I have a 66 Bonneville that has gone through many iterations. Right now it has a 10.5" FF rear and 3/4 ton front spindles and brakes. Last drivetrain it had was a Caddy 500/TH400/GVOD. I'm going diesel with it.

Obvious answer is Duramax since it will be the easiest fit, but I'm not against other ideas. Cummins is WAY too tall. Powerstroke 6.0 or 6.4 will fit with a good bit of cut and paste.

I thought very hard about the VW V10 TDI, but its not exactly cheap nor do I know its true reliability. Same goes for Bluetec.

Goals are a modest 450-ish hp with easy parts availability in case of breakdowns. There should also be an emphasis on smoothness. Its a luxo land-yacht, not a 4x4.

Am I missing anything obvious? The Dmax would be easy, but I don't want to decide on it before looking at all the options I can think of.

 

Duramax

450 HP should be plenty for it

 

that's what I was thinking too... just didn't want to miss anything obvious.

 

you could check up on the EFI Live forums as well, as some are very educated on getting the duramax running good in other chassis. "THEFERMANATOR" is one i can think of

 

I managed to get the Duramax running in mine and was in completely over my head. You can get it done. For me it was easiest to just use the complete Duramax underhood and in cab harness with the cluster, steering column, bcm, fuse blocks, etc.