Starting as a trim package on F-Series Ford pickups and then as a Courier replacement, the Ranger has had a very interesting history. Even more interesting would be Ford’s choice of engines, such as what’s in this first-year, 1983 Ford Ranger diesel. This rare Ranger can be found here on craigslist in Burns, Oregon. The seller is asking $2,500 or best offer and I’m trying my hardest to not pounce on this one. The seller says that this is 1 of 170 but I can’t find that number anywhere.
My brother bought a red 1984 Ford Ranger brand new and I’ve wanted one ever since. Being a lover of oddball and/or unusual vehicles, having one with a diesel engine would be even better. Ford’s small pickup, the Ford Courier – a rebadged Mazda B-Series pickup – was made for the 1972 through 1982 model years at which point the new Ford Ranger appeared, in early-1982 for the 1983 model year. The Ford F-Series full-sized pickup which formerly used Ranger as a trim level switched to XLT as the small Ranger came to market. The Ranger went away after 2012 and rumors of its return were rampant for years until it finally returned in 2019. Unfortunately, it’s no longer really a “small” pickup.
Believe it or not, the new 2020 Ford Ranger is only 1-inch narrower and 2-inches shorter than what would have been a full-sized 1983 Ford F-Series pickup, the era when the Ranger first appeared. Add me to the list of people who truly miss small pickups. In case you were wondering, the 2020 Ranger is 3-feet longer than the 1983 Ranger is. Of course, the new Ranger is roomier, quieter, smoother, and it can be had with four doors, and it’s safer, etc… and now there’s a rumor of a diesel engine being available.
The seller only gives us four photos and two of them are basically the same thing, showing the left-front 3/4 angle and that dented or melted hood, grille, and fender. I’m not sure what happened there? I don’t see any rust but it’s hard to tell from the photos. A 4-speed manual transmission was the only choice for diesel Ranger buyers, at least for the Mazda-Perkins diesel – the 5-speed or automatic wasn’t available. Speaking of unusual Ranger “engines/motors”, from 1998 to 2002, there was also an EV version, Ford’s first EV for North America.
Which finally brings us to the only real unusual part about a 1983 Ford Ranger, whether it had a 2.2L inline-four Mazda-Perkins diesel or not. This one does, and it put out 59 hp. The seller says that it starts and runs amazing. An 86-hp Mitsubishi 2.3L diesel was available in 1985 and 1986 but then the diesel option went away for the Ranger. Have any of you owned a Ranger pickup with a diesel engine?
Looks as though it took a mild hit to the driver’s side, and a piece of the broken top trim has been re-attached. In the past week or so, I was reading about an 80’s S-10 diesel (possibly for sale) but I can’t seem to remember where I saw it! The golden glow of memory continues to dim, LOL!! :-)
Well, I thought the Ranger was the best of the bunch, on par with any Asian pickup ( probably because it was mostly Mazda), but like the other diesel posts, I wouldn’t touch it. Unless it’s some Ram dually or 4 door pickup pulling living room, small diesels fell out of favor. They were hard starting, smoky, noisy, gutless slugs, and not many bought another. The only benefit then was cheaper fuel and fuel mileage, neither a concern today, apparently. Good trucks, but lose the diesel. Got to be a slew of 2.3,4 cylinders around, but who is going to do that today?
Fortunately for small truck lovers Ford has announced a new Courier pickup coming in 2021. A truly small truck.
Hooray!
Pretty neat and this version of the Ranger was pretty good .
Be aware the body sheet metal was made of tin foil, you can dent the front fenders by leaning against them .
*If* I was into tiny Diesel trucklets I’d go look at this one, I’m not ~ my Ranger is a 2.5 liter gasser, it’s anemic but makes for a good work truck .
-Nate
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a battery cable attached to a radiator core support before.
Interesting location.
BAD location, the staring current needs to go directly to the drive line, engine block or tranny .
He prolly cheaped out using the shortest cable he could find .
-Nate
Note that there are two batteries.
That’s the auxiliary power battery. I have the same truck. Mine is an 83.
Nice truck. I remember when the Ford Ranger looked like this. Although I was too young at the time to drive, I also remember the option of a diesel engine. For a truck like this, I would’ve preferred a 2.4 litre turbo diesel engine, rather than a 2.2 litre standard diesel. I consider it damned unforgivable that neither sold well in the USA.
