Is anyone running a diesel engine?

[TP from Cntl PA]

Originally posted by Baradium


The "triple nickles" as they are called are known for that from what I've heard. In big truck applications the 903 is known as a "nine o nothing" but supposedly would have a ton of power in a light truck application.

Yep, its the nine-o-nothing............and the "Triple Trouble"!

Guy over at Red Power put a DT-361 IH I-6 in his old International Pickup......................A real horse! It'll blow back smoke out the stacks he has on it like a steam engine!!!!!!!!! If I was putting a diesel in mine it would probably be a D-360 I-6 IH..........................IH's have Cummins and the PSD beat for pickup applications IMO.......

Amen to the 466!!!!!!!!

[OHsweet69]

i have a dodge with a 12 valve cummins (95) and i would not trade it for any other diesel pickup. the only reason i did not put a cummins in my old chevy is that i don't have the time or extra cash to have no truck. the cummins is without a doubt the best pulling motor for the money, yes you can get a 7.3 to compete but you have to sink a lot of $ into it. $200 can make 200 footpounds of torque difference in a 12 valve. the better part about the 7.3 is it can rev a little higher being a v8 kind of the same difference between a v8 and i6 gas motors a 300 i6 pulls good to you just wont get to the next light as fast as the 302 v8. just my two cents.

[Eddie H.]

Long ago in a galaxy far away, when I worked for Cummins, we had a guy put a triple nickle in a 3/4 ton Ford pickup.
It ran like a scalded dog, but was so nose heavy, it drove like a locomotive..

As far as putting a 903 ( nine nuthin three, as they were frequently called), in a pickup, it ain't even practical. The engine weighs nearly as much as the truck.

I would have to agree with TX Firefighter, Cummins has always built a decent engine. Some people swear by the powerstrokes, but I've personally done a lot more swearing at em.

I think the little IHC DT 466 would make a dandy little engine for a pickup. They were used in a lot of bobtail medium duty trucks and school buses.

[Blue_71]

ever heard of sarcasm tx firefighter? if you read closely i dont like the fact that dodge and ford never attempted there own diesel engine, and the cummins crack was just that, a crack AKA joke ive heard

sounds to me like it is you sir who showed your ignorance

Zumo--- sorry for argueing in your thread, this is my last post here.
tx firefighter, if youve got a bone to pick with me, do it with me, not in a public thread

[Zumo]

It's cool guys, Just shows you are passionate about your diesels.

[chevy2racr]

IH has a newer like DT566 too, but in a magizine we got yesterday they had a duramax cranking out like 980 Ft LB at the wheels and like 720HP, twisted the stock torque converter up....
just for kicks though, how about a M11 in a 67-72?

[ronh72c10]

A friend has a 7.3L diesel (model A170) from (actually still in) a 1990 International School bus for $600, I know it'd be difficult to put in, what will I need to do to put it in. I expect it'll require a tranny adapter plate, custom motor mounts, custom wiring harness, what else? From what I could see in his pics the bus still has the hydroboost on it too.

I'm not too seriously considering it, but I'd be interesting to know since it would go in a truck that would primarily be used for towing, alot of towing.

Ron

[HOTFUN]

No one can ever put a Cummins down, especially if you have never owned a true diesel pickup. Any idiot knows in line 6's have the torque due to their design and if matching cubic inches it will outpull a V block hands down. I've owned 5 new ones since 97 and I threw a new Duramax in there last year. The Dura is a gutless wonder and the mileage is not that great. I have NEVER had one problem with the all my Cummins engines. That new 2002 Duramax crew cab didn't make it the first 1000 miles before a bad knock develope. Found out what that ON Star system was for as I had to towed into Denver while being 400 miles from home and they were going to have to put a new engine in according the dealer there. Talked to GM right away about this lemon and they did some very quick engineering diagnostics and determined there was two bad injectors knocking on acceleration. Four days in the shop and a Ford rental pickup offered from the dealer during the stay. It still was a slouch when you had the car trailer behind her and in my book 10 mpg pulling and 15 empty is not good. My new 2003 HO Cummins is just as quiet and that in line 6 can outpull two Duramaxes in the mountains with 13 mpg towing and near 20 empty. I have always been a life long GM fanatic but times have changed and GM/Isuzu doesn't hold a candle to the Cummins engine and Dodge was very savvy getting that contract locked up.

Now to get back to the thread I have researched for several years transplanting a Cummins into my 72 GMC 3/4 4x4. With the intercooler it is just a very tight fit without lifting the body up a little. After all the modifications it would take I then looked at a 92-93 Dodge 3/4 reg cab longbox and felt it would be easiest to transfer my 72 body onto that frame and drivetrain which looked fairly doable with some frame bracket modifying.
After figuring in the cost of that truck and the time involved a guy could just go out and buy a nice older Dodge Cummins diesel pickup and leave my 72 GMC an original 350. Besides I would use the Dodge in the field and I still would not want to see my 72 GMC off the road. Its survived 31 years it should be treated with respect!
Mark

[Baradium]

Originally posted by ronh72c10
A friend has a 7.3L diesel (model A170) from (actually still in) a 1990 International School bus for $600, I know it'd be difficult to put in, what will I need to do to put it in. I expect it'll require a tranny adapter plate, custom motor mounts, custom wiring harness, what else? From what I could see in his pics the bus still has the hydroboost on it too.

