Sell it and buy a Diesel...

 

...YEA! lets throw 50lbs of boost at a cummins and see how high the head lifts off the deck!

anybody can crank boost up to an UNGODLY level and attain major gains

reliabilty isn't a boosted engines strong suit.

 

Money. Lots of money.

 

There is a reason the cummins is called the million mile motor, I have never seen one over 300,000 but that 300,000 was a turboed motor. I am usually a n/a guy but i really dont see a stroked 318 going 300,000 miles like a turbo diesel will. I dont want to start a debate or anything, I think if your looking for reliability a turbo diesel is where its at not a stroker motor. And turbo diesels get better mpg for anyone that still cares about their fuel economy

 

Yes, but the amount of boost on a stock Cummins turbo is well within the "sensible" range. What matty675 was referring to is ramping up the boost into the "stupid" or "crazy larry" range, which would definitely blow the head clear off of the engine.

 

Well, for the sake of argument let's stay with the318 block. If it's a good core you can punch it out and get a stoker kit. With an air gap, 1.7 rockers,an sct programmer,a CAI plus full exaust, and a better cam, I'd bet he would be around 240-250 hp. Then if he had the heads ported and polished he would most likely gain another 25-30 or more hp. That's 280 at the high end. Now add a supercharger with mild boost, or even a turbo setup you would probably be looking at a streetable 390-410hp. But yea, it's gonna cost you money, if I was to guess at this setup price I'd say around 7,000.

If you were able to do all the work yourself,and looked real hard on eBay,amazon,craigslist or whatever discount site. You might get that price down to under 5,000.

But that's still a chunk of change.

 

EXACTLY! a cummins with a moderate amount of boost will make decent power and be very reliable... and thats just it.

you cant get into those very INSANE horsepower numbers without INSANE boost numbers, and when you do so, you sacrifice reliabilty ten fold.

 

look on dieselpopwermag.com theres a cummins on there with way over a million miles and they didnt replace tht many parts. its a 12 valve and i think the article is called eternal cummins but im not for sure.

 

your numbers are WAY out there! you do realize the 318 made around 220hp right off the assembly line?

a 390 with supporting mods would be knocking on the 400hp door N/A. S/C with moderate boost would be near 500hp. Mind you this is BHP not RWHP im speaking of.

 

I was being conservative because I have never really crunched the numbers. still, that would make the engine more reliable then with the lower boost. Maybe he doesn't want a diesel engine. Some people don't like the smoke, the noise, or maybe even the expense of repair. Though, with what a person would have to put into an engine to get out what a diesel does normally, the expense argument goes out the window.