1999-2007 Ford 5.4L or 6.8L
Many times customers ask about converting 1999 - 2007 Ford® 5.4 and 6.8 trucks to a diesel due to the fact that they can be purchased reasonably, or they already have one and would like diesel power. There is not too much difficulty with this conversion, as these trucks will accept a diesel Super Duty intercooler without modification and the frame and transmission mounting is the same as the diesel versions. You should plan to drop the fuel tank and remove the electric fuel pump. This is explained further in the installation manual. Keep in mind that a new diesel exhaust system will also be required and a diesel radiator is also a good idea if you plan to do some considerable hauling. It is recommended that a F-250 or heavier duty chassis be selected for 6-cylinder conversions, as the F-150 chassis is really too light duty to handle the power and weight of the 6-cylinder Cummins®. If you have a F-150, we would recommend the 4-cylinder Cummins as a good alternative. TRANSMISSIONS 5.4 AND 6.8 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION SECTION If your truck is a Super Duty (F-250 and up) with a 5.4 or a 6.8 V-10 you will use a 5R110 Adapter Plate and we currently recommend a PCS Transmission Controller. The PCS controller requires a laptop to make adjustments, and this is the only drawback to using it, as opposed to the Compushift Transmission Controller, the other controller that CPP offers that does not require a laptop computer. Using the 5R110 Adapter Plate and the PCS Transmission Controller allows you the flexibility to upgrade to a 5R110 transmission at a later date if your current 4R100 transmission goes out. See our Automatic Transmission Controller article for more specific information about aftermarket transmission controllers. The 4R100 transmission in these trucks is not built to handle the torque that a Cummins engine is capable of producing. However, due to the differences in every customer’s usage of their trucks we may not strongly discourage the use of the gas 4R100 behind the Cummins. An example of this would be someone who is considering the Cummins from a fuel economy standpoint and does not plan to do much heavy trailer pulling; or perhaps they would like to save as much money as possible when doing the conversion and upgrade at a later date. In these cases a customer may get by using the stock 4R100, even with a stock torque converter (definitely not recommended for trucks pulling heavy trailers- and be prepared for less than ideal converter stall speeds—“slippy” when not locked up or having to push the gas pedal a little harder to get going). These customers may opt for this option with the 5R110 upgrade option as their plan B. The 5R110’s are a 5-speed automatic that comes behind the 6.0L Fords. These transmissions are practically a bolt in replacement for the 4R100 (with the 5R110’s transfer case). While the 4R100 transmissions can be performance built up to handle the power, the 5R110 can handle it as is. If you can find a good used 5R110 and transfer case cheaper than rebuilding your existing tranny, it may make more sense to use the 5R110. If you have a 5R110 already in your 05 or newer gas powered truck, and plan on doing some pulling, we would highly recommend getting a diesel torque converter. See our Cummins to Ford 5R110 Torqshift article for more information. FORD STANDARD TRANSMISSIONS Ford 5-Speed – CPP currently does not offer a 5.4 or 6.8 5-speed adapter plate due to the small clutch that would have to be used with one. We may someday for 4BT conversions. We make adapter plates for 5 speed transmissions as long as they were behind a 7.3 diesel or a 460 big block. The 1995 and newer transmissions are rated for 470 ft. / lbs. of torque. Ford 6-Speed – CPP currently does not offer a 5.4 or 6.8 6-speed adapter plate due to the small clutch that would have to be used with one. We make adapter plates for the 7.3 and 6.0L diesel 6-speed. These are very good transmissions for the conversion, and worth the upgrade. . INFORMATION ON PARTS IN OUR KITS ADAPTER PLATE Our adapter plate kit uses the 6.0L Ford Power Stroke® starter. This is actually the same adapter that was designed for the 6.0L 5R110 automatic transmission but it also works for the 4R100, and allows you to upgrade in the future if you'd like. Two holes in the top of the adapter are not used (the 4R100 does not have these holes, and two in the bottom are not used either, or if you want to use them drilling out the threads in the bottom holes in the transmission is required. The adapter plate replaces the adapter already on the back of the Cummins engine, making a factory quality connection for the transmission. They are precision machined from aircraft grade (6061) aluminum. ENGINE MOUNTS Our motor mounts are pre-drilled to accommodate for the stock engine fan (recommended). Because the Cummins engines are longer this will move your transmission back 2” to 3” causing you to move your transmission cross member back. The engine mounts are an excellent design with a bolt going all the way through the isolator, instead of relying on rubber and weak interlocking tabs to secure them to the frame cross member. You may be able to utilize our custom carrier bearing mount, which may make it possible to use your drive shafts as they are with an engine driven fan. This mount replaces your stock carrier bearing mount and moves the carrier bearing back just enough to give you room for the engine driven fan by collapsing the slip joint in your rear drive shaft. It is necessary for you to make sure you will still have enough slip in the joint when your rear suspension is compressed. Usually the rear drive shaft is fairly level in trucks that do not have a lift kit, so the drive shaft does not need to collapse very much during suspension travel. In most cases the front drive shaft on four-wheel drives will stretch enough to reach the front differential. It is necessary to move the transmission cross member back or lengthen the slots in the mount to slide the transmission back enough to give room for the engine driven fan. Automatic trucks already have holes in the frame to move the cross member back to accommodate the Dodge Cummins engine driven fan. GAUGE SENDING UNIT ADAPTERS (BUSHING KIT) Bushing kits include our custom built adapters to put your Ford gauge sending units into the Cummins engine so that your stock gauges still work with the Cummins engine. ALTERNATOR MOUNT CPP offers an alternator mount that allows you to use the 6.0L alternator if you would like. The