Destroy? Hardly. Two years and 20k miles and I haven't touched the front end or drivetrain of my truck, aside from coil springs from an F250 up front when I first did the conversion. Wheel bearings and ball joints are holding up like champs, and even with all the power I'm getting out of the 5.9, the 8.8 is putting the power to the wheels without a hiccup.

And fuel economy? I average about 22mpg with all city driving, and when driven right, see about 28mpg on the highway, considerably better than the 16-17 I was getting before. Honestly, I put the 6bt in for performance, to build a race/play truck, but I'm not complaining about the fuel mileage

But getting down to Earth, I do agree with you. Who really needs 400hp and 800 ft. lbs. of torque in a 3/4 ton truck? Years ago they were hauling the same loads with 160-215hp engines. Its all a HP war here. The people that really use their trucks utilize all of that power, but those that use them as daily drivers don't really "need" it. Its just like in Brazil they put commonrail 3.9 Cummins in the F250s.

 

Your truck was designed for that engine. He is talking about a conversion to a chassis not made to handle the weight.

 

How do you figure? I drive a 1994 Ford F150 half-ton truck that previously had a 4.9L inline 6 gasoline engine, a truck that didn't even have an option for a diesel engine from the factory, and was by no means designed for this much weight or torque. I knew the risks when I swapped engines, but so far no bad has come from it. But I understand where he's coming from.

Most people that do swaps are making play trucks, and are more worried about the "cool factor" than all the other qualities. Example: If it was not for the cool factor, I really don't see the point in putting a 4-53 or 6v53 2-stroke Detroit into a pickup, there are better options for engines out there, but I'd still like to have one.

If you're really going for fuel economy in a swap, and don't care as much about power, you should talk to this guy.

 

Because they are some of the best engines ever made, and about the only good things to ever come out of GM's factories.

 

I agree with you there, they're tough son of a guns, but thats about all they've got going for them. I was just trying to make a point that most people that do conversions aren't as concerned about some of the things he listed and are more worried about the cool factor.

I plan on doing a 2 stroke Detroit swap some day, but the truth is, fuel mileage? There are much better options out there. Power, and especially torque? Much better options out there for swaps.

Judging from the posts that seaglf has made, where he is concerned about fuel mileage and low end torque, he would just have all the Detroits scrapped. But thankfully there are other people in the world that place the sound, nostalgia, and sheer will to live of the Detroits over fuel mileage or low end torque

 

Yeah and they also sold a international 2.8 powerstroke 4 cyl. in there rangers, it ridiculous that they don't sell them here. But now the problem is that the new emission controls have robbed allot of the MPG's.

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yeah I have his website bookmarked because I would like to do that some day.

One of the reasons I would want an effecient older diesel is so I can run straight veggie oil. Don't get me wrong I love HP too. But I would want that as my primary vehicle because even if you can't find the used cooking oil at restaurants you can go to Sams, or Cosco and by a pallet load of 21/2 gal bottles of cooking oil at appx. 1$ a gal, and you don't have to filter it. Its a good back up vehicle for when fuel gets above 5$ or more, or if we have another fuel crisis like in the 70's which I remember well because I'm 48.

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I am probably more familiar then any of you about the detroits as I am a captain and have worked on many crew boats and offshore supply vessels in the oil field here in the Gulf, as well as over seas. They use allot of 12 V's for the drive on crew boats and 6-71's for generators the are two stroke so there not very efficient but the have higher RPM,s and accelerate faster. They also have Super chargers and turbo's on them.

 

They don't have a supercharger, its just a blower to move air into the cylinders since there is no natural airflow through a 2-stroke.

 

Ah, to-may-to, to-mah-to. Some call it a supercharger, some call it a blower, either way it just assists in scavenging.

 

Its the same blower/supercharger that early hot rodders used on there engines. i believe its still used on them.

its even called a 671 blower because it comes from that engine, ether way its forced induction

 

Not on a detroit.