Have looked for a few weeks at several forums and abouit every youtube video in the world and decided to register here. I have had fast cars and diesel trucks all my life and now want to combine the 2. I see alot of impressive trucks but not alot of what I consider fast. I am looking for info and people that can help with info as well as a place to get parts to change the way the world see diesel. With the current economy and the love for speed people are changing ideas and trying new things. E85 is hitting like a bomb and getting good results. I know several people with street cars running low 5's 1/8th on e85 but yet people tell me its dumb to change my car over to diesel. Here is a little info about the car and what I want to do.

It is a fully caged foxbody mustang, 4link with fab9 rear and will fit up to a
33x16 tire. I runs 5's on motor and low 5's off of a very small 150-200 shot.
I do this with 408 cubic inches. Now I run alky and parts are not cheap to make small ford motors run good without a turbo or procharger. I just spent 20k making changes and buying motor stuff and thought to myself how far would that go on a diesel and what would results be? I know a guy who has a ton of money in a mustang with a duramax and last I knew was only running high 8's to low 9's. I'm not gonna screw with it if I cant go any faster than that. I want to run low 8's and drive it around at a cruise and be able to tune it and run 7's at the track. I know its possible because I've seen where the banks truck ran 7's and about the same setup. Mine is a door car and prob a little heavier than his but has been a very tested and straight running car.


What I need is help with finding what internals are available as far as cranks,rods,pistons which I am shure any company like je or diamond could do,HEADS or a place that specializes in pro porting diesel stuff,trans options and so on. Turbos shouldnt be too big of a deal and will build an intake but the other stuff I have no clue. I also would like info like weight, specs on motor size and such while motor is out. I would like to do a 7.3 as I have 1 sitting around but if there is a better option let me know. What electonics are available as far as engine and fuel management. If I can buy a aftermarket computer and harness to give me complete control then great if not or dont need it I have the complete truck sitting here to use. What trans would I need to hold up, would a built turbo400 hold or are we talking bruno/lenco type stuff or some sort of built oem truck trans? I am keeping my identity concealed for now as I have had a parts business and on about every major regular race site. I dont want any of them knowing what I'm doing until it happens. I have taken the motor and trans out now and ready to start. If you made it all the way through this then you also have adhd and may just be the help I need

I can tell you a dressed 7.3 is just over 1000 LBS now here is a bump for you I'd like to see how this turns out for you.

7.3 in mustang? or are you just wanting a fastazz 7.3?

hope you the $$$ either way. 7.3 can get a lil pricey.*

car weighs 2600 so gonna so gonna be easier to push than a truck not to mention the suspension to put 1600hp to the ground. The heads to put me where I need to be for the motor I use now will run $4-5k,cranks are $1200-2000,rods $1k and pistons $8-900

I figure if they even have aftermarket or stroker cranks for 7.3 it will be high but figure I would see what is offered. I figure it will cure my wheelie problem anyhow

1000lbs with what on it? are we talking longblock or acc. turbos and all?

Be alot cheaper to keep on doing it with gas.

dressed i would assume is with all the fittings and watnot.

1000#'s maybe a lil over.


as aljay stated above, might be cheaper with gas,

And or cummins.

If your wanting 1500hp with a 7.3 then good luck. They are the most expensive motors to build with least amounts of HP. But if you can do it then i say go for it.

There is atleast one vendor here that i know of that is making a common rail setup for the 7.3. If your wanting high hp numbers with this motor you are going to want this setup, but as far as i know it is yet to be proven.

If not a common rail 7.3 there are some p-pumped 7.3's out there but i don't know of many doing drag. Most are pulling. I for one would'nt know a dam thing between the difference's in motors from dragging to pulling.

Somebody will soon chime in with more info. Maybe ones that have done it before or that are doing it now.

And by the way. Welcom to the Nation!!!

Welcome to the Nation!

One thing you'll need to realize very quickly is that diesels are not like small block Chevy's or even small block Fords, aftermarket parts are very hard to come by or non-existant. The market is barely there and so we don't have many options. Basically, forget everything you know about gassers, very little will apply to your powerplant, both as parts availability and engine theory.

Motor and tranny weighs right around 1250lbs. IIRC. The only options you have for tranny's is a built factory trans or the options offered by Destroked plates to adapt other 3/4 and 1 ton diesel tranny's to a PSD.

As far as electronics, you're gonna be using the stock stuff, it's the only option, unless you would like to call Swamps and talk to them about their CR injection setup.

Internals you'll be using the stock block(fill it), stock heads(you can port them), stock crank, aftermarket rods, Mahle lower comp. pistons, and call DI about a cam and headers.

I would call someone if you would want a built motor put together for you, my vote goes to Swamps. A built shortblock is around 10k IIRC, plus your core.

Here's some rough numbers for costs:
Machine work and assembly: 1500
Rods: 2500
Assembled ported heads: 1500-2500
Lower comp. pistons: 1200
Headers: 1200
Cam: 600
HPOP's: 1500-2500
Injectors: 2500+
Turbo setup: 2500-4000+
Built trans: 4500

Not trying to dissuede you, but diesels aren't cheap to build. There is a thread down in the Project Log Forum about a Fox body that's getting a 6.0 PSD, may want to check it out.

Dave

ON EDIT: Banks has more $$$ in their race truck than most people have in their house, like 250k would be my bottom dollar guess.

Interesting project.

Shouldn't be that hard, running an equivalent time of ~ 10.85 in the 1/4 (compared to 7sec 1/8) has been done by a reg cab truck and your race weight should be significantly less.

It's just money...