I have had a few Mitsubishi 2.3 turbo diesels from the 80’s and all have been fast little trucks. My friend recently sold his mint 1985 Ford Ranger with a 6″ lift and 33″ tires because he upgraded to a Ram ecodiesel. That was the cleanest old ranger I have ever seen. I kind of regret not buying it off him.
A sundial would be too precise to measure 0-60 for this thing. Might not be enough either.
Sold Mazda’s back in the early 80s, never drove the Ranger diesel but logged some time in the Mazda B2200 diesel pick up of the day. Obviously they were slow, but since the standard gas version was also slow, it wasn’t really a big deal. I recall it was pretty refined for a diesel in the day, biggest shortcomings were the lack of automatic and the price differential over the gas version. I think they only came in the base trim level as well, no SE-5 or LX trim diesels. At that time Mazda offered the base gas truck at a $5995 price point, as a salesman we made $100 if we sold the truck at list and didn’t throw in any extras. Buyers would try and negotiate; “I’ll take the Red one at $5995 if you’ll throw in the rear step bumper”. Nope. We only put in 5 gal of gas for delivery since the margin was so slim!
Never owned a diesel Ranger (or a gas one for that matter) but worked on lots of them. The MAZDA unit was no powerhouse and out west with the prevailing winds, we got a lot of complaints that they couldn’t maintain high gear while driving into the (40 mph) wind. Well, duh, a lot of gaspots couldn’t maintain speed in a chinook wind either.
I don’t know why it was back then but a person buying a light-duty diesel for the first time immediately went over to K-Mart and bought a cheap calculator so they could accurately figure out their mileage. And they obviously did NOT have a clue how to figure out mileage. I had a customer bring in a Bronco II with the Mitsubishi engine claiming that he was only getting 5 mpg. I wasn’t in a particularly good mood that day and threw it right back in his face.
The injection pump in that vehicle can NOT pump that amount of fuel unless you were stuck in 3rd gear and had to keep your foot in the radiator to maintain any speed. Customers couldn’t understand that the injection pump is a Positive Displacement pump that is capable of pumping a maximum of X number mm3 of fuel per pump rotation. I told this one customer that he had to have a massive leak in the fuel system if that’s all he was getting. He showed me his calculations.
Well, I filled it up to the brim and took it on my ‘special’ test track then topped it up again. Using HIS calculator he was getting 26 mpg at 70 mph which wasn’t all that good but it was a lot better than 5.
I’m one of those old fools who does fuel economy checks on every vehicle, every fill up .
Gasser, Diesel, Motocycles, all of them .
My 2001 Ranger W/ 2.5 Liter 4 banger & 5 speed gets 19 ~ 24 MPG’s, mostly 23 ~ 24 MPGs so reading your Diesel fuel economy comments eases the sting a little bit . I’d hoped for a lot better .
My old 1969 Chevrolet C/10 with 250 C.I.D. InLine 6 banger and TH350 slush box got almost 20 MPG’s unloaded on the freeway .
-Nate
Hi Nate. Fortunately, most of my customers were objective when discussing all issues including fuel consumption. They always made the workday a little easier. But there were also the troublemakers who seemed bent on destroying everyone’s lives. As time went by I learned to be somewhat cynical with them. It might not have been the right thing to do but making light of their troubles made the day go faster…
Just so ~
One of the ways I amused my self was when a Customer came in with some mangled Hot Rod or Low Rider they’d destroyed, I’d work “what’s left of it” into the conversation .
=8-) .
A very few had really nice modified vehicles but 90+ % of all modifieds wind up junked before ten years .
Facts, not blindly following some idea in your head .
-Nate
My ex father in law had a ford escort 2 door diesel! I believe it was an 85 or 86. It had a 5 speed manual and we got in the upper 50 mpg on a trip to GA from PA and back. I believe the lowest was just over 45 mpg and that was fully loaded through WV. We had 4 people and luggage and the little car just hummed along like no ones business. It had a very strange ending however. He drove it to work one night and parked it just like every other night. When he came out to go home, it started but was missing terrible and had zero power to get moving. The engine also had a very strange sound. He took it to ford and they said that the block had warped. Not the head but the block!!! So ended the escort diesel.
