BroncoII4x4.com

would it be possible at all to hook up a 4 cyl john deere tractor engine into a bronco 2 im sure getting it in and running would be simple but what would be involved in adapting it to bolt up to your transmission my friends got an old deere and we are wanting to try this in my bronco 2 so i could have one of the only diesel bronco 2's and be getting like 40 miles to the gallon but would look awesome to have b2 with stack out the middle of the hood

how much power does it make and your going to have one hell of a time making a custom adaptor to fit it to your tranny.

I have often thought about a diesel b2, myself. i always run into this hurdle though; how do you mate the diesel engine to a (useful) tranny?? as a deere motor would be unique, you have to consider what this vehicle is to be used for. if it is a crawler, maybe a hydraulic drive would be the way to go?

For my buck, when my 2.9 dies , i'm going to consider grabbing the motor and tranny from something like a toyota land cruiser, or nissan pickup diesel. i just finished fitting a 2.4l nissan planti into a suzuki samurai. i think for a diesel conversion, you need a tranny that was made for the engine.

just my $0.02

84_4x4 wrote:would it be possible at all to hook up a 4 Cyl John Deere tractor engine into a bronco 2 would be involved in adapting it to bolt up to your transmission.

I think your biggest problem would be coupling to a transmission. The next hurdle to overcome is the Weight. I am not sure what type of JD the power-plant would come from but in the farm tractor type they are usually part of the stressed frame members. That makes for a heavy motor.
If the motor is a typical diesel engine then weight is not as much.
Something else to consider is that industrial diesel motors are usually designed to run at a constant RPM.

Hey it would be unique different and yours. If ya do it let me know Maybe I can offer a hand.

im not sure how it would all work out one of my buddies is a tractor fanatic and he says it would be no problem gettin it in and weight wise with the suspension upgrades i have planned and that bolting to tranny would just take a custom bellhousing bet the engine he wants to put in is a 90 horse only 25 less than stock b2 and he has a turbo for it and he says a larger fuel pump and injectors would increase it to about 130 horse 15 more than stock b2 so i am waiting for him to figure out the hard stuff

ford put some diesels in some 80's model rangers

finding one would be extremely hard and probleyt expencive and wouldent be near as cool as a deere

lol........save yourself time and effort by putting in a real tractor motor out of a Case perhaps....lol..

Sounds like a lot of work to make a tractor motor work although it would be very kewl

84_4x4 wrote:finding one would be extremely hard and probleyt expencive and wouldent be near as cool as a deere

not really. If you look you will find one

i wish there was a way to make a 7.3 long block fit that would be completely crazy for such a small and light truck probley rip it to shreds first time nailed the throotle

an aquaintance of mine out in Californey put a 4cyl JD turboed in a early 60's Ford pickup. The useful powerband is so narrow that he does not venture onto the freeway with it if there is any appreciable traffic flow, when he does run the freeway it'll get around 18mpg and pull along very nicely. The major drawback is the vibration, it vibrates the screws out of the upholstery! That is one of the reasons Ford stop using the diesel they installed in early Rangers and a few BroncoII's, plus they were not known for making good useable power either. A diesel small and light enough to work in this chassis is going to be underpowered for the body weight, that is a given but can be easily done. If you can get enough different gear ratios behind it to make use of the torque band it would be a good setup, but a 5 speed aint gonna work, gear percentages are too far off from one gear to the next. JD diesels make the best power/torque from about 1600 to 2100rpms, with the sweet spot being from 1850 to 2000. no commonly available tranny is going to allow this narrow of a drop in engine speed.

A close Ratio four speed with a gear vendos 2 speed. You could split all the gears and have 8 speeds. Just like a big rig!!!

I have a ZF 5 speed with a gear vendors od unit in my diesel pickup, if you split gears 1 thru 4 the rpms dropabout 450 from one gear to the next, that in theory would work for the BroncoII but the GV unit adds about 22 inches to the drivetrain, which means there goes the transfer case and most of the driveshaft.