advantages of using this alternator is that your indicator light will still work as it should if your charging system should fail, because they are internally similar to the 5.4 or 6.8 alternator. If you would rather use the Dodge Cummins alternator, we can provide you with an external voltage regulator. Common Rail applications do not need the external regulator. EXHAUST MANIFOLDS CPP sells exhaust manifolds that work much better in the conversion for the 12-Valve and 1998½ - 2002 24-Valve engines. These manifolds place the turbo in a better place for A/C box clearance than the stock variety, and also make exhaust and turbo oil drain connections easier as well. For the 24-Valve engines, other exhaust pieces are necessary when using our exhaust manifolds to provide an adjustable elbow connection for the downpipe. Both of these manifolds require you to re-orient your turbo housings to allow your oil drain to be pointed down correctly. This usually requires you to heat the exhaust housing on the turbo to remove the bolts and the housing so the housing can be re-oriented. Either fixing the waste gate shut or using a different waste gate actuator we can provide is also necessary because once the turbo is re-oriented the actuator will hit the engine block. Fixing the waste gate shut does not usually have any adverse effects on the engine, but we do recommend using a boost gauge to monitor and limit boost pressures to less than 40 psi. CPP also offers manifold gaskets and new exhaust manifold to turbo studs if you would rather not try to get the studs out of your stock manifold. Also helpful is a flexible turbo drain tube that connects to the stock hose and elbow that is left in your engine block when you remove the stock drain tube connected to the turbo. If you would rather, it is possible to heat this tube up to bend and twist it to allow reconnecting it after you re-orient your turbo housings. TACH KIT The tach kit consists of the Base, Mount, Sensor, and tach ring. These parts are necessary to make your factory tachometer work. Providing this signal to your Ford PCM computer also is necessary for the air conditioning, factory transmission control, and transmission temperature gauge to work as well. The universal sensor and mount CPP offers is the easiest way to supply the tach signal, since we currently do not make a mount for the stock 5.4 or 6.8 crank sensor. If you have the time, you can make a bracket for your stock crank sensor and save some money if you wish, although they are a bit awkward to mount. Most 12-Valve engines 1994 and newer already have the tach sensor base, which is bolted to the front cover at about 11:00 to the balancer. You will have to drill and tap a hole in it for our sensor mount to bolt to it. Except for 1999 -2001 applications (these trucks can use 4 notches in the Cummins balancer) all 5.4 or 6.8 trucks require the tach ring that bolts onto the front of the Cummins crankshaft balancer, for the sensor to send the correct signal pulse to the Ford PCM that makes the tachometer work. It is not necessary to buy a diesel instrument cluster for your truck. TRANSMISSION CONTROLLER See the Automatic Transmission Article for more information. AIR FILTER KIT Our air filter kit includes a Brute Force air filter, pipe and hose to connect to your turbocharger. We offer two styles of air filter kits. The kit the 5.4 or 6.8 liter truck will most likely use is the Part #1941. It requires relocating the passenger side battery to the driver’s side. This takes some fabricating skill to make the brackets to mount the passenger side battery tray and another one just like it on the driver’s side, but it provides a nice roomy area for the air filter, and allows you to keep the degas (radiator fill tank) in its stock location. The Part #1943 positions the Brute Force air filter between the passenger side battery and the radiator. This is especially the kit to use if you are using a Ford 6.0 diesel radiator and a common rail style turbo. A/C MANIFOLD This A/C manifold bolts to the back of a 1994 and newer Dodge A/C pump, making the A/C plumbing less of a challenge. All you will need to do is have some new hoses crimped between our manifold and a 1999 style A/C tube at the drier (a picture of one is in our manual), and the stock line connected to your condenser. RADIATOR HOSE KIT Our radiator hose kit includes the radiator and heater hoses that work well in the conversion and a specially bent aluminized steel lower radiator hose connector tube along with hose clamps. The kit that is offered in our kit builder for these trucks only works with the stock radiator and a new style water connections as shown on our Cummins Engine Information page. WIRING HARNESS SERVICES CPP can provide you 5.4 or 6.8L engine harness modification services that make wiring much less of a challenge. We modify your Ford engine harness to connect to a Cummins engine harness, providing your Ford PCM the signals it needs to make your factory gauges work. This service is normally included in packages for those using the 2003 and newer Common Rail Cummins engines, as we do not provide wiring instructions for do-it-yourselfers for this specific engine. This service is optional for the 12-Valve and 1998½ - 2002 24-Valve engines, as we do provide wiring instructions for these engines when you buy parts for your conversion. PARTS YOU WILL NEED TO GET ON YOUR OWN Even if you buy everything CPP sells, you will need to come up with a few parts on your own, such as an exhaust down pipe (usually a Dodge® down pipe can be a good start), a diesel exhaust system for the same year and style of your truck, a Ford Super Duty diesel radiator and intercooler, and intercooler tubes (again Dodge stuff can be a good start). We may be able to supply you with these, but our supply is limited at this time. If you live in a colder climate, we would also recommend adding an additional battery for longer starter cranking ability. Automatic transmission equipped trucks will require a throttle position sensor. Depending on the year and what transmission your Cummins engine had on it originally, you may need to purchase a throttle position sensor, or look into other options. All 24-Valve engines already have a throttle position sensor that can be used for the transmission controller. Sometimes customers buy engines out of industrial applications. These engines may not have the correct brackets for conversion friendly accessories. See Cummins Engine Information for more information.
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