Before Dodge Diesel Trucks Had Cummins Engines, They Were Powered By Mitsubishi Motors

When you first conjure an image of a 1978 Dodge pickup in your brain, you might immediately jump to the mighty and muscular Li'l Red Express or the dark and mysterious Warlock models that made up Dodge's "Adult Toys" line. While those immensely cool trucks were saving the American Muscle image in the malaise era, there was a much more rare work-a-day model that set Dodge on the path it rides today. With gasoline prices still sky-high through the 1970s, Dodge was looking for a more economical engine to power its D100, D200, and B-series vans, but didn't have the cash to spend developing a whole new engine for the task. 

As the Mopar family already had a great relationship with Mitsubishi, Dodge called up its pals in Japan for help. Mitsubishi was more than willing to pick up the call, as its products were already selling in big numbers in the U.S. with Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth badges. 

For 1978 Dodge introduced the Mitsubishi 6DR5 diesel engine to its truck and van lineups as an optional economic engine. The 4-liter inline six-cylinder naturally aspirated diesel was serving reliably in the giant Mitsubishi Fuso cab-over delivery trucks, as well as several industrial applications, so it should have been the perfect engine for the job. All of a sudden you could buy a Dodge pickup which could deliver around 20 miles per gallon in regular use, helping to stretch those post-oil crisis dollars. 

Unfortunately, Americans hated it. Not only was the engine more expensive than others in the lineup, but it was rated at just 105 horsepower and 169 pound-feet of torque. Somehow the big diesel made less power than Dodge's own venerable Slant Six engine. Apparently the trucks topped out around 60 miles per hour, and getting there from a stop took quite a lot of patience. Not willing to compromise for anything, Americans simply did not option the engine, and very few of these machines were sold. According to an old long-dead forum post, 2,835 diesel pickups were built and sold in the U.S. and there's no word on how few diesel-powered vans were produced, if any. The engine was pulled from the options list for 1979, making it a one-year-only boondoggle for Dodge. 

And before some Dodge diesel history nerd gets all up in arms about it, there was technically a diesel-powered Dodge pickup before this, too. Way back in 1962 Dodge offered a Perkins-built six-cylinder diesel engine in the iconic "sweptline" D-series trucks. The Perkins diesel was available for export through the late 1950s and early 1960s, but for '62 it was optioned to U.S. buyers as well. The average American didn't even know it existed, and it came and went like a wet fart, selling fewer than 1,000 units.

It wasn't until Dodge introduced the Cummins 6BT-powered Ram in 1989 that the company finally figured out how to market diesels to American buyers. I guess it really was a case of third time's the charm.