LUVTruck.com

With all the hype about new diesel truck performance I started to wander, how much horsepower has been made with our beloved LUV diesel? Who can claim to be the king of that hill? It would be funny to put a turbo and stacks on my little LUV and mess with some propane packin' Duramax or Cummins!

The LUV's C223 diesel engine makes 58 HP @ 4300 RPM and 93 FT LBS @ 2200 RPM. It's not known as a power maker, but I think you could do some mods, including turbocharging it to maybe gain up to 20-30 horses out of it. Mainly they are an awesome engine in that they get extremely good fuel mileage. I'd always average at least 37 mpg in my truck and it has 233,000 miles on the clock.

Salvy

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1982 Chevy LUV diesel
2.25" stainless exhaust
w/ MagnaFlow performance muffler

hmmm, well i geusstimated about 85hp maybe round' 100 som. ft/lbs

lets see, 15 hp from flowmaster, 2-4 from 2'' pipes, about 5-10hp from ram air (that's at highway speeds), and 2 from syn. lubs in trans n' rear end, and 4 from manifold.

so 58+15+3+7+2= 85 horses but i figure it's kinda exagerated. i was going to get it dyno'd at a buddies' race shop but i sold it b4 i could talk to the guy again.

turbo'd D's have about 92(?) stock? and someone on here talked about little c223s' he used for tractor pulls that had about 325hp from it, from using a different injection system and some other stuff. purdee cool.

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-Old ride-82 Luv diesel 5spd with some upgrades
-Past rides-82 Sierra, 78 Coupe De'Ville, 91 2dr Blazer, 86 RX7, 86 Porsche 944T (rear-ended and totaled)
-Curr. rides- 1970 Ford LTD 4dr, 390 4Bbl, 2nd owner! With a few Extras 00' Civic beater...

there is a turbo -d here in salem for sale its in a 85 pup with hood scoop all stock http://forums.luvtruck.com/viewtopic.php?t=10268

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My old but now gone Luv...

That's what I'm talkin' about! Where can I find more on that setup?

Finalman, I would have to say 85 HP is most likely an exaggeration. Not to say that this engine can't be built up to that, but given those exact mods I'd say probably not. I would doubt a Flowmaster muffler would gain 15 HP, but more like 7-10. I'm not even sure that is accurate either as it's just an estimate. Ram air or increasing air flow may get you a few horses too, but I'm not exactly sure. I'd like to get my truck dyno'd after I update the air intake system to bring in more air. I would say 65-75 HP is more of an accurate reading though. Not sure what the torque would be though. I'll be eager to find out when I do happen to get her dyno'd.

Salvy

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1982 Chevy LUV diesel
2.25" stainless exhaust
w/ MagnaFlow performance muffler

What I am about to say is true--it's not dreamland. I live in rural South Dakota where everything is diesel. A young fellow I know has a miniature tractor puller (I don't know the class--it has to weigh less than 1200 pounds with the driver). Most in the class run Pinto 4 cylinders. He runs and Isuzu C223 diesel. He is a very good mechanic and very creative. He took this motor, reworked the head, put on a Cummins fuel injection pump, changed cams, added a turbocharger and put it on his tractor dynamometer, which goes to 310 horsepower. The following is true--he pegged the dynamometer at 310 and at 8,000 rpm the flywheel shattered (yes, 8.000 rpm). He is now building a billet flywheel for it as it is clear that cast iron won't cut it. He believes these engines are limitless in many many ways. Most of all their durability. But they can put out tremendous horsepower and torque in special situations--not practical for the street, but put enough fuel and air to them and they'll go crazy.

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always always lots of work to do. . .

I had dreams of doing stuff w/ the head and such whenever i got another car.... but no, had to sell it, drivetrain problems.

Hey, you should try to get that guy on here, or at least let him know about the site and maybe give us some insite on how to get that power out of our diesel.

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-Old ride-82 Luv diesel 5spd with some upgrades
-Past rides-82 Sierra, 78 Coupe De'Ville, 91 2dr Blazer, 86 RX7, 86 Porsche 944T (rear-ended and totaled)
-Curr. rides- 1970 Ford LTD 4dr, 390 4Bbl, 2nd owner! With a few Extras 00' Civic beater...

I'd LOVE to hear more! I'm "young" and a "creative" mechanic who is pretty ignorant of diesel performance. I'd love to know what pump, cam, and surely injectors he used.

Can we drag him, kicking and screaming, on to LUVtruck.com? How big'a boy is he?

Is there any way to get in touch with him?

Bump. Still very curious.

Minor Bumpage, Not Sure But I Find A 325hp C223 Is Pretty Interesting Myself.

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I'm guessing he didn't use stock rods, as I've often read about common rod failures with turbo's, due to over-revving (like, 5000rpm-type over-revving).

