Building an engine.

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by m.glisson003

Which is better as far as power and fuel economy...

1. A turbocharged diesel engine with direct injection?

or

2. A turbocharged gasoline engine with direct injection?

Just to expand on BlueD's answer.

As I stated earlier, a turbocharger reclaims some thermal energy (that is otherwise going to waste) and reintroduces that energy back into the engine by pressurizing the intake manifold. But this only works on a gasoline engine when the throttle blade is open far enough to allow for intake manifold pressurization..... so it only gets an efficiency boost under heavy acceleration.

Diesel engines get an efficiency boost from a turbo ALL the time, so a turbo diesel is far more efficient than a turbo gasoline engine.

[m.glisson003]

Can I setup any transmission with any engine? I found the perfect engine but Im not sure if I can or how difficult it would be to setup a 6 speed manual transmission with it.

[vgames33]

No. Every manufacturer has their own bellhousing pattern, input shaft length, number of clutch splines, etc. Some companies make adapter plates or bells to mate a transmission to an engine it wasn't designed for (like a Powerglide to a Ford engine), but you're better off picking something made for the engine in question.

[m.glisson003]

Originally Posted by vgames33

No. Every manufacturer has their own bellhousing pattern, input shaft length, number of clutch splines, etc. Some companies make adapter plates or bells to mate a transmission to an engine it wasn't designed for (like a Powerglide to a Ford engine), but you're better off picking something made for the engine in question.

Thanks. That answers my question.

[curtis73]

Depending on the engine you can mate it to several transmissions. For instance, within the major american manufacturers, someone makes adapters for nearly any combination; dodge tranny behind a ford, ford tranny behind a chevy, etc.

If you are going diesel, then a careful choice will yield super easy swaps. The SAE requires that all engines have an accompanying SAE bellhousing adapter. That doesn't mean they are readily available, but what it does mean is this: any engine that served duty in a generator, heavy machinery, or sometimes even air compressors uses a standardized bellhousing. This was done because companies often mix and match components with engines. They needed a standardized bellhousing pattern so you can put a Cummins where a Detroit used to be, or a Perkins where a Cat used to be.

I have a couple SAE projects in my head. I wanted to put a VW TDI in a compact pickup, and it was as simple as finding the SAE bellhousing for the tranny and the SAE adapter for the engine. Both were available, but the only place I could find an adapter for the TDI was in India and it killed the bargain.