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Originally Posted by E350
This will probably take another thread, but if you have the time and the interest, would you explain (or provide some links) so I can follow your thought process of why of the diesels out there you chose the 6.7 Cummins and the transmission you chose and whether or not you believe that there are some year engine/transmission combos you like better than others.
From following your conversion thread, I know you put a lot of thought into your engine transmission selection and I would like to be able to track your analysis.
When and if you get time.
Congratulations and Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year to you too!
I think you've asked a fair question. I have a lot of reasons why I chose the engine and trans I chose...some of which are technical reasons and some are admittedly "coolness factor" reasons. I'll try to be as objective as possible however there is at least a little personal preference in my decision making process just based on my experiences in the automotive field over the last 20+ years.
Engine:
If you were to make a list of all of the viable diesel engines for a vehicle this size, the list actually gets really short really fast. This is mostly due to the size of the engine compartment but also influenced by things like electronics integration, aftermarket parts support, tuning/programming tool availability, transmission adaptation options, noise levels, etc... You start out thinking that the VW/TDI (the biggest one out of the Touareg/Q7) might work, then there's a couple different Mercedes diesels that might work, the Duramax, Ford's 6.7L Powerstroke, Cummins 4BTs, the Cummins 6BT 5.9L, Early 6.7Ls, newer 6.7Ls and now possibly the ISV5.0 V8.
I started out really wanting to make a new Powerstroke work but after seeing one in person there is just no way it would fit. Too wide, too long, fairly complicated electronics. Cross that one off the list.
The TDI and Mercedes diesels got crossed off (at least for me) because of transmission adaptation reasons and they're both nightmares of German electronics. If there were more options for aftermarket common rail engine controllers, I might have considered these a little more but right out of the gate you're gonna spend at least $4k for a stand alone engine controller or spend countless hours trying to make a factory ECM work...and good luck finding all of the information you'll need to do that.
I'm not very fond of the Cummins 4BTs. You don't get a lot of power or economy for what you have to spend. You're in one of those about the same as a 6BT so as long as there is room, you may as well have two extra cylinders.
The early 5.9Ls are soooooooooooooooo LOUD! You can make gobs of power with them. Lots of aftermarket parts support. Pretty simple electronics. They're bullet proof too. But what's the point if you can't hear yourself think?
2007-ish 5.9Ls are much better for noise and a lot of conversion guys like these engines because they're fairly simple to get running. Aftermarket parts are pretty insane and the sky is the limit on what you can spend and the power you can make. 2008-early 2009 pretty much the same deal as far as parts and swapability goes, only the displacement jumped up to 6.7L.
2010-2012 Cummins engines got a little more tricky to use in swaps but they're still doable. With EFI Live coming online this year, tuneability and swapability will be simplified provided someone out there wants to put in the effort to do it. I'm betting Destroked is already going after this pretty good. I'd be surprised if they weren't. These engines are a good option for swaps I think since they're relatively quiet, the ECMs are pretty advanced so the fueling can really be tweaked for the type of power you want to make and they're plentiful...
2013+ Cummins is even more complicated but you've probably already noticed that given how long it has taken me to get this far..
The ISV5.0 V8 isn't actually available yet but if the stars align for me, I will be playing around with one of these at some point in the future.
And lastly, the Duramax. I actually considered using a Duramax because it's been such a great engine in my Dad's trucks. I decided against it though because if you want a Duramax in a van, just buy a Chevy and save yourself the hassle. You can make a Chevy/Duramax van 4wd a lot easier than you can put a Duramax into a 4wd Ford van...
I ultimately chose the 2013 Cummins because 1) My van is a 2013 and I wanted match the year of my van. 2) They're super quiet, smooth, efficient engines. 3) The aftermarket is exploding with lots of cool go-fast goodies 4) There is nothing really special about it...I can find parts for it just about anywhere at any time. 5) It will get better fuel mileage than my 5.4L and have nearly 2.5x the torque. What's not to like about that?
Transmission:
I've said it a couple times before but I chose the Allison because I don't like manuals and the Allison, of all the 6-speed autos out there, has great tuneability, a vast aftermarket of parts and it is highly configurable to specific applications. There aren't many transmissions in this segment that can be configured for daily drivers, sled pullers, drag racing and heavy duty applications like the Allison can. Maybe the Aisin could if you could find some information on how to do it. So far, that trans is a mystery because of how little info is available on it. The Allison has thousands of pages of technical info in print and readily available to anyone who wants it. Try to find that level of detailed tech info for any other transmission...
Anyway...there's a look into my thought process.
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