1993 Ford Bronco Powerstroke Diesel - 1/2 Ton Diesel Swap

David's swap was complicated somewhat by the fact that the donor engine, intercooler, and wiring harness came from an '02 Ford F-250 Super Duty. You'll notice from the photos that the 7.3L was pushed forward on custom-built motor mounts to gain firewall clearance for the turbocharger and exhaust downpipe. This required David to ditch the mechanical cooling fan in exchange for a large electric version.

The 7.3L Power Stoke was significantly bigger than the 5.8L 351 Windsor engine that came in these Broncos. In order to handle the extra 500 pounds of weight, David chose to fit the Bronco with the leaf-sprung suspension from the '02 Super Duty donor vehicle.

Beginning with the '02 model year, all Super Duty trucks came from the factory with a Dana 60 front axle, so that's what David swapped into the front of his 7.3L Bronco. Fitted with 3.73 gears, the 1-ton axle was far better suited to handle the weight and torque than the original 3.55-geared Dana 44 Twin-Traction Beam (TTB) axle.

The front Dana 60 axle was bolted to the Bronco with stock Super Duty leaf springs and hangers. The rear shackles were adapted to the frame with fabricated steel mounts. From this angle, you can also see how the Bronco's E4OD transmission was replaced by a Super Duty 4R100 transmission.

The original E4OD Bronco transmission crossmember and skidplates were reused, and the Super Duty front driveshaft was bolted into place.

The Bronco's BorgWarner transfer case was replaced with the NV273 transfer case from the donor Super Duty. This allowed David to bolt in a shortened rear driveshaft from the Super Duty, and connect it to the Ford 10 1/2-inch rear axle that replaced the original Ford 8.8-inch rear end.

Since Broncos and Super Dutys both use 3-inch-wide leaf springs, the 10 1/2-inch Super Duty rear axle was bolted into the Bronco using factory Super Duty leaf springs and Bronco shackle mounts. The factory fuel tank was retained, but modified with the diesel fuel filler hose from the Super Duty.

Wiring the Bronco for the diesel engine was simplified by transferring almost the entire wiring harness from the donor Super Duty. If you look closely, you'll notice that the Super Duty gauge cluster was grafted in behind the factory Bronco dash.

As crazy as this is going to sound, swapping the 6.0L into a Bronco seems to be easier than fitting in the 7.3L. David reported that thanks to the 6.0L turbo location, there was significantly more room for the exhaust downpipe and turbo. No modifications to the firewall were required, and the engine position provided enough room to reuse the '06 donor truck's radiator, intercooler, and mechanical cooling fan.

Both Broncos were upgraded with the brake master cylinder and hydroboost brake booster from their Super Duty donor trucks. You'll also notice that David took the time to add an Edge Juice performance module (foreground) to his Broncos.

Fitting the '06 Dana 60 front axle proved to be a little more involved than swapping the leaf-sprung axle in, but David said the ride improvement made the effort worthwhile. Like the '02 Dana 60 in his 7.3L Bronco, the '06 Super Duty Dana 60 was also fitted with 3.73 gears, but unlike the '02 axle, it was mounted with coil springs and radius arms. Unfortunately, the radius arms on the Bronco were not compatible with the Super Duty axle, so David used a combination of Fabtech radius arms, coil springs, and sway-bar end links to install it. New mounts for the track bar, sway bar, and coil-spring buckets were built. An '06 Super Duty steering box was also retrofitted to the Bronco's frame.