Best part about it, is not only my IDI, but two other IDI's have more substantially more torque than that....


I thought high RPM horsepower didn't mean anything anyway??

 

how much $ do you have in your engine?

 

In that engine?


I had $1750 for the Engine and ZF5/swap parts. Sold the turbo kit for $500. Picked up the S362 turbo off of CL for $100, brand new. Bought NMB2's old DPS pump for $200, bought DPS injectors for $250, intercooler for $100, cam for $200, 910's for $100. Probably $500 for gaskets, hardware, and tubing to build the turbo kit... So engine, trans and swap parts, turbo kit, bigger pump, "bigger" injectors....$2700, Then I dropped in a DB4 for $1500.


All that for $4200, and almost 1000ft/lbs of torque to the flywheel... Realistically, I never should have spent that much on a wore out engine, but I did get another 30K out of it beating the hell out of it, still ran when pulled.


The castings of that cammer are worth more than I spent on my entire truck.

 

how much would it cost someone to (estimated) ready an idi engine block, call up R&D to order the parts required to build a 1,000 ft lb idi engine with estimated small misc for a grand estimated total?

do you expect said engine to last the original 300k mile life expectancy in a commercial setting? do we have any known built idi engines shown to last the average life expectancy yet,or at best how many miles has one lasted thus far?

 

Depends on how much work you put into the mix. Ive quoted people 10K for a turn key engine.


But if you want to do work yourself, The R&D parts would cost anywhere from $3250-6000, depending on what you buy...


There is no reason the engine shouldn't last as long as any other engine, unless you are driving around under full power conditions all the time... Its no different than any other engine out there...


Maybe I should ask you this, why shouldn't it last under normal circumstances?

 

how did you come up with this business model? the numbers don't seem to add up to becoming successful.
there's a "how much did you spend on your idi truck" thread here.i briefly averaged the final 20 reports and got the average idi truck being bought for $2,612 there (and there's some higher end idi trucks in there too with a few of them being 5k trucks.) you'd want/need to average the whole thread of course to see the true average but it's probably not too far off.

so your trying to market a $10,000 turnkey engine to a crowd who spends less than 3k to buy their trucks.what's your main drive in pushing the idi engine? is it really for profit or self gratification and what's the end goal with the old work engine? where is the place when you feel "i did it" whats the end goal with the idi engine? it's forever going to be the forgotten and abandoned engine by the masses,so whats really the final objective? i know you enjoy proving others wrong,it drives you to push harder and further but at what cost?

im just gunna toss this out there,and you can do with it what you will.im not trying to crush your dreams but to help target more idi owners.as a business man myself,this is where i would focus;
what do idi owners need and use on a mass level? they need a good deal on battery cables,they need wholesale prices on motorcraft gp's,oem injectors,gp controllers and relays,injector install kits.things of this nature that could swamp you with orders to fill and turn a really nice profit.the more you can buy these everyday idi engine necessities in bulk,the more you can make per item and turn a higher profit.
im not saying don't give up on your dream but raise the bar and set your primary focus on customer support and target the mass average idi crowd with items they need.offer these at great rates and you could see a decent return.
those who need more fuel are those 1% or so of the thousands of idi trucks on the road who rip into their engines,build them up and install larger than normal turbo's.the masses can't use a lot of the niche market you've limited yourself to.remember most of the idi trucks are and always will be n/a.when forming a business (a profitable one) you need customers,customers,and more customers.there's a whole lot of them out there that your not targeting.

 

I guess it would be hard for somebody to see the way it works from the outside.


Number one, businesses thrive on demand...


I got into the IDI thing to build a truck to tow my trailer. I did. It did its job just perfectly. When you build a 342whp/759wtq IDI, that essentially proves what has been being preached by many voices for many years wrong, there happens to be many people the come out of the woodwork wanting their IDI's to make more power after they have seen what is possible... You see, that's what you don't get, and maybe its because you hang out on forums, where the bulk of the people who post, are like you, but there is (or were) a million of these trucks out there, and most of that million are still running around today. I started R&D off of demand for performance, not because I had a need to sell things. Every single dime I have made off of R&D has gone back into it in some form, whether its part development or testing. Yes, I enjoy making these engines do things they weren't meant to, Just like the 429 and 460 were never meant to be 600hp engines, that is a lot of why I do it. What I even enjoy more, is when somebody gets an R&D part I put a great deal of time into making do what its supposed to, and they cant believe how much it woke their truck up. That's what drives me to still do it. If I wanted all the glory of building a High HP IDI, I could have easily done that, and told everybody who wanted performance parts for an IDI to pound sand... But the development of this platform has kept me at it. The 5.9 Cummins was never meant be a 1000hp engine, but it is, because people put time an energy into developing it... The 7.3 PSD, was never meant to be an 800hp engine, but it is, and it took a TON of work to get it there, most turned up 7.3 PSD's arent past the 400's still. The IDI came BEFORE light diesel truck performance was even a thought, in fact, the 7.3 PSD is what started that trend. The IDI was never thought to be a performance platform, because it was an "old turd" that "Couldn't get out of its own way" and compounded by people that say its a "work engine, and shouldn't be modified"... Shame on anybody for wanting to make it better right? That's just it, there are too many people out there who sit around and talk like the IDI is the only engine on the planet that cant be bettered, that in its factory turd slow form, its as good as it can ever be.... I never bought into that garbage from day one, every engine can be bettered, and this is the most popular light diesel platform with the least aftermarket, so I built an aftermarket to supply the demand. My business model from day one, was to use what was made off of R&D to develop it even further, to make Better parts, to expand the capabilities of the platform, to give people the opportunity to make their truck perform like they want it to, whether that's just to tow their boat better, or a 400whp street truck because they like it when their "turd slow" IDI blows the doors off a 500whp cummins...


