Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines diesel to gasoline

well heres a question for all thoise searching for more displacement...has anyone ever successfully taken a larger inline diesel and converted it to run on gasoline?i mean imgine a 5.9 diesel with a billet head...i know very expensive...lighter forged pistons and rods, lighter crank and all new intake and exhaust and boom you have a huge inline motor. or try and find a diesel that you could mdify to use a current inline cylinder head on? is this even possible?

Unless you can come up with some heads with real big combustion chambers I think you are going to have a lot of problems running gasoline with a 16:1 compression ratio.

For those searching for more displacement, REO made a 400 CI six(Gold Comet) starting in the '60's that has lots of potential. Even though it is a truck engine, it is easy to work on. You will need to mill the manifold off since it is only set up for one carb.

IHC made 450 and 500 CI sixes also.

International made a 372 cu in 6 that developed 298 ft lbs of torque at 800 rpm. With the right gearing imagine what kind of cruising mpg you might be aboe to get.

Gael

I have a couple of REO's 331 gas engines. They were in the same era of the GMC 302s. They were used in the M35 6x6 and civiliar applications. Very nice engines. Gerotor oil pump, wet sleeve, water manifold, 7 main bearings, one piece rear seal. The civiliar version had an oil to water cooler. Either can be used with a full flow oil filter. Only real drawback is that it uses an integral manifold and the ONE intake port is rather small. Parts still available, but the engine is longer (head is 32" long) and heavier than the 302 gmc at ~800-900lbs. Hate to say it but a better engine that its competitor, GMC.

Seems to me if compression was the only issue, a billet aluminum spacer could be made and installed under the head to lower the compression.Just looking at some of them makes a guy wonder--- also looks like it would be easy to change out the injectors for spark plugs on some of them and with the crank trigger ignition systems that are available, that doesn't seem like a big obsticle. My forklift is a diesel and I have considered converting to butane which may not require the compression to be lowered as much.--- Just some thoughts---Paul

Turbo diesels have lower compesion, don't they?

Actually,there was a kit made in the early eighties to convert the ford international 7.3 litre natural aspirated deisel to gas,head spacers,drill out and tap glow plug holes for spark plugs and i beleive new injectors for gas but used same injector pump. cant remember who made it tho.....jimmm