cynicwanderer
Member
I have wanted to convert my E4OD to a 5 or six speed. My thought was to buy a doner F250/F350, I would presume 7.3 IDI or PSD engines would have the same transmission to bolt up to my 1995 PSD. That would basically give me everything I would need to perform the swap. I know there would be modification to perform on the take off parts, the biggest question is how to mock up the sifter as it would sit behind the drivers seat.
Was a doner vehicle ever an idea that you had? Have you set up the shifter by chance? What other parts work from a truck that you can install? Example would be flywheel, clutch etc.
I skimmed over the post, if I missed any of these questions I apologize in advance.
as far as I know, the things that do not fit from the truck for this gen van, is the clutch/brake pedal quadrant, the cross members and probably the driveline. the driveline would need to be shortened or lengthened, depending on the wheelbase of the truck it came from. I have not mocked up the shifter location, but I already know that I will need to bend the shift shaft based on measurements or make a custom shaft. I have a combination of driveshafts that will be close, but I expect might still have to shortened/lengthen once I have it installed. if you have a PSD, the manual PCM might swap over with minimal wire harness changes, but I don't know for certain.
cost was an issue for me and I would have preferred the ZF6, but I was able to find ZF5s for pretty cheap around here so that is what I went with. I don't plan to go PSD and chip/tune it on this van, so I'm not too concerned about the torque challenged IDI I currently have. I might some day turbo it, but it will be a mild tune, mostly for fuel economy. as far as I know the bolt pattern is the same for the IDI/PSD.
the biggest question at the start was whether I wanted to 4x4 the built while I was at it, but now I'm not too interested in actually doing a front axle swap. I will use a ZF5 4x4 transmission, but with the E-brake instead of transfer case.