Detroit in a Pickup.

[Tommy Stojanov]

Hello folks-

Does anyone here have a Detroit under the hood of their pickup, or for that matter any other medium or heavy duty diesel engine- Perkins, IH, JD, Deutz, Cat, Cummins? I would be happy if someone could share some information, pictures, or stories of their conversions. I have been thinking of building a new service/ engine hauling truck. Thanks!

[Kevin O. Pulver]

I think our local Billy Overturf built several before they were commercially available. Maybe Bill W. or someone will chime in. I don't know a lot about it except I think I saw under the hood of one and he had to cut the firewall for length of the engine. Kevin

[Tanner Remillard]

I've seen a few guys put Cummins engine in older pickups. Think they had to do a little front end trimming since there so long, but they did it.

[John Hanson]

The Cummins 4BT is a really popular swap engine for a pickup. They're small enough that you have plenty of room and they'll still throw out 200+ hp for lots of miles! You can go on Google and find quite a bit of info, or on Fordification and there's a good long thread on there about them in 67-72 Fords.
John

[Ken Majeski]

Well.... Last summer I seen a Guy that put a DT 466 IHC in a older Chevy that had a 6.5 last summer... He had to move the radiator as far forward as he could and it's good thing he didn't have AC or he would have needed an Extenda Grill... It didn't fit in there very good but it was in there... He even retained the original auto trans... He had put about 60,000 miles on it with No Problems.

To me a 5.9 Cummins would have made a lot more sense... And you could have took engine tranny and all...

I was considering putting a 5.9 Cummins in my Pristeen 96 Ford but I don't think that Aluminum Tranny would have stood it so I ended up buying a southern salt free 96 Dodge off of Ebay and have never been sorry.... And I sold the 460 Gas Ford for 500 $ more than I paid for the Dodge... That was about 4 years ago... Now it's hard to find a really Good 12 valve for a decent price....

[Ed Allandar]

Tommy, if you want to contact me off line I have a good friend that has done multiple Detrioit conversions and loves to talk about them. He also belongs to a group called the "road oliers" which meets at least annually to show off their conversions. Detroits, CAt's Nissians, Perkins even a John Deere combine engines in cars that were originally powered with gas engines. Even had a diesel powered Harley show up a few years. They used to get together at the back of the field at Coolsprings in the fall, but have been moving around. they had there gathering at the Mifflinburg PA show last fall. Great bunch of guys and a lot of good how to info and support. Ed

[Mike Monnier]

Last summer at a local custom truck show I saw a twin turbo Cummins 4BT transplanted into a Jeep Wrangler. That HAD to be one fun ride! Assuming you're talking about a full-size pickup, the 4BT and 6BT Cummins are common transplant options. The International VT365 and DT466 are also good choices for minimal cutting to fit. You just can't get too hog wild and think a 9.0 liter JD will fit under the hood.

[Elden DuRand]

I've seen late'70's Chevy 3/4 ton trucks repowered with Perkins 6-354's and they said they worked very well. I remember them saying they found that a Perkins to Chevy stick tranny bellhousing was made for some big Toro commercial mowers that used that engine and tranny combination. I bet Toro wondered why so many bellhousings were going out the door!

I successfully repowered a '50 Chevy fastback with a Perkins 4-154. Here's the story.

http://www.oldengine.org/members/dur...uff/chevy.html

Take care - Elden
http://www.oldengine.org/members/durand/

[ListerDiesel]

[QUOTE=Elden DuRand;277162]I've seen late'70's Chevy 3/4 ton trucks repowered with Perkins 6-354's and they said they worked very well. I remember them saying they found that a Perkins to Chevy stick tranny bellhousing was made for some big Toro commercial mowers that used that engine and tranny combination. I bet Toro wondered why so many bellhousings were going out the door!

Probably an SAE bellhousing then.

The T6-354 would have been even better....

Peter

[Rick McKay]

A couple of creative brothers that I know put an aluminum 3-53 into a'79 3/4 Chev back in the '80's. They said it had decent power and got 20 mpg, when the 350 that had been in there got 8-10 mpg. Another guy that I know put a school bus 8.2 V8 Detroit engine and transmission into a '78 or '79 ford 3/4 ton. "Plenty of Power" he told me. Never did comment on the mileage, though.

Rick