Ranger Biodiesel Swap - Flywheel And Bellhousing Adapter Installation

With the bellhousing and crankshaft adapters finished, it was time to start assembling the backend of the engine. I received the bellhousing adapter from the machine shop, confirmed the hole alignment with my bellhousing, and then torqued it to the engine block.

 

Next, I installed the crankshaft adapter and crankshaft. Both pieces received brand-new hardware that were loctited and torqued to spec.

The original flywheel and pressure plate were in good condition, so I rebuilt both and installed a new clutch friction plate.

The final piece was the bellhousing, which required some mild clearancing to not interfere with the coolant adapter on the back of the cylinder head,

With everything painted and reassembled, it was time to work on the starter, clutch linkage, and transmission installations.

Ranger Biodiesel Swap - Flywheel Adapter Fabrication Part 2

 This adapter requires extremely tight tolerances to prevent vibration and misalignment with the flywheel, so the manufacturing process must be careful and precise. This is complicated by the design of the final part, which has alignment surfaces on both sides of the face, both radial and flat, and on inner and outer diameters.

Every time you remove and reinstall a part in a three-jaw chuck, it introduces a minute amount of misalignment in the part, especially in older worn machinery. In order to maintain accuracy through repeated removals, I manufactured the fixture collet (previous post) that has multiple precise ridges and two methods of retaining the part with bolts. These ridges correspond to ones that I will machine in both sides of the adapter, so that the piece will always be perfectly centered on the fixture no matter how many times it is removed and flipped.

The adapter started life as a 1-in thick round steel plate, and I drilled a hole through the approximate center the same size as the center bolt on the fixture. This allowed me to mount the plate in the fixture, and start machining the outer diameter and first face.

The stepped ridge on one side of the adapter is the primary alignment for the flywheel, so I machined the outer diameter to a tight tolerance against the inner diameter of the original Ford flywheel. 

Once completed, I flipped the adapter to the other side, aligned the ridge with the corresponding pocket in the jig, and locked it in place with the bolt. I then machined the opposite side flat and added another ridge for alignment in the other jig pocket. 

Once complete, I removed it from the jig and test fit it on the flywheel

The next lathe step required center boring of the adapter for the crankshaft alignment and transmission pilot bushing. This meant that the center hole would no longer be used for attaching the adapter to the fixture, so I first had to drill the radial bolt patterns. 

I mounted the adapter to a rotary table on a drill press with an XY cross slide, and drilled the inner and outer bolt patterns.

With the bolt patterns finished, I could then install the adapter on the jig without using the center bolt, and finish boring the inner diameters for the crankshaft alignment and pilot bushing

Ranger Biodiesel Swap - Flywheel Adapter Fabrication Part 1

The crankshaft to flywheel adapter, bellhousing adapter, and engine mounts all needed to be custom-made for this build. I designed everything, drew up blueprints, and sent the bellhousing adapter design to a machine shop for fabrication. 

I decided to manufacture the crankshaft to flywheel adapter myself in my home shop, but first I needed to develop custom tooling in order to hold tighter tolerances necessary for a correct balance. 

To maintain correct centerline alignment, I first modified a machinable fixture collet with several concentric stepped ridges, that would perfectly correspond to both sides of the finished adapter. In this way, I could remove and reinstall the adapter multiple times and maintain perfect alignments every time. 

Next, I drilled a center hole and bolt pattern holes into the piece, and tapped them all with the correct sizes, to give me multiple methods of fixing the adapter to the plate during machining. With the fixture complete, it was time to start manufacturing the adapter.

 

Ranger Biodiesel Swap - First Start (Video Post)

 The first start and run of my Volkswagen 1.6NA swapped 1999 Ford Ranger. The process required several hours of bleeding air from the fuel lines and purging old diesel residue from the system, and now it runs perfectly! It's been approximately 20-25 years since this engine ran, and it was eager to clear out the cobwebs.

Ranger Biodiesel Swap - Spare Engine

I purchased a spare 1.6NA engine on Facebook Marketplace for parts, but ultimately saved a lot less than I thought I would. Unfortunately, it had been left out in the rain on a wooden pallet, and was completely full of water. I salvaged the cylinder head, intake, exhaust, vacuum pump, and lower timing cover, and scrapped the seized block.

The real prize was this lower timing belt cover, which is surprisingly hard to find and was missing from my engine. I shaved some ribs off the front to improve clearance with the alternator belt, painted the front of the engine block, and reinstalled all the parts.

Ranger Biodiesel Swap - Air Intake

I wanted to reuse the original airbox and filter, as well as reinstall the original MAF and intake air sensors for later data acquisition (and to avoid throwing codes!).

Luckily, the airbox is on the same side as the intake manifold, so the design is greatly simplified. I used a 3" to 2" reducing 45-degree elbow, a tee-fitting with a 1" port for the temperature sensor, and a 90-degeree elbow to the engine, all connected with short lengths of 2" OD Steel pipe. 

The hardest part was the intake manifold adapter, which has an oval inlet. I machined the oval port on a piece of 1/8" steel plate, formed one end of a 2" steel pipe into a matching oval, welded the two together, and trimmed everything to fit under the hood.