As hot rodders, we see horsepower as a fun number, as something of an entertainment quotient that allows us to enjoy ourselves and impress our friends. Something that makes scaring your wife worthwhile on the way to the burger joint. But what about horsepower as an actual working number? What about it as something that occasionally you need more of to make sure that job can be done correctly? That’s exactly what this is. As awesome as this 630hp and 1,600 lb-ft making Detroit Diesel 8V92TA is, the engine was built for work, not for impressing people on the internet.
What type of work needs this type of power on a daily basis? Believe it or not, some of the slowest mechanized work on the planet. Yes, this engine came out of and is going back into an airport tractor used for moving big airplanes around. The good news is that it was not blown up when it came to the shop. Instead, the airport wanted to upgrade the engine with more power because it was slated to be handing the chores of pushing the massive Airbus A380 around, something that they did not think they had the juice for with the stock engine.
The level of “hot rodding” here is minimal. By the sounds of it, the things that got this Detroit to roar once more were upgraded tuning and an upgrade set of injectors. More air and more fuel and guess what? More power! Who’d a thunk that?! It is awesome to watch the four digit torque number come up and stay there. Come for the beautiful Detroit Diesel music and stay for the impressive working pedigree of this engine!
