With the amount of diesel engines out there, it is amazing that we don’t come across more engine conversions. Now we aren’t talking about a 5.9 in a Cummins, we are talking about the old Detroit Diesels, Perkins, John Deere, and the list could go on and on. These engines have been around for a very long time and on paper, many of them could be excellent transplant options.

We know, depending on where you live there may be some laws against it, but then again, there are laws against DPF and EGR deletes, too. There can be “work a round” for street vehicles, but for competition and off road vehicles, those restrictions aren’t nearly as limiting.

Take Joel Carlson’s 2 Psycho for example. His Detroit Diesel powered pulling rig is a beast. The truck is running four (yep, we said 4) turbochargers on this 2 stroke beast. This 8V92 is 736 cubic inches or 12.06 liters. So, each set of compounds is fed by 4 cylinders (368 cubic inches) firing every single stroke (roughly equivalent to a 736 cubic inches 4 stroke) which is plenty of volume to feed some massive chargers. No wonder why Carlson pulls in the Pro Mod class.

Detroit Diesel introduced the 92 series of engines in the mid 70’s. These engines were available in a wide range of configurations. The smallest engine was a 6V92 (V6) and the largest was a 16V92. Since each cylinder has a displacement of 92 cubic inches, this means the smallest engine is 552 cubic inches and the largest is 1472 cubic inches. All of these are two stroke engines and were very popular in boats and large over the road trucks. There are tons of these available and rebuild kits are available. If you are looking for something different, this might be a good opportunity.