I'm not too seriously considering it, but I'd be interesting to know since it would go in a truck that would primarily be used for towing, alot of towing.

Ron

That'll be a D-444 or a DT-444 or a DT-444E I think (check the fender badges, it should tell you). In a '90, I want to say DT-444E

If that motor runs, it's a steal at $600. They go for more than twice that in unknown condition IIRC.

Is he willing to sell the tranny with the bus? Can't beat an allison automatic tranny. They are big $$$ too.

The bellhousing should be an SAE #3 bellhousing. That is *the* most common bellhousing out there in medium duty vehicles. Any SAE#3 bellhousing will fit on that motor, and adapters can be had to about any transmission you want. Think of SAE as plug and play transmissions, the idea is that if you have a fleet with dodges, chevys and Internationals etc and they all have SAE #3 bellhousings you can change the transmissions around all you want and they will all bolt up with no adapters. The old 6.9 and early 7.3L diesels that f@rd put in their pickups were also SAE#3 with an adapter to a ford bellhousing, I think it was the same one the 400M motors used. Now International has a seperate casting for the ford motors with the ford pattern integral.

Be advised, this is a huge motor you are talking about. I don't know how it will fit around the inner fenders... however without a turbo they can fit in a scout II, so it might not be too bad to get it in a 67-72 chevy.

Performance parts for them are rampant too. The International motors are also equipped with better quality parts than the f@rd ones (ford specs thier own injectors and uses a lower quality one than International uses in thier vehicles).

Would be a very nice motor to have and if it's in good running shape you can get some really nice gas milage out of them (18-20 mpg stock). The old mechanical injection motors were a lot lower in the fuel economy department, but they still produced a ton of power for them.

[Baradium]

Originally posted by Tx Firefighter
Blue 71- you go ahead and talk all the crap you want about Cummins engines. You are ignorant.

I can show you many examples of Cummins engines in Dodge trucks with over ONE MILLION MILES and no engine repairs.

Yes, sir, 1 million unrepaired miles. I know diesel engines up and down. Go over to the Turbo Diesel Registry and do a little reading. I'm the Hillbilly Hotrodder over there.

I know someone with an IH I-6 gasser with 2.5 million miles on it... it was rebuilt at 1.5 million though....

Only reason it's not still running is he decided he wanted a V8...

If I could afford it, I'd put a diesel in the scout, the c/10 and the panel... they just run too much $$$ though. I'd use a 5.9 cummins in a heartbeat... only problem is that they are so long.

I thought about a 2 stroke detriot... you can get a 3 or 4 cyl detriot 2 stroke pretty cheap sometimes from surplus stores. Saw a place that had them for $1200 complete and attached to 4spd manual transmissions.

They are kind of noisy and smokey though...

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Originally posted by dinnut


5 or 6 what did you do to that engine to think youre gonna get that bad of mpg

DINNUT
That's the price to pay for a big block I can just see my gas bill now when the 454 is done!!!

[ronh72c10]

I talked to Fred about the engine, it was last run during the summer, the tranny is blown, don't know how bad it is. I know this is a loaded question, how expensive are the Allison trannies to fix, is it worth buying if blown or will it cost a few grand to rebuild. BTW it's an even better deal than you think since that's $600 CAN.

BTW Fred has 5 other buses with engines he wants taken out eventually, I might see if one of the other trannies is good.

I still want see it in person how big an engine we're talking about, take some measurements of the frame in the bus etc...

Ron

Originally posted by Baradium


That'll be a D-444 or a DT-444 or a DT-444E I think (check the fender badges, it should tell you). In a '90, I want to say DT-444E

If that motor runs, it's a steal at $600. They go for more than twice that in unknown condition IIRC.

Is he willing to sell the tranny with the bus? Can't beat an allison automatic tranny. They are big $$$ too.

[Baradium]

It couldn't hurt to have the tranny if you have the room. A good one would be much better, but worst case you could always toss the tranny later if you decided you didn't want it. Might be expensive to rebuild, but even more expensive to start without a core.

[ljbear]

Originally posted by HOTFUN
My new 2003 HO Cummins is just as quiet and that in line 6 can outpull two Duramaxes in the mountains

your truck must really be something. Were there only two you could outpull? Just curious, with similar HP ratings and comparable torque it seems hard to believe that your truck is capable of outpulling two trucks. Were you exagerating

[HOTFUN]

ljbear

I guess to say it more appropriately it would take 2 Duramaxs to keep my loaded trailer consistantly at 80 mph cause my one wouldn't do it alone! Seriously when I am going somewhere I am rolling hard and the HO Cummins with the 6 speed can hold that speed with the cruise on most inclines and left right in 6th gear. The duramax I had was an automatic( both trucks are 3.73 gears) but it was struggling a number of times to hold a consistant 70! The Allison was nice for slowing down but it was a power robbing pig from the start. If you ever tried to back up a long driveway or back out of a long field row that low geared reverse was just painfully slow. And look at the maintance schedule that tranny requires.
I guess you can tell I was far from impressed with that truck. Those in line 6's will keep pullin when you put the fuel to it.

Mark