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Home My WebLink AboutHuron 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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