Lots Of People Sketch Out Their Dream Truck During Class, but high school senior Matt Conrad of Okeana, Ohio, actually turned his drawings into reality. He said the drawings worked like a "game plan," allowing him to design a real truck that would look exactly like the one in his imagination. At the young age of 15-and-a-half, Matt bought a '98 Ford Ranger pickup and gave it a suspension lift that allowed him to fit 33-inch tires. He liked the new setup, but thought the engine no longer had enough power, so he started looking for a diesel powerplant.
Cummins Hunting
An Internet search for diesel engines led Matt to a wrecked '04 Kubota tractor that was being used to excavate a tree that promptly fell on it and crushed the chassis, but left the engine intact. Matt drove all the way from Ohio to North Carolina to pick up the four-cylinder 3.9L 4BT Cummins diesel engine that would be used to repower his mini-truck.
Diesel Power and Transmission Swap
Matt swapped the engine into the Ranger by himself, and backed it up with a hydraulic 46RH automatic transmission and driveshaft that were scavenged from a 3/4-ton Dodge Ram pickup and a used Ford 8.8-inch rear axle with 3.08 gears. The Holset HX25 turbo breathes in through a high-flow S&B air filter and out through a 3-inch downpipe that leads to dual 5-inch stacks that let everyone know the Ranger is packing a diesel under the hood.
In addition to the stock speedometer and fuel gauge, a set of DiProcol gauges monitor the boost and EGT; Sunpro dials keep track of the voltage, temperature, and oil pressure; and an Isspro tachometer that uses magnets on the front pulley tracks the rpm. At first, the engine did not like its new home and acted up under normal driving conditions due to the variance of engine loads. With some help from the crew at Woodruff Diesel in New Vienna, Ohio, (Woodruffdiesel.com), the 4BT was calmed down with the installation of a 3,200-rpm governor spring kit and a Denny T. power pin. The upgrades helped the Cummins run better in the Ranger and improved output to 160 hp and almost 300 lb-ft of torque at the crankshaft, which is more than enough power to spin the big rear tires on pavement.