PSD conversion

[snicklas]

Also, today I saw a '79 F-250 w/ a 3208 Cat in it(sorry, no pics). The guy had to cut the hell out of the firewall to clear the turbo, and it was bolted to a ZF-5. And he was still running a Dana 44 front end. It was cool, but I'm not really sure what the point was. He told me the engine was a reman straight from Cat, and it cost $15,000 just for the engine.

Sounds to me this guy was trying to do a conversion from "way back". A conversion that used to be done as a "kit" was by Cat. You could bring in a pickup, (I know someone that saw the conversion done to a late 70's Ford) to a Cat dealer (McAllisters here in Indy was one of these dealers) and they would pull the OEM powerplant out of the truck, probally a gasser, and replace it with a 3208 Cat. I believe these were N/A and they had all the parts to "adapt" the OEM instrumentation and transmission to the Cat powerplant. This is one way a person could get a diesel powered pickup in the days before there were diesel powered pickups. I would love to get ahold of one of these Cat conversions. I have driven a retired state truck with at N/A 3208 and an Allison 5 speed, it wasn't quick but it was a determined old truck, was a blast to push snow with. It didn't care how much you were trying to push, it would just grunt a littler harder and muscle through.

 

[tractorman86]

boy it would have to have a hellova set of front springs!

 

[Cat_Rebel]

What if you pulled a Cummins from an F-650?

Not exactly but it is alittle diffrent. If anything else it doesn't have a Dodge stamp on it.

 

[91f2504x4]

boy it would have to have a hellova set of front springs!

Yeah a 3208 weighs just a bit over 2,000 lbs. That is a pretty big jump from the 5.9l Cummins, DT466 or the 6V53 swaps that most people talk about. Even the heaviest of those, the 6v53 only weighs about 1,500 lbs, the DT466 a little over 1,400 lbs and the cummins is a little under 1,000 lbs, those are all dry weights with no fluids

 

[Diesel_brad]

Seriously??!! What year bus? Not a DT466E is it? $500 is a steal!

Heath

not sure what year, bosch pump on it

 

[Diesel_brad]

What if you pulled a Cummins from an F-650? It should be a direct bolt in, right? No Dodge parts, either. All Ford! I'm not trying to say the PSD swap is a bad idea. The 7.3 PSD is a great engine, but I ruined some injectors just by running a mild programmer in my '02, and injectors are around $1000 by themselves, so to say that you can run enough fuel at a high enough pressure to get 400 HP on the stock injectors doesn't make sense to me. It just seems like the Cummins is more reliable at the higher HP levels and that upgrades are a lot cheaper (and replacement parts, should something go wrong). Either way, it's an upgrade from the IDI.

Also, today I saw a '79 F-250 w/ a 3208 Cat in it(sorry, no pics). The guy had to cut the hell out of the firewall to clear the turbo, and it was bolted to a ZF-5. And he was still running a Dana 44 front end. It was cool, but I'm not really sure what the point was. He told me the engine was a reman straight from Cat, and it cost $15,000 just for the engine.

I dont know about you but here on the east coast the 650/750/850 are not that common w a 5.9(more cat, 7.2 cummins and 7.8 brazilian dieseL). Not to say they are not around but a hell of alot mre expensive

 

[hesutton]

not sure what year, bosch pump on it

Dude you should buy that sucker.

Heath

 

[sootman73]

im not arguing either but i would suggest that you do some research.there are psds out there with over 500HP driven daily and reliable.if my plans go the way i want this year i will be up in the 1000+HP range and still be streetable.all i need to do to hit 450HP is upgrade my turbo,im still running the stock turbo.this summer it will be getting head studs,cometic gaskets,fire ring the block,BDPs big ole smokey injectors,and the latest wildman programs on the chip.the nice thing with the psd is you can build a 1000+HP with one and run stock programs and youll never know it wasnt stock.i can turn mine down below stock power and turn it up to the 400HP with a flip of the chip switch.

you would be one of en elite group to have a psd over 1000hp. i was talkin to a guy at indy and he had $20,000 into his motor with a 84mm turbo. was only making 687hp. his goal has been 700. took 5 months to build it to that! had a prototype hpop. only one instead of two. used to have two but this prototype does the same by itself. he had a custom chip but i cant remember where from.