76 spryte 1200 diesel conversion

anybody done a diesel conversion on these cats?
what make of diesel and drivetrain did you go with?
what motor displacement did you decide on?
im torn between a cummins bta3.9 or a john deere 4045t but with either the size is i think going to be an issue. i looked a a cummins 3.3 but those are harder to find used and when you do more expensive.
thoughts ideas lets have em!
my issue is with the ford 300 its a little underpowered for what i use it for

The weight should be a consideration as well. An inline six diesel is going to be way heavy I think. Better stick with the smaller 4 cylinder engines. Even then they are heavy and make little more power than the 300 can....To get big power, a diesel must be turbocharged.

Are you sure your sprite doesn't have a 200 CID six cylinder ford? The 300 engines were not out when the sprite was introduced. Most we see here are equipted with the 200 CID engine. Unless it has been changed it could be the 200 CID engine.

Don't put a boat anchor in your machine without some very serious thoughts on the end results. It was designed around weight considerations and available power of the day....

Regards, Kirk

I had a 76 spryte that came with the 300 ford and c6 transmission. The C model sprytes is when they changed from a 200 ford to a 300 ford. I found mine had tons of pulling power but would have been nice to have a little more speed. I had a 10 passenger box mounted on mine and even fully loaded going up steep grades never lacked in power but my elevation were less than 5000' too.

There was a factory option with a diesel but I think they were always mounted to a 4 speed transmission which certainly increases the work load for the operator.

Maybe yours is geared high or does not have the drop box gear reduction?

I think a 4 b cummins with some minor mods would be golden you can get close to 200 hp out of them and they aren't as heavy as a 6-b. here's some food for thought my 2100 diesel has a different gear ratio in the rear end to accommodate the lower rev limit of the fnh diesel the max with any reliability you will pull off a b cummmins is 3 k and at that you had better upgrade valve springs. as you build boost with a turbo the AFC on the pump will start defueling about 2 to 300 rpm below your governed speed. what i'm saying is with a diesel conversion to squeak the most out of your engine you will need a stiff overdrive or a gear change in the rear end or you will have performance problems at the top end where you need the hp. I am by the way a diesel freak and I wished there was a diesel which would work nicely in my snow trac but I haven't yet found one yet so I continue with my little air cooled vw motor. you really might find a efi 300 ford conversion to be more affordable, unless you want the diesel real bad some thing else to look at would be Isuzu diesels they generaly rev a bit higher and are usualy paired to some tough little automatic transmissions in the npr series trucks.

the cats got a c6 with a oc-12 diff with drop boxes i asummed its a 300 since its a 76 but now not sure. is there an easy way to check?

pretty straight forward explanation on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Straight-6_engine

So I guess my question is>>> What do you use it for?????

Is your spryte a 1200b with a 200-6, manual trans, and Oc-12 or a 1200c with 300-6, C-6 auto, and Oc-12 rear end?

i dont know if its a B or a C, no data plate.
ford inline 6 with a c6 trans and a oc-12 rear
i rent it to the company i work for to transport tools and equipment to radio towers and such

Jess- If you would like to call me at 801-450-8143 I can give you some suggestions. My next door neighbor was one of the engineers at Thiokol that designed the 1200 series machines.

i checked stroke tonight and it is a 300.
wade2367 whats a good time to call you?

days are best