Thanks man! I don't know that I would do this to a nice 300, although my Newport was solid, it was far from perfect. If it had been more rare or in better condition, I would have likely passed on it. Hoping to get it running tomorrow...Stay tuned!
I love it! This is the motor swap that's been in my head since I talked to the previous owner of my New Yorker. Trying to find a Cummins turbo diesel and transmission in my price range is not in the cards though.
Just found the thread, very cool! Different is big part of what Mopar and C's are about for me!
Wish I could have found a 6BT for under $4000 locally when I did my 70 PowerWagon!! I have no idea what the project will be yet, but I REALLY want to drop a turbo diesel into something in the future! The power, reliability and efficiency are amazing compared to gas.
I agree it would be great to see more diesel vehicles in the US. I think Americans just remember the noisy, stinky, low powered diesels in cars from the late 70's-80's and have tuned out the advances in modern vehicles. I had a friend in high school with a diesel VW Rabbit, it was a stinky, dead dog! But it had about 400,000 miles on it!!
Finally got some new pics and info up on the blog. She is rolling around and getting dangerously close to getting fired up. Chopped the oilpan 4 inches and used 1/4" plate for the bottom to help handle any unfortunate impacts. Its the same height as the crossmember, but that stuff is pretty low with my set ride height.
Well, I got it running last night. Still need to finish a couple of brake lines and tidy up the electrics. Then I need to fab the intercooler piping...Getting close to a test drive! Here's a moderately crappy video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylF_kDid05g