Again, my question, as usual to you, is why do you care so much?? Its almost like you have an investment in making sure the IDI stays a "Turd Slow" diesel, like you get enjoyment off of towing your load up at grade in 2nd gear at 35mph... That's unacceptable to me, and there is no reason that a platform with 7.3 or 6.9 Liters of displacement should have to do that in any light duty truck...

 

With any added strain you put on an engine from added power, you will shorten the life of the engine no matter how you put it. Whether it is a Powerstroke, a Duramax, or even a Cummins, you will shorten the life of the engine to some degree when you add more power.

 

Also any platform is gonna cost some cash. Look at injectors on other platforms, turbos, tuners and it starts adding up.

Anyway, Justin thanks for what you do. Many of us appreciate the effort you have put in pushing the platform to new levels.

 

just because you make something possible,doesn't mean you make it probable.

just because you could gets lots of power by inserting a 10k engine into the average 3k truck,that fact will never make it a common occurrence.

there isn't anything wrong with wanting more power from the old idi work horse.
from a business standpoint however,what will you sell more of?
10k high end idi powerhouse engines or 10$ glow plugs? this is all my point is.it's not to say it's wrong to turn the idi into a powerhouse.it's just that more than likely less 1% of idi truck owners will ever do that whereas we all need replacement gp's.
even if your not interested into turning a profit (as a business owner this seems pointless to me.) it's all revenue that you could reinvest into research and development.revenue your missing out on because your not offering it.don't think of expanding your inventory as taking away from the performance inventory.think it of it as a way to help fund the part of of it you love.
you must someday want to turn a profit? if so,this is a sure way to help get you there quicker.

im simply going to send a pm of my reply to this part.my response doesn't belong in the forum no more than this degrading,insulting and childish one of yours did.

 

as a business owner myself,
my main concerns are:

first and foremost, CUSTOMER SERVICE.
i want my customers to know when they have a question, it gets answered immediately.
a happy customer will bring you more business.

#2 production quality. my parts MUST be machined WELL within tolerance.
most ask for +/- 0.005", what they get is +/- 0.0005"
as a machinist, i take pride in my work. and i want everything to be spot on.

#3 cost/value of my product. it takes quite a bit of cash to keep my shop open on a day to day basis.
if im not making any money, i may as well shut it down and work on my hotrods for the rest of my life.

#4 NEVER SPEAK NEGATIVE ABOUT MY COMPETITORS.
once you start praising your own product and talking **** about others,
you get instantly put in the douche category.
if you want to be the best, dont talk like youre on a high horse. let your product do it for you.


FYI, ive been a member of OB for a bit, and i have heard Mel talk about your products. and he never had 1 bad thing to say about them...
matter of fact, the only negative thing ive heard on OB about R&D is that the communication is crap.
you seem to stand by your product, and you have good prices.
just too bad we couldnt do business.

talk all the trash you want. people will know the difference.


as you do have a day job, and a side job.... you may want to consider taking some business classes.
without a doubt you seem to know your IDI's, now lets get you on board with the way America should be, not how it is in todays age.

 

Childish?.... Ill post your s4!t right here, right now, and we can let the masses be the judge... I couldn't give 15 pieces of crap of your opinion, nor lecture on business, which you clearly have no grasp on. If you think that putting reality in your face is degrading, insulting, and childish, maybe you should check your premises.... Im not the one sending PM's of that sort.

 

Again, as ridiculous as it sounds, I literally do it for what I have said, to push the platform. Nobody has a better sense of supply and demand than me, and that's my limiter. If you haven't noticed, there is a lack of IDI aftermarket, and that's for a reason. I am pushing against that reason by doing it the way I have to. I find it funny that anybody questions the business model, when its been successful in a realm where it shouldn't be... But hey... Im the one lacking business knowledge...

 

Wow guys, this isn't going to help either forum nor the IDI following to have wedges driven between key players in the game of keeping them alive!

Can we all just have a beer and make up?

 

That's the difference between explaining the way things are and what you want them to be....