Origin of power stroke engine
Heard a comment at work, today, that the powerstroke diesel, is a gas engine reworked as a diesel. Have not heard or read this before so I thought to ask here .
Forum Discussion
tvman44 wrote:
GM is the only one I know of that ever converted a gas engine to diesel and all I ever heard about them was bad.
GM and VW did what I'd call "hurry up designs" on diesels based on some of the gas engine displacements and dimensions, and probably some common parts. Not sure I'd call them "conversions" as much as a "design and manufacturing levereaged development" I suspect that the designers, may have been excellent gas engine designers, they probably had little or no experience with diesel engine design and the end result was noticeable design flaws leading to short life.
IIRC peugot also introduced a diesel in this time frame and it was also plagued with problems, probably for the same reasons as GM and VW.
Remember, at this time, mercedes was one of the few mfg with any long term design experience in auto (car not truck) diesels, having sold them since about WWII. GM's detroit diesel division had lots of truck diesel engine experience. I guess that it didn't spill over into the car design division. GM actually had two diesels, the 350 V-8 and a 4.2 L 90 degree block V-6 in some cars.