That Escort diesel was (I believe) made by Yamaha although some also say it was still a MAZDA. We had a few of them out west. Notorious for cracking heads but the heads were cracked in places that could be safely stitched. We overhauled a couple of them during which they also needed timing belts and a new water pump. I had one customer who flatly refused to replace the water pump. I almost pushed the car out the door because I refused to work on anything I couldn’t warranty but the boss caved and allowed it. 10K miles later the water pump piled up, destroying the belt and bending all the valves. Of course, the customer showed up demanding warranty. I showed him a copy of the work order and asked him if that was his signature beside where I explained that there would be no warranty if he didn’t replace the water pump (It seems to me that the pump was a ridiculous $400.00). He still continued with the lawsuit and named me personally in the proceedings. His lawyer eventually convinced him that he had a no-win situation but there was some fallout that still stuck. Moral of the story: Fix It Right or Refuse The Job…
Hello other Nate ! .
My two older brothers bought VW Rabbit Diesels in 1979, they had four speed manual trannies and got 40 + MPG .
At the time I was a VW Mechanic and drove old Beetles .
I remember quite a few imported Diesel cars in the late 70’s and early to mid 80’s, all were pretty good fuel economy wise .
Now I have Mercedes W123 Diesels and love them, good economy, comfy, fun to drive and SAFE too .
I just bought a 2001 Ford Ranger W/ 2.5 liter i4 and 5 speed else I’d be interested in this one .
I’m an ex farm boy so I don’t mind glacial acceleration .
Besides : it’s more fun to drive slow vehicles fast =8-) .
-Nate
Some Customers will always be a P.I.A. no matter what you do .
As an indie shop owner I too had a few and told them to beat it P.D.Q. .
As a dealer mechanic you’re stuck if the service writer or manager tells you to do it .
Of course, the dealer bears the full weight of any problems .
-Nate
Had a 83 in 1987. It was a old service truck we had and it was in good shape.Gave a 1000 for it from Rollins Truck Lease where I worked. Had 87,000 on it when I bought it and had 211,000 when I sold it in 1995 to a friend that needed truck and I wanted a 4×4. He called 6 years later and asked if I wanted it back. I wish I would have bought it back!
I have a 83 Ford ranger with the original 2.2 Perkins deisel it’s in pretty good condition since it’s been sitting for 22 years but it will still fire up and run the truck only has according to odometer 42456 miles . The truck is an 2 tone ran and brown everything original they have2 fuel tanks letting it hold 30 gal of fuel. All in all I think they are good trucks for what they are
Yes I owned a 1984 diesel Ranger. I bought it with a stuck motor, and found a motor out of a B2200 Mazda that was the same…..and installed it. When we got it on the road that with the 4 speed trans that it would top out about 60 and that was it. The milage was great (about 38 mpg) but with the 4 speed and limited power it wasn’t the truck that it could be. The Mazda had 5 speed and this would have been a great improvement over the 4 speed. Overall I wish I would have kept it.
I’ve got one of those trucks, a 1983 with the 2.2 liter Perkins Mazda engine. Tough, but slow! It makes my VW rabbit diesels seem like race cars! But, I’m a sucker for old diesels, and have gone through it replacing all the gaskets and rebuilding everything. It was a lot of fun, and it now gets a lot of comments. Most common is “what did you swap into there?” Most people are surprised when they find out that it’s factory and stock.
I have a 1983 Ranger Diesel with a long bed which I purchased new in April on 1983.. It has 165,000 miles and runs like a top. Starts in the coldest days of the year. Not a jack rabbit for sure but is solid and dependable. I regret that I failed to take care of the exterior. My attention was always on the running gear. Wishing does not make it so, the bed and tailgate have serious rust due to grass clippings remaining near the tailgate. At 80 I am now waiting on my XLT Maverick truck. The first new car was a 1972 Maverick 4 door, so 50 years later my last new vehicle will also be a Maverick. Anyone interested in the 59 horse Perkins diesel let me know.
Still have ranger
Greetings Richard: We are similar in vehicles as I too have an 83 Ranger Diesel and it runs great -use on back Forrest service roads where I’m in 2 gear most of the time but still get great MPG , The Maverick 2022 I finally did get after 16 month wait -got with Hybrid and for the $$ it is a great little truck with better back seat room than my former Tacoma crew cab .Am 79 and still enjoy playing with old vehicles as the new stuff might as well have welded shut hoods as can’t identify anything other than water and oil -total throw away vehicles >>Gary
Does anyone know how many of the perkins diesel rangers were made in total? I can’t find production numbers anywhere.