In this product release note we talk about our experience swapping a 12 valve Cummins into our 2004 Ford F350 diesel and highlight the release of our new conversion motor mount kit. Overall, it’s an easy swap. The Cummins fits like it belongs in there. And the 12 valve is such a simple motor and a reliable work horse. If you’re into insane performance, some crazy horsepower and torque can be squeezed out of these motors with the help of a massive array of aftermarket offerings. If, like us, you were just sick of the 6.0 Powerstroke begging for parts, this is one way to make your Super Duty more reliable and easier to work on.
Background
When I still had the 6.0 in my truck I used to joke that every operation in the service manual calls for completely removing the interior so that you can get the windshield out to get to the air cleaner, under which is the giant Ford screw that runs all the way to the back of the truck and holds everything together. But why such complexity? It is a common refrain that car and truck manufactures don’t want you to be able to work on your new vehicle so you will have to take it back to the dealership for service. There may be some truth to that, but the Powerstroke is a case where the mundane reality is probably more nefarious than the speculation. I have a friend (now retired) who once owned all five new car dealerships in the town where I grew up; and, for him, the Powerstroke 6.0 when it came out was no God send of a cash cow. Instead it was a nightmarish Hell with new trucks lined up across the back parking lot for warranty work on which Ford rarely paid the actual cost of the labor to the dealership. Anything over what Ford pays, the dealership has to eat the cost.
So if all the failed injectors and EGR coolers and oil coolers weren’t part of some grand conspiracy by Ford and its independent dealerships to bone you on repairs, what was it? In short, government regulation. The mundane truth is that increasingly tight diesel emission standards meant that the venerable 7.3 Powerstroke could not be made to pass muster. Dodge’s 5.9 Cummins was already in the ballpark but the 7.3 was just too far off. As such, the 6.0 was rushed into production and quality control suffered. Sand left in the block from the casting process would back up coolant in the oil cooler and the starve the EGR cooler of flow. This and all the other problems led the 6.0 to get a bad reputation at first, which it has struggled to overcome.
For a more detailed history on this subject, check this article from ford-trucks.com
The Aftermarket Responds
Of course it wasn’t long before some of us who owned these trucks began to wax nostalgic for the simpler, more reliable diesels of yesteryear. One such option is the 12 valve Cummins. These long lasting motors are simple, reliable, and tough. Mechanically injected, there are no electronics on this engine. One wire to the fuel shutoff solenoid provides temporary high current pullup power, another wire holds the solenoid open, and the third is the ground. Wiring for the oil pressure, water temperature, and pyrometer is easily figured out online. The 12 valve is widely available used or remanufactured. You can even buy a short block and add your own cylinder head, p-pump and so on.
Our Motor Mounts
There are number of aftermarket options for stuffing a 12 valve into a Ford Super Duty 99-07 model years. As usual, we opted to do our own take on this part of the swap. At this time we have not confirmed if the 98.5 to 02 Cummins 24 valve works with these motor mounts as we have not actually tried it. We don’t like to guess. We never release a product unless we have actually used it ourselves and know that it works. Some day we may find a 24 valve block and give it a whirl, Who knows, we may even try other swaps with this truck in the future.
One thing we think makes our solution unique, besides the absolute heft of the design (these are beefy and heavy with very hefty oil-resistant neoprene isolators!) is the availability of up to 3 1/2″ of total forward to rearward adjustability. In the picture to the right, you can see the motor installed in the forward most position with just enough clearance for the stock Dodge fan. This motor is installed with an NV4500 transmission and there is no reason for it to be this far forward. We did this just for demonstration. The motor can also be moved all the way to the rear to where it is just clearing the firewall. Depending on your choice of transmission, you may need this range of adjustment. Don’t forget that the Ford Super Duty factory transmission crossmember has slotted holes allowing for considerable adjustment to transmission position as well so that you can find the optimum balance between radiator and firewall clearance.
Other Considerations
We think the stock Cummins fan is a little small for the massive Ford Super Duty radiator. Prior to writing this we found another machine shop online making an adapter to fit the Powerstroke 7.3 fan to this motor. I was going to include a link to purchase that but as of the writing of this post I realize there may be some availability issues on that part. As such, we may develop our own take on that at some point.
Also coming soon is our own N4500 to Ford Super Duty transmission adapter mount. The one we purchased online for this swap was a complete joke so we designed our own. I hope to release that some time in the next week or two. Live Axle Machine Company is very small and sometimes inundated with work so we try not to rush into anything or take on more than we can handle. But if you’d like to see us do more of this stuff, hit us up in the comments section. We do what we can to provide quality, thoroughly tested aftermarket parts to make these old trucks more reliable and useful for years to come.