Fuel efficient hotrod project

[bondvagabond]

First off, don't worry, I have a 55mpg motorcycle, and a 30+mpg as my main vehicles. But I started thinking.....(uh oh)

A buddy of mine has offered me a scout traveller (the stretched version of a scout 2) for like scrap metal prices. it has a 304 v8 dodge 727 3 speed non overdrive tranny bad stuff as far as mileage goes.

Frontal area on the scouts as long as you don't jack them up super high is similar to the the ranger.

4x4 ranger with the 4cyl and 5 speed with extracab weighs 3700lbs
4x4 scout traveler weighs 3900lbs with an industrial v8 engine that they put in dump trucks and stuff that weighs 750lbs!

Since rangers are a popular first vehicle for teen guys, you can get them cheap neer me running well with body damage.

I am contemplating doing an engine/tranny/transfercase swap into the scout body.

My question for the engineer types is: If the drivetrain is the same, and the aerodynamics are similar, and the wights are similar, will the mpgs be similar? It would be a hoot to have an old convertable 4x4 that had decent mpg.

Am I crazy like a fox? or just crazy? I am confident that I could rig motormounts and tranny mounts, and the same Scouts came from the factory with this massive 3.2liter 4 cylinder engine that only had 5 more hp than the ranger one, but 20 more ft/lbs of torque.

The drive line swap would make their weights almost identical, and I would probably eventually go to an aerodynamic soft top which should drop a few hundred lbs. too. It might end up being lighter.

[Old Mechanic]

Saw a neat Scout once with a 2.4 liter 6 cylinder Nissan diesel engine.

Pretty sure it was factory.

regards
Mech

[bhazard]

If you want a 2.3 with a little more oomph theres always the 2.3 turbo. Double the hp and gobs more torque. Stick with a small turbo for more low end grunt.

[bondvagabond]

Even the non turbo ones you can get up to 150hp pretty easy with a catback exhaust(they come from factory with a nice header) taurus electric fan swap, and some other little things that don't kill mpg.

I've got one of the factory ford mileage computers hooked up in my 94 ford ranger, it'd be fun to have a mileage computer in a classic car with some style.

[Big Dave]

Check Bennelson's thread about putting a M-B OM 617 in a Chevy S-10.

The old diesel would be not only economical but would easily out-last the truck.

A challenge even for an experienced engine-swapper because of the DIN connection.

Old 300Ds are beginning to rust out and these legendarily reliable engines should not be too tough to find.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by bondvagabond

First off, don't worry, I have a 55mpg motorcycle, and a 30+mpg as my main vehicles. But I started thinking.....(uh oh)

A buddy of mine has offered me a scout traveller (the stretched version of a scout 2) for like scrap metal prices. it has a 304 v8 dodge 727 3 speed non overdrive tranny bad stuff as far as mileage goes.

Frontal area on the scouts as long as you don't jack them up super high is similar to the the ranger.

4x4 ranger with the 4cyl and 5 speed with extracab weighs 3700lbs
4x4 scout traveler weighs 3900lbs with an industrial v8 engine that they put in dump trucks and stuff that weighs 750lbs!

Since rangers are a popular first vehicle for teen guys, you can get them cheap neer me running well with body damage.

I am contemplating doing an engine/tranny/transfercase swap into the scout body.

My question for the engineer types is: If the drivetrain is the same, and the aerodynamics are similar, and the wights are similar, will the mpgs be similar? It would be a hoot to have an old convertable 4x4 that had decent mpg.

Am I crazy like a fox? or just crazy? I am confident that I could rig motormounts and tranny mounts, and the same Scouts came from the factory with this massive 3.2liter 4 cylinder engine that only had 5 more hp than the ranger one, but 20 more ft/lbs of torque.

The drive line swap would make their weights almost identical, and I would probably eventually go to an aerodynamic soft top which should drop a few hundred lbs. too. It might end up being lighter.

If the drag coefficients,frontal areas,and weights are all similar and you shove in the entire powertrain,it's performance should mirror that of the cannibalized vehicle.
The axles shouldn't vary in efficiency to any degree.If the tires are like that of the Ranger,then the engine shouldn't 'be aware' of it's new digs,and should perform just as it did in the Ranger.

[NiHaoMike]

What about an EV or hybrid conversion?

[Clev]

Originally Posted by bondvagabond

I've got one of the factory ford mileage computers hooked up in my 94 ford ranger, it'd be fun to have a mileage computer in a classic car with some style.

Did it come that way, or did you retrofit it? If so, how did you do it? I have a '96 Ranger and would love to have a factory mileage computer for it.

[bondvagabond]

Originally Posted by Clev

Did it come that way, or did you retrofit it? If so, how did you do it? I have a '96 Ranger and would love to have a factory mileage computer for it.

It is an easy retrofit, I am mechanically inclined, but NOT electronically inclined, and I was successful. Go to therangerstation.com in their tech articles on the lower left side is a section called electronics or something like that, and in there is an article called "trip minder mileage computer install" something like that. he spells it out for a 93 ranger, mine is a 94, don't know what year changes would make it so you would have to do different things. I posted a link to the article in another thread, do a search for trip minder computer, should bring it up. basically you look through 30-100 crown vics, continentals, t-birds from like 86-92 I believe, there are 7 wires to hook up, 5 are easy, they come from your clock, 2 are a little trickier, they go to the computer plug, still within my mediocre skill set. One is for fuel info, one for speed info.

I got mine for a buck forty nine! Eat that scanguagers! (just teasing, I have a scan guage on my wife's 05 corolla)

But seriously, spread the word to all pre-OBD2 ranger hypermilers, so that someone smarter than me can tell me how accurate they are and how to accurize it :-) Cheers.