Diesel Slant-6

-
I wonder if the seven main bearing crank design changed the staggered bore spacing to single dimension bore spacing. A lot of potential for tinkering with nitrous or turbos with gasoline and full drag blown alcohol versions if they had been produced and you could bolt a regular slant head onto it. Probably would even have seen aftermarket conversion aluminum slant six heads.
 
Stick a Holley 500 on that turbo inlet and instant tubro gas slant. Thanks Dan. That was a really interesting article.
 
slantsixdan said:
I've got an article up on Curbside Classic about the three(!) different developmental versions of the diesel 225.
Click to expand...
In the late 70’s my employer went through the same gas to diesel conversion exercise, with great success. International Harvester (which evolved into Navistar) took an existing gas v8 446 cubic inch gas engine and converted it to a naturally aspirated diesel. The 7.3L Diesel launched in 1982. Was not long and a turbo version was built. These engines were very successful in the medium duty truck market and launched the Diesel RV pickup truck market that exists today. Diesel Power never made an impact on the American car market, but Diesel Power is dominant in the medium duty truck market. A 225 ci diesel in a pick up truck may have offered an economy benefit, but a 446 ci diesel that launched as a new engine in 1982 in a pick up truck created a whole new market for diesels that is still successful today.
 
my68barracuda said:
In the late 70’s my employer went through the same gas to diesel conversion exercise, with great success. International Harvester (which evolved into Navistar) took an existing gas v8 446 cubic inch gas engine and converted it to a naturally aspirated diesel. The 7.3L Diesel launched in 1982. Was not long and a turbo version was built. These engines were very successful in the medium duty truck market and launched the Diesel RV pickup truck market that exists today. Diesel Power never made an impact on the American car market, but Diesel Power is dominant in the medium duty truck market. A 225 ci diesel in a pick up truck may have offered an economy benefit, but a 446 ci diesel that launched as a new engine in 1982 in a pick up truck created a whole new market for diesels that is still successful today.
Click to expand...

Ford and Navistar records show that of all of them built, the amount that remain on the road is up in the 90 percentile range. Pretty impressive.
 
So what about the Mitsubishi 6 cylinder non turbo diesels used in the 1977 or 1978 ( I don’t exactly remember the year for these low production low HP diesel engines) D and W trucks? Chrysler did not do much with those either. Diesel was “coming” for Dodge. Or should I say “Cummins “ for Dodge. Lol!

Dan- really neat article to read. It just gave a whole lot of people on here numbers to chase for their slant six turbo dream cars.
Thanks for sharing.

SN: I worked on those Buick Converted “X” 350 motors used in the Park Aves and the Olds Delta’s back when GM experimented with gas to diesel conversions. They beefed up the lower ends and the top ends were modified. Different heads and intakes. A real mess. Hard to start with 2 batteries and lots of head gasket leaks. At the GM dealer I worked at; we ripped down the engines for some customers. Changed pistons and heads and converted back to gas. Very heavy blocks and lower ends. Most times it was cheaper to drop in a target motor. They looked like a 350 engine and fit like a 350 engine but were not 350 blocks at all.

also brought up was the 7.3l International non turbo engines (V8 diesel for F series Fords) let’s not forget about it’s earlier and successful older brother the 6.9 non turbo diesel. Used in E series vans with great success. Diesel have been around for a long time but only really introduced into the car light truck line up to help beat new emissions regulations as there were no regulations for diesels at that tiMe.
Thanks again Dan!
 
Last edited:
Those were converted Oldsmobile Rocket 350's, beefed up with 1/2" head bolts as well, only the 403" Olds had those in a gas configuration.......& yeah,....what a CF.
 
If your into Oldsmobile stuff, one of those diesel blocks converted to gas can take about whatever amount of boost or nitrous you can throw at it. Of course, you just can't spin it too high with the all the other issues with the main bearing diameter and oiling system weaknesses.
 
Thank you Dan, great reading. You can really see how the experimental Slant 6 work translated to the 2.2L Turbo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top