I went to pick up a cummins engine for a future project the other day. The guy I bought it from is telling me about his 70s era ford 4x4, "used to have a perkins in it, now it has a detroit". Sure enough, 8.2 detroit. I have never seen that engine used in a pickup project before. How much potential is there. I thought they were dogs in medium duty trucks.

 

I did a search for Perkins and came up with this. The Perkins or Detroit are interesting ideas, and I have given some thought to them lately. Since I am thinking about a conversion into a chevy, bolting ithe Detroit up should be easy! I have had some time behind the wheel of an 8.2 Detroit in a little Chevy truck, and it is kind of a dog, but still runs better than the 350 or 366 that I am used to.

 

The Detroit 8.2 is disliked because the valves require regular adjustment, like most large Diesel engines, but the 8.2 has all 8 injector pipes routed directly across the valve-covers, like the 6.2\6.5, which has hydraulic lifters.

The pipes on other Diesels are routed to allow valve-cover removal without the tedious process of disconnecting and moving the pipes.

Problem in a pickup will be the weight, heighth, length and width, but has been done - weighs ~2000lbs dry.

CJimStewart&Stevenson in Houston marketed a kit for installation into the 70's-80's chassis, involved replacing part of the firewall with a piece from the C4500-C6000 cab, and much frame and suspension beefing.

Other than that, they are low-rpm torque engines only, without a turbo.

 

2000 lbs dry. I will scratch that idea!

 

Theres a guy around utah with 89-91 ford with a 8v92 twin turboed detroit he puts in the truck pulls. Hes got it breathing fire. But still all the cummins powered trucks pull right with him. Seems to me alot of work to get beat by a cummins. Just get a cummins I say. Its cool to hear it when he takes off.......

 

I am gonna have to get the Perkins thing figured out. I guess that I can get parts to bolt it up to a number of different truck transmissions, but I do not have the part numbers or anything, and a truck with the Perkins is hard to find.

 

Hey Begle1! Here is another engine you could use in your 1970 AMC Gremlin!

 

Oh boy......here we go!