.



That's all for now, hopefully more progress soon. it's just hard to make time right now with crap loads of schoolwork on top of real work.

I pick up my reconditioned fuel tank and rodded radiator tomorrow at the radiator shop. I should have some good progress next weekend 10/13.

Dylan, we're going to have to run these diesel Mitsu's up to North Georgia for a trail ride after they're done!

Pmontero

Dylan,

It looks like from the pictures above, that you pulled the Ranger diesel engine with the transmission attached. Is that true? I have the engine disconnected from the tranny and the engine brackets are up off the motor mounts. When we try to slip it off the transmission, i won't come off. We've tried just about every position on the cherry picker and repositioning the tranny with a hydraulic jack. I've really shaken it and used a pry bar too. We've separated it about 1.5" but it won't budge.

Any tips or suggestions?

thanks,

Pmontero

Im not really sure what it could be hanging up on, but sometimes the the springs on the pressure plate like to hang on pretty good. as long as everything is unbolted it should slid out pretty easy for the most part.

Try having it at different angles, pulling hard and shaking and twisting it.

Did you ever get your motor free?

I was dove hunting in South Texas along the Mexican border last weekend and just got back today. My friend is coming down next weekend and we're going to pull the engine and tranny together. We're hoping we can pry it apart without cutting into the bell housing. (that's the worst case so we can remove the clutch basket and flywheel bolts.)

Pmontero

You gonna stop by and see me on the way back to ATL?