Well where do i start. I just joined yesterday. little about my self, I'm 21 and currently going to school for a career in the diesel industry. I worked for awhile building drag cars. so here it goes. in 1993 i was willed my grand fathers car, and dreamed about doing something great with it. its a 80' 2dr fairmont futura. about three months ago i decided to turn it into a diesel powered street/strip car. Well i have a 1985 f250 with a 6.9 mated to a slush box c-6. I am on the search for performance parts for the motor but i am coming up a bit short. I am looking for a performance camshaft, bigger injectors and some pistons that are a little lower compression and forged. i have a pair of turbo's and an intercooler also. If any one has any suggestions as far as where to find parts and an tech advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance, Shawn

 

You might do the math on POWER to WEIGHT ratios.
These motors have alot more torque than horsepower.
They weigh alot and that car doesn't.
The motor/trans will probably weigh 25% to 50% of the total vehicle weight.

I wish you Good luck and encourage your inginuity.
Just hoping you burn out a pencil before your bankbook.

 

I'd have to agree. While a diesel-powered car would have a certain cool factor its going to be a L-O-N-G hard road to get there.

First off, the IDI motors weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 800-900 pounds. Considering the fact that the car was designed for a gas engine that weighed about half of that, the frame isn't going to be anywhere near strong enough. Same for the front springs, spindles, steering, A-arms, and wheels - basically the hole front end.

Is an 80 Fairmont even a full-framed vehicle? I'm thinking it is probably a unibody. In which case the weight of the IDI would very quickly separate the front subframe from the rest of the body.

You're looking at basically cutting off the front and rear subframes from the unibody, and grafting a modified F250 frame to what's left. If it is a full-framed vehicle (which I kinda' doubt) then you'll need to pull the whole body off the frame and put it on the modified F250 frame.

The F250 frame is going to be too long and probably too wide as well. So it is going to have to be heavily modified to accept the body of the Fairmont.

Sorry to be such a naysayer, but I'm thinking that what you are proposing just isn't reasonably possible.

 

You may want to take a look at corner-carvers.com for Fox info. I'm sure you know by now that a Fairmont is basically a Mustang underneath.

A Fox chassis will NOT like an IDI sitting in its nose.

Overseas Ford/Mazda makes a turbo diesel version of the all aluminum Duratech 4. http://www.quad4rods.com makes a bellhouseing to mate the gas Duratech 4 to a T-5. If the diesel bolt pattern is the same then you just need to figure out motor mounts, flywheel, clutch, starter and electronics.

Get all that figured out and you have a 250-300 pound engine in your car to play with. MUCH lighter than a 5.0, IDI or oven an SVO motor.

 

jusnuts,
Welcome to FTE and the IDI forum.

Performance parts for the IDI are almost non existant.
You have to make them or adapt them from other applications

To lower compression you mill down standard pistons.
Forged pistons are stronger, but hypereutectic pistons have a higher melting temp.
To increase the strength of the valve train you swap in 7.3 parts, direct bolt in fit.
For hotter injectors and IP's, www.DPS-performance.com is the only game in town I know of. They also have some other stuff that is along the lines of what you are looking for.
They are about it for running two turbos as well.
Piston to valve clearance is already tight, so about all you can do there is a custom ground cam that has a longer duration but no more lift unless you machine the piston valve reliefs deeper.
Also stronger valve springs in combination with a custom IP will give you more top end power.
Porting is a double edged sword on a turbo charged motor, yes it flows better, but the larger areas that have to be pressurized can cause turbo lag to increase slightly as well.
Methanol, propane and nitrous can be injected to increase power, but you have to watch cylinder head pressures, the head gaskets and head bolts are weak areas.
Head studs can increase what the engine will stand.
If you want to go all out wild, steel O rings to replace the head gasket fire ring are in order.

Cheaper was a little conservative in his weight estimate, a full dress IDI is more like 1200 pounds.
That weight and the torque you will be producing will be an issue for the car chassis.

 

thanks for the input. Yes its a unibody car and its a fox chassis. and i am aware of the weight issues at hand. but at the same time i've seen fox chassis cars with big block caddy engines in them, that tip the scale around 850 pounds. the car is slatted to be back halved with a dana 60. i already have tied the subframe together with weld in connecters and a 12pt cage that also ties the frame rails in as well. i fabbed a k-frame already and its not a huge problem to make the a arms and find good springs and shocks. i know that arp makes a bolt kit for it. and i can have the heads and intake port matched. to mount it i am gonna use elephant ears, and a midplate. I can always have a cam made but that gets expensive and the odds of them having a blank are slim. how much do you usually shave off the pistons? and how much power do these usually make? Oh and it weighs in at 1600lbs as it sits completely gutted.

 

I believe they are actually about 1200lbs