Probably cost in the range of buying a used diesel truck. cost of engine
and new tranny to hold the torque, and then new differential gearing, as the
RPM's max is much lower. Cheapest way would be if you could get an older
European sedan and tranplant the running gear.
Bill

"Wayne B" wrote in message
m...
"Lloyd Sumpter" wrote in message
.. .
Hi,
This is kinda boating-related. Anybody hear of anyone who's converted
the Venerable GM 4.3L V6 to diesel? I'd like to do that in my van. I
don't
see any room for anything other than a V6, and would like diesel.

Lloyd, the predictable response, of course, is "don't do it". Why?
GM themselves conducted this experiment on a grand scale back in the
70s when they attempted to take an Oldsmobile V8 gas engine and
convert it to diesel. It ran - for a while - but not nearly as long
as most people hoped. It was a reliability disaster since the block
was not really designed to take the compression loads and heat build
up associated with diesel service. There's a reason that diesel
engines weigh more than gas for comparable horsepower.

Why not do something really creative and create a hybrid van using a
smallish diesel to drive a generator, which recharges a battery bank?