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Bona Fide diesel fanatic.
1994 Chev S10 Ext Cab Isuzu Diesel 5spd
Kubota B6100 HST diesel

I also would like to here from this guy! I know the c223 loves to breaks its crank or throw a conrod threw th block.
You can tune the original C223 pump, for little more perfromance. With a 5 speed gearbox and 15' tires, mine does 120km/h (75mph) easy on an open road. (on the clock) With a hill i sometimes get upto a 100mph.
I sometimes want to fit a 300d Mercedes engine into one of my bakkies (bakkie is a truck in my language)

Not unheard of using the Cummins(Bosch) pump on other engines. People making HP on VW TDI-M (mechanial not electronics ). Some have been used on 1.6 and 1.9 non TDI engines, but turboed.

Propane, and nitrous can be both used on diesel engines. I would think 150 HP would be do able. This will make the weakest parts break first.

Horsepower is not be the problem. Torque is what going to kill your parts.
Torque could go up by a factor of two to three times the original
Richard.

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75 Luv, 350 V8, TH350, Camaro rearend. New 1975 Luv Step side. Stock for now.
Grandmaster of the "Shade Tree" way.. I can't see the yard for all the cars. Come on down and we will sit on the porch and watch the grass grow.

I would seriously think this could be done. You would have to have a DEEP pocketbook, but it could be done. Probably the first thing you'd have to do is lower the compression ratio to somewhere around 19:1 probably instead of the 21:1 so that you could turn 4500+ rpm's a little easier. Get some better head gaskets, ream the intake ports. Upgrade the rods and all the guts of the engine while you're at it. Get a bigger cam. Next you'd have to fit it with some injection pump off of a cummins or something like that and crank that baby up. Actually, it might not even have to be cranked up that much. Find a set of big hole injectors and install them, widen the exhaust ports, custom build a header leading to turbos and then 4" or bigger out to exhaust and stacks out the bed preferably. LOL Next, Twin turbo setup with just a cone filter put on the turbo inlet, pushing 40 psi boost and then water injection to cool EGT's. LOTS of money, but lots of power too I bet. You'd have to have one mean transmission behind that engine, and one big differential to put it all on the ground. There's no way that the stock LUV parts could handle that.

For the rest of us that don't want to completely tear apart our engines every couple runs... I think that we could make over 120 hp or so with a small turbo wastegated to around 7 or 8 psi. I would think that that would be low enough to not blow head gaskets right and left. Then build you a better air filtration setup. We'd need to figure out a way to tune the injection pump and advance timing around 12 degrees and add a little more fuel throughout the whole power range. (If you're looking for more economy, only advance timing) This would compensate for the increased air. Next, if you want some easy power, inject a little propane. To cool the propane, I'd run a little water/methanol injection just for safety purposes. Build a new header that's got pipe diameters exactly (or bigger) than the exhaust ports on the engine that run into a big pipe into the turbo. Then go 3" or so out the turbo. It could be done... but I don't think that our clutches/transmissions would even hold up to that. Can ya'll tell I drive a modified Dodge?? I am looking to beef up my LUV though

Are the factory rods weak? They look like strong forgings to my naked eye...

What are we talking about 4500 rpm, that's idle, right? lol! If I can run 80 in direct drive with 4.10 rear gears and 25" tires....throw 4500 out the window! lol!

4500 rpms... yeah I bet you could push more than that. Probably for race or sled competition you would need somewheres around 6000 or maybe more. That's super high though ESPECIALLY for our 21:1 compression. Way to long of a stroke for that. Yes, the rods are one of the weak parts of the engine I beleive. Proabably the piston rings too. I'm sure for stock fueling and power they're fine but get much over it and things are gonna start to go boom. Do you actually make 4500 rpm's doin 80? And that thing's holding up? I haven't driven my LUV in a while but I do remember doin 80. I don't have a tach though so I dunno what it was runnin at. I know that in my Dodge with the stock rods and all, 3200 rpm's is just SCREAMIN and I really wouldn't like to push that poor 2.2 over that...

I'd like to hear (and see) this engine.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

I don't know, if you do some math you can back track and convert from mph, tire height, axle ratio and find engine rpm in direct drive.

http://www.wallaceracing.com/gear-speed.php

Go to that link above. Plug in a rear gear of 4.10, a trans of 1 (for direct drive) and a 25" tire. Right at 4500 and that's not on the governor on my engine in my LUV. I used to have a P'UP with an automatic and I shifted it into 2nd gear at 65 mph a couple times, pushed the engine well past it's governor!! Not for very long, only <1 second I'd guess.

I know a little about performance gas engines. Relating that knowledge to this diesel I get the idea that the engine would make LOTS more power than it does without modding anything in the rotating assembly. The rods *look* forged, the rod bearings are about 1/4 as wide as the piston for super strength, there are oil jets to help cool the pistons...and I know it won't sling apart at 5000 rpm! lol!

I've got a sirometer and I'm tempted to use it to calibrate an electronic pickup to use as a tachometer.....[/list]