how bout Diesel in pro tour?

[F-bodied]

Im Pretty new to Pro-Touring .com lost my password and got caught up in school work. As some of you may know about a certain twin turbo duramax chevelle it brought up some questions, im a novice when it comes to diesel but i do know i love tourque. I was just wondering some pros or cons with trying to do a diesel swap. also details what would differ from modifiying a car to handle the thing. to be honest im probably gona stick with gas but im just curious.
-thanks

[killer67]

tri-five with LBZ durmax diesel - awesome idea! tranny might be an issue but don't know enough to comment on how easy it is

[Daren]

I've toyed around with the idea of running a propane injected turbo 7.3 in place of my 460 for years. It's more about theme than real performance IMO. I'd go BBC in your ride. You could also just do it for the heck of doing it and run bio-diesel in a flat black car. How much is the coolness factor of a pro-touring diesel chevy worth to you? If the ends justify the means then do it.

[Vegas69]

Just not feeling the diesel thing. They are efficient and have ample torque but they don't rpm.

[wmhjr]

It's possible to do it - Audi did - but not with a Dmax, Cummins or PStroke. You'd have to make it so mid-engined that you'd be sitting on top of the motor because of the weight, and Vegas is right about revving. I'm a huge diesel fan but you'd need to get a smaller displacement design that's really built around revving and performance.

[rohrt]

I thought is was interesting that diesels have 100% VE since they don't have throttle blades. Pretty cool. Diesel is also cheaper to produce and has more BTUs per gallon. I think I saw that chevell on the power tour.

[Randy67]

Of course a Diesel can be used in Pro-Touring if Gale Banks can do this
http://www.bankspower.com/projects/overview/2-banks-sidewinder-gmc-sierra
http://www.bankspower.com/magazines/show/554-Gale-Banks-Engineering-to-Road-Race-GM-Diesel-Pickup
I think a Duramax or 7.3L Powerstroke would work. Not sure on the Duramax dimensions, but a 7.3 is only slightly larger than a BBC.

[wmhjr]

But.... while diesel is cheaper to product, there's a reason it's more expensive. With current refinement design in US refineries, there is a relatively small window of "adjustment" of how much of each different product you can refine from a given gallon of oil. It used to be that the US exported a large percentage of diesel production. Now, we need to import it. There is no practical means to increase diesel production capacity, so the cost savings to produce diesel is more than offset by the constraints in being able to refine it.

[Nessumsar]

But.... while diesel is cheaper to product, there's a reason it's more expensive. With current refinement design in US refineries, there is a relatively small window of "adjustment" of how much of each different product you can refine from a given gallon of oil. It used to be that the US exported a large percentage of diesel production. Now, we need to import it. There is no practical means to increase diesel production capacity, so the cost savings to produce diesel is more than offset by the constraints in being able to refine it.

Did not know this, quite interesting.

If I were going to put a diesel into a "PT" car, it would be one from Audi; the Q7 V-12 comes to mind, 500hp and 738ft lb. Yes please!