Need more Power. I think 4 BT wont cut it. Thinking about going 12 Valve Cummins

 

Cool, I know of one truck on youtube with a 6BT swap, can't remember if it's a 12 or 24v though.

Even with a nicely setup 4BT, it'd be sweet, and haul butt in a Ranger.

 

Prepare to drop a lot of money. If done right I think it would be awesome. You might want to get a total amount and see if it would be cheaper just to sell the ranger and buy a 2500.

 

I dunno if you know already but that block is extremely tall and gonna take some serious fab work to get it to even fit height wise in a ranger, and you're gonna have to hack up the firewall for the length of the block.

 

^^And long. The last 2 cylinder are buried even in a superduty, The older dodges were a little better, but the last 1 or 2 are still a pain. You would need massive firewall mods. Why not build a 4bt to make some power with twins...You can have your cake and eat it too. There are 650+ HP 4bt's out there.

 

That one 6bt on youtube, the front of the truck is stretched 6 inches.
Its a ridiculous amount of fab given that with about the same amount of money you would put in to the truck to get the 12 valve, which is limited in its modifications and thus power output as opposed to a 24 valve, you could swap in a 4bt and tune it to 500+ horsepower.
12 valves have no computer tuning availability like the 24 valve does. I'm not trying to be smart, as I assume you would already know this, but the amount of work that would be needed to fit the engine into the truck would outweigh its benefits. A tuned 4bt is the way to go.

 

Can't chip a 4bt either, but its cheaper/easier and you can still get a bunch of horsepower out of it.

Figured I should add that in. haha

 

You can get a computer controlled 4bt....3.9ISB

 

You can?
I've never seen or heard of one.
Guess you learn something new every day

 

i have heard nothing but horror stories about the computer controlled 6bt engines

constant repairs

 

Computer controls on the 5.9 started in 1998, there isn't any more issues with them then the mechanical ones really, Although the years where they made changes will like anything else have some issues with it. The computer controlled 4bt is called the ISB3.9 makes 180Hp

 

not what i have been told

i mechanic i talked to, the same computer controlled vehicle is in the shop almost every week

so he switched the engine over to the mechanical 1 , that same truck has never been back since

plus numerous headaches he has with other peoples comp controlled cummins engines

 

Then he must not be familiar with electronic controls. They're actually very simple to diagnose and repair. One of the things I do notice is most shops are afraid of them and will refuse to work on them, yet by some stroke of luck I can usually correct an issue quickly and permanently.

Not saying they dont' have issues, just saying there is a better solution then converting it back to mechanical.

 

your`e probably right about that

but i still prefer mechanical over computer any day

 

You can do way more to a 12 valve than you can to a 24valve for half the price. Unless of course that 24 valve is P-pumped.........which I would not recommend doing unless you have a lot of patience and time.

Right Jake...lol

 

I don't know much about 12 valves, but every time I've seen them race 24 valves, they've lost.
That's the mindset I'm going from and I figured that's what op was looking for since you can't pull too much with the Ranger no matter what.
I'm not going to argue with y'all though. I don't claim to know too much about these. haha
Just what I've looked in to and my buddies trucks.

 

it depends , did they properly match injectors
probably not.
a 12 valve diesel engine with properly matched injectors will smoke a computer controlled diesel any day

the problem with computer controlled diesels is: sometimes they pump too much fuel into the cylinders and overheat the injectors , that is where comp controlled diesels break down so much

the proper fuel/air mixture must be maintained for a diesel too work properly and for long term reliability

 

The 12v head is still an air flow limiting factor. I've never seen/heard of an overheated injector, Proper air/fuel mixture is not important in a diesel like it is for gasoline engines. Idle mixture is very lean, on the highway cruising with light loads is near 40:1, right where you start to see smoke is about 20:1.... versus a gas, keeping it at the 14.4-14.7 or whatever it is.

Most guys who "tune" up their 12v are pushing way way more fuel then then need, I guess most 24v's are too, as they stack chips and waste money.

 

i have !

the owner did a pretty good job of it too.

even the mechanic was stumped as to how he was able to get the injector pressure up that high

it was the 1st version with the injector tip in the combustion chamber

he a hell of a time getting 4 of the 6 injectors out because of the melted tip

 

Also a 12V is super heavy. Probably gonna need a suspension mod

 

I do like the 24v because i already have one. I just think it would be cool and different to have a 12v cummins in my ranger

 

Yea Dookie i agree, my close buddy and I put one together, major pain but was worth it on the pullin track. I really like having the comp. base 24 so we can test and tune ez'er along with quicker and ez power.

 

I'm assuming you haven't been around Cummins much, You can't just say every 24 valve you have seen race a 12 valve has won, bc a nicely built 12 valve will put the *** whipping on a comp controlled 24 valve anyday of the week. Unless, like I said earlier, that 12 valve is running against a P-pumped 24 valve, then my money is on a 24 valve. There are way more possibilites to mod a 12 valve than a comp controlled 24 valve, considering all the problems you will have out of the VP44's when you start stacking boxes on them. Bye bye injection pump. Not trying to be a dick, just letting you know since you said you didn't know much.

But anyway Jake, great idea. lots of money, lots of time, but very very possible

 

well Dookie thats why we just slap on an after-market fuel system which helps with the junk vp44

 

Bingo! And don't do a 4BT, You saw what my ranger did to the 2500 with the 4BT when I pulled him. 4BT's are the new 302. Plus, trying to put 500 HP into a 4BT is near impossible. Remember Marcus Pelts Twin Turbo 4BT. It was still only pushing 275 hp. He is a Cummins God(haha) and he will say the same thing.