It's a debate I have with myself every so often. My daydreams eventually come back around to "how about a stout diesel?" And then it's pros and cons all over again. Advantages: The greatest appeal of a mechanical-pump diesel in this age of internets of things is that it is the closest it is possible to get to a completely, conceptually and practically, air-gapped engine. Sky's-the-limit tuning potential via forced induction. Fuel efficiency for what you get. Though you won't mistake the one for the other, a mechanical inline diesel pump is about the same size, shape, and bulk as a Vintage-era magneto. They don't look alike but you could say they feel alike — especially if you paint the pump black and sheathe the fuel lines to the injectors in fabric or something: Homebrew B100 is a lot less elaborate a process than aquaeous E96 (or even aquaeous E88, which would be the default vehicle fuel in a sane world). Homebrew B100 is probably the best ecological response given our hopeless mobility scenario — far better than a m***-market battery-electric radical monopoly. Disadvantages: No hairy-state-of-tune SI engine sound — though there are some lovely-sounding diesels too. Overbuilt diesel engines are typically rather heavy. Peak power at relatively low rpm means greater torque at that engine speed. More torque less often requires stronger and therefore heavier driveline components than less torque more often. But has anyone thought of a step-up gear of some kind after the flywheel? Bigger diesels can be tall. Some seem to be all sump, which places the crank axis much higher than a typical SI engine's. But surely a slimmer oil pan could be practical in a non-HGV application? Runaway due to the lack of a throttle, especially with forced induction — though that can be solved. And round and round she goes. Where she stops (this time) nobody knows.
I like the simplicity of the early pre 1990's diesels, yes they made noise and blew smoke but there was something about them that worked.
1989-1998 Dodge Ram with the ***mins 12 Valve Diesel is probably the pinnacle of diesel simplicity, durability, and performance. I had 3 of them back when they were affordable... There's a reason they're no longer affordable.
I've heard that they have a very good reputation in your part of the world. They were never available here: the only ***mins engines used in any numbers here were the big 855cu.in. heavy-truck sixes. Though there were doubtless a few one-off Dodge pickup imports over the years, which are now very much exotic and priced accordingly. I was paging through a local commercial vehicle specifications digest dated 1994/5. A lot of vehicles in the preceding decades were fitted with "ADE" diesel engines. Atlantis Diesel Engines was set up by the government in 1979 to dodge international sanctions, in a new factory at a horrible new town called Atlantis, north of Cape Town. They made copies of the Perkins 4.236 and a variety of Mercedes diesels. The digest still had a lot of the vibe typical of that time, that ADE diesel engines were Uniquely South African Products, that you weren't actually supposed to know that an ADE 236 was really a Perkins 4.236 or an ADE 407 was really a Mercedes-Benz OM407, and saying it out loud might cons***ute high treason. So 4.236s and OM314s are probably some of the older mid-range diesels available in any quan***ies around here, plus some Fords, Leylands, Isuzus, Mitsubishis, etc. — i.e. not enough consistency for a cohesive hot-rodding community to develop beyond stuff in the VW TDi range.
I was lucky enough to have dealings with the Peugeot diesels in the 90's , the Ford diesels in the Transit and a little on the Mercedes. All were good engines and could take some abuse. The guy in Yorkshire on Youtube is building non electronic pumps/engine and making great horsepower.
The Jalopy Journal
