v10 torque vrs diesel

Golden_HVAC wrote:
My buddy with a 460" V8 gas engine in his 88 Ford class C always outruns his friend's 40' DP that has a 400 HP engine and over 1000 foot pounds of torque.

The diesel pusher will always have more weight to move around, requiring the larger engine.

Gas engines normally will have more torque on a cubic inch basis, but diesels that have 350 - 400 HP with 1200 foot pounds of torque are typically 10.3 liters or larger. That would be about 620 cubic inches.

Yet diesels that large can not spin to a higher RPM like the Ford V10, so the V10 can make 362 HP by winding up and taking the 400 foot pounds of torque and multiply that by 4000 RPM's, to give higher horsepower in a much lighter weight engine, so the horsepower to weight ratio is much better with a gas engine than the typical diesel engine.

Most diesel pushers have a governor that restricts engine RPM to about 2,200 RPM. This is because each piston is about the size of a 2 liter soda bottle, and has to travel up and down 5 - 6" to make each stroke, and 2,200 RPM is about 2,200 feet per minute with a 6" long stroke.

The Ford V10 is about a 3.5" stroke, and 3.5" diameter piston, so it would travel around 2200 feet per minute at around 4000 RPM.

Fred.