HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2005-07-27, Page 11THE HURON EXPOSITOR, July 27, 2005 -11
Celebrating 25 years of vehicle efficiency
Repowered Diesel Confab aims to make any vehicle more modern and fuel efficient
By Jason Middleton
Expositor Staff
During the weekend of July 15 to 17, close
to 60 people camped out in RV's on the
property of Ken and Betty Glanville's
Seaforth-area farm to celebrate what they love
— getting more power and better mileage.
Pointing to the handful of repowered trucks
parked in the yard, Ken Glanville explained
that they were "modified to make them more
modern and very fuel efficient."
Glanville said he repowered his first vehicle
in 1961 and has repowered half a dozen since.
Repowering a vehicle is taking the stock
engine out of a car and modifying the engine
and everything under the hood to
accommodate the new engine.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the
Repowered Diesel Confab. Meetings for the
group have been held throughout Ontario and
the United States.
For the past 25 years. Ohio resident Bill
Saunders has been repowering engines. He
said that it was a challenge at first, but he
became good at it.
"It's not everyone that can do it," Saunders
said, adding that when repowering a vehicle
you have to be able to do bodywork,
mechanical work and know about parts.
Glanville agreed and said that you have to
be skilled at many things to be successful at
repowering an engine.
"It takes an art to do that," Glanville said.
"You have to be a very special mechanic and
machinist to build all the adapters and pick
out the transmission and rear axel ratios."
Jason Middleton photo
Seaforth-area farmer Ken Glanville and Ohio resident Bill Saunders check out the
engine on Saunders' repowered diesel pickup truck. On the weekend of July 15 to 17,
close to 60 people visited Glanville's farm as part of the Repowered Diesel Confab's
25th anniversary.
Saunders said doing this kind of work is
like a puzzle in that you need to "know how
to combine all of those elements together."
"It's not a built in conversion. There's a lot
of cutting, welding, making brackets, making
mounts," Saunders said, adding that you have
to get a radiator big enough to cool the
engine.
From his experience, Saunders said that it
takes about 100 hours to repower an engine,
but he has heard of people who are on their
sixth year of work on their vehicle.
When both Glanville and Saunders started,
having a diesel engine in your personal
vehicle was not as popular as it is now.
"The good thing about this is that it went on
way before you could get the store-bought
vehicles," said Glanville.
Back 25 years ago, as people were
beginning to repower their vehicles it was the
beginning of automakers doing the same
thing.
He explained that fuel economy is
becoming more of an issue now as the price
of fuel is rising.
"When the fuel's approaching a $1 a litre,
you've gotta get serious about economy,"
Glanville said.
"You don't have to be a mathematician to
realize diesel is much more fuel efficient," he
said.
According to Glanville, his favourite engine
he ever rebuilt was a 1962 John Deere 5010
tractor.
Originally equipped with 117 horsepower,
Glanville repowered the tractor to have 318
horsepower -something he called "very
rewarding."
When asked if he could tell the difference
between the engine before it was repowered
and after it was repowered, Glanville
answered with a smile.
"Can you tell the difference?" he said.
"Check out the look on my face," he said.
As for what he hopes to repower in the
future, Glanville said that he has many plans.
"I have lots of engines and trucks that are
candidates," he said.
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