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Series 80 fitted with 6 speed gearbox

Nissanclubman

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Aug 23, 2015
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australia
Just thought I would start this tread for anyone who is interested in fitting a 6 speed gearbox into their Series 80 1HZ. I started the project a few months ago and the big issue was selecting the right gearbox. Looked at everything from the land Rover Discovery and all the late model 6 speeds and decided on the MT82 out of the 2013 Ford Ranger. The main reason was the easy by which it could be realigned from a Passenger side drive shaft alignment to a driver side to suit the 80 series Diff input.

For the moment I will park this thread, gather all my photos and story details and progressively update it over the next few days.

In summary, after over a Million kms I decided to give the 80 series motor a refresh and while I was at it, a gearbox upgrade which has been well worth the conversion and did 75% from my home garage. Apart from buying the gearbox the whole conversion cost about $700.

Update 1:
Just as an opener and I apologises if this offends anyone who fits this category, but as with all forums there are always people who provide opinions ! based on very little or no first had experience yet claiming what they say is with Gospel accuracy. If this is you please go play in another topic.

However if you have any serious doubts or thoughts about something then I am more than happy to explain my finding and experience. Yes the car has only been on the road a few months and the test of time is yet to reveal its issues.

Secondly, this is purely an "experiment" and aimed at solving the age old question of giving the 80' series longer legs for high way running and much better ratios (2-3 and 3-4) between gears on hills that suit the engine.

Selecting the gearbox:
As I mentioned the MT82 is in a lot of vehicle and is coupled behind lots of different motors. The Mitsubishi BT50 and Ford Ranger both have the 5 cyl turbo motor rated at about 470 Nm of torque and compared to the 1hz's of any version, is way over rated for the job.

The three main questions I was interested to solve (apart from the strength) was the rotation of the output shafts, realigning the output shafts from passenger side to driver side (as per old 80 box) an matching the gear rations to match the 1HZHDT torque band between gear changes better than the old box.

This was done in two ways.

Gear box ratio comparison
Gear 80 series MT82
1st.......4.529........5.441
2nd......2.464.......2.839
3rd.......1.49..........1.721
4th .......1...............1.223
5th........0.881.......1
6th........N/A ........0.794

Diff ........4.11 .........4.11

Upgraded diff ratio to the 80 series EURO diff ratio 3.879 (Jap, SA, USA and Aus was 4.11)

The next thing to do was to get a box and old 80 series bell housing and start measuring up to see how to match the two together and what work needed to be done. The major differences I found were these.

Clutch hydraulics uses a concentric cylinder
Input spline was different
Box was 150mm longer
Output to rear wheels was direct alignment from gearbox input and not from T/F case.
G/Box bell housing was incorporated with the G/box. No separate Bell housing.

There were lots of other minor things that 95% of us could easily work out.

The first and most important thing was working out how to couple the MT82 to the motor. I thrashed through lots of options and decided to machine both the 80 series and the G/box housings down, tig welding a 15mm thick adaptor to couple the two together. This had to be very accurate so as to suit the input shaft length and support bearing in the crank shaft.

I have all these measurement is anyone is interested. A huge issue was I couldn't find anyone engineering workshop who would take on the job of machining the MT82 bell housing with out stripping the G/box apart so with a lot of creativity and lateral thinking I did it my self. Will post a vid to show you how simple it really was.

The second part of the adaptor issue is the clutch and support bearing in the crank shaft.

I managed to find an "Off the shelf" heavy duty organic clutch that had the exact internal spline of the MT82 and its O/D fitted the 80 series pressure plate perfectly. A bit of good luck. The other thing I found was the O/D of the MT82 input shaft support bearing was exactly the same as the I/D of the STD bearing used by Toyota. This was a pure fluke and a good omen..

That's it for the moment and will post some photos and vids of the bell housing machining method I used. Remember I did it all from my home garage so is very unorthodox.
 
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Thats an interesting swap over Ncm! Being a hzj80 have you replaced the h151f of r151f formally fitted?
Is the ranger transmission a very strong unit? I've thought that my 81 needs and extra gear!
 
I was 8nder the impression the weak part of a ranger was the box. When pushed hard offroad or towing they are meant to give up. Or is this the transfer box ?

Would love an extra cog in my 80.

Loving the 6 speed in my disco
 
This is very interesting... watching this one closely...:think::ugeek:
 
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Will be interesting ......
The torque of 1HD or 1HD ft would soon pull the box apart .....
 
Thats an interesting swap over Ncm! Being a hzj80 have you replaced the h151f of r151f formally fitted?
Is the ranger transmission a very strong unit? I've thought that my 81 needs and extra gear!
The MT82 in both the Misubishi BT50 and Ford Ranger is couple behind the TDI Puma 3.3 ltr turbo engine.
3.2 Power Stroke is rated 188 PS (138 kW; 185 hp) and 470 N⋅m (350 lb⋅ft)
 
I was 8nder the impression the weak part of a ranger was the box. When pushed hard offroad or towing they are meant to give up. Or is this the transfer box ?

Would love an extra cog in my 80.

Loving the 6 speed in my disco
One of the options I was looking at was coupling the MT82 out of the Landrover Defender because of the totally indestructible T/C and that the output was from the lower T/C position. But found the intermediate shaft from the G/box and Landrover T/C had a long standing design issue. Was solved by 3rd part engineers but very costly to retrofit. Yes I agree the 6 speeds completely changes the way the car drives. Completely
 
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I think on paper the Puma 3.3 has more torque than a standard 1 HD Ft .
Not in any way knocking what you are doing as I often try and select 6th in the 80 after spending time away from it driving more modern 6 speed trucks .
However figures on paper and in the real world are often way apart , having recently spent an unpleasant few weeks driving a new Ranger with the 3.3 engine towing heavy stuff I'm not sure how or where they measured the torque , coupled with a bad ride and a feeling of less than toughness I was pleased to hand the truck back .
A friend has a Raptor and that is without doubt an awesome truck .
 
Well my lack of updates to this thread was deliberate and thought I'd leave it until either I am sure the mod was solid or as viewed by some, the 1HZ tore the MT82 box apart..

In the mean time I have fitted a Variable vane turbo and Max Fuel Rack adjustment system along with EGT, intake temp sensor, WBO2 sensor, MAF meter, and HMI on my dash with a PLC keeping and eye on my precious 1HZ running 15 psi. Also fitted 3.8:1 diff ratios.

I am happy to report the MT82 gearbox is loving its new life in my Series 80 in-spite of the extra grunt and after nearly a year and half I can report no issues. Oil is spotless, gear changes are still very slick and no signs of giving up.
 
I’m very unlikely to go down this road, but a brave move has paid off by the look of it, we’ll done Nissanclubman, inspiring stuff indeed :thumbup:
 
Pics? You promised pics…:whistle:

Wasn’t there some info somewhere about keeping boost low when aftermarket turboing a 1HZ? 6 psi springs to mind though not at all sure on that.

I’m guessing all your tight controls are keeping things in check. Either that or my one functioning brain cell has remembered this wrong.
 
Pics? You promised pics…:whistle:

Wasn’t there some info somewhere about keeping boost low when aftermarket turboing a 1HZ? 6 psi springs to mind though not at all sure on that.

I’m guessing all your tight controls are keeping things in check. Either that or my one functioning brain cell has remembered this wrong.

IIRC the safe level is considered to be 1 Bar, or circa 14-15 psi... might be wrong though...
 
Fair play could you post pics of.the conversion. Will help get my head around What you did. Sounds like one amazing feet of back street engineering. Hats off
 
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