Diesel

[chevcamaro_86]

i was wondering has anyone thought of putting a diesel engine in a sports car? i kind of like the idea but wonder if it could be done in a car that wasnt meant for it and what kind of engine to get. Because the torque is amazing on diesels wouldnt it be good for a sports car? another problem is how would you find a transmission that would have a higher top speed than a truck transmission could offer because i only know of trucks or foreign cars that have diesel transmissions.

[curtis73]

I've put a couple performance diesels in vehicles with pretty good success. Its a bit of a mismatch since most of the commonly available diesels are very heavy. Compare a 5.7L chevy small block at 550 lbs to a Cummins 5.9 diesel at over 1000 lbs.

There are mid-sized diesels in the I4, V6, I5 categories that would make great little performers, but two things (at least right now) prevent me from using them. First they are electronically complex partly because of strict emissions requirements. Second, the current target for diesels is economy and reliability, so turning them into a performance engine will be a custom deal since there are few bolt-on parts available.

VW has a really sweet V10 diesel that can be ordered in the Touareg. It adds about $20k to the sticker price (ouch) but its a nice compact performance diesel. Mercedes has their new line of CRT diesels that are nothing short of incredible. BMW has some very nice diesels, but they're not available in the US. Somewhere I read about a 6.4L V12 diesel being offered in the 7-series in Europe. Not sure of the specifics, though.

[chevcamaro_86]

huh i was wondering if i could like put a truck diesel engine in my camaro and make it succesful because reading your responce on the other thread about how the performance of a diesel compared to the performance of a gas engine was so much better for around the same upgrade options in the aternate fuel thread i was thinking it would be cool to put one in my car i didnt know that a diesel engine weighed so much though.

[KiwiBacon]

The US would be the hardest country in the world to build such a car. In Europe your choice of small and torquey diesels is huge.
Out of japan the offerings aren't as good but they're still diesel.

I've heard of a guy who put an Isuzu 6BD1T (japanese version of the cummins 6BT) into a Jaguar. 200hp and about 500Nm stock (don't think he worked it up).

He had to dry sump it to get road clearance and god knows where he got his front springs from to hold it up.

[curtis73]

You could put a diesel in your camaro rather easily. The 6.5/6.2 family of diesels would be nearly a bolt-in, as would the duramax. You would have to address exhaust, turbo, and ground clearance, but they physically bolt in pretty easily.

Both of those engines weigh in the neighborhood of 850 lbs. Your camaro is already heavily biased toward front weight. One of the worst weight bias vehicles on the road is a big block F-body, and the diesel would be even worse than that. If you're looking for straight line performance, add some ballast or find some way of recovering lost traction, but don't ever expect it to be a competent G-machine compared to its small block cousins.