The light duty diesel is still becoming popular so like Ben said, the audience is still small. Plus being diesels, they have been labeled as dirty machines so that doesn't help in growing popularity rates because of the big OTR diesel engines of yesteryear.
I really dont think thats the reason in my opinion. Yeah maybe 10 years ago. But a
lot has happened in the diesel performance world in the past 5 years.
The real reason is these trucks are still pretty expensive and too new for 90% of people to want to cut up into real "hot rods".
Most hot rod guys out there want something that does something besides goes fast in a straight line. (IE, not a 7,000lb pickup truck)
90% of "car guys" out there just dont even know that there is such a thing as diesel performance....because nobody thinks of ever modifying a big HD pickup truck, unless you've actually seen what one can do first hand.
Even parts that have been out for years (aftermarket rods, etc) are still very expensive. Even bearings and rings are very expensive.
These trucks arent "classic" "iconic" vehicles. Not the real "hot rod" image that your typical "hot rodder" is going to want to dump 30 grand into. I mean,
everyone thinks corvettes and camaros and muscle cars are cool. But you've got to actually specifically be a hard core die hard diesel truck guy to want to dump all this money into a pickup truck. Those kind of guys are comparatively small in numbers compared to the majority of the "hot rodding world in general".
Parts are more complicated. You dont have fuel systems that run at 25,000+ PSI to deal with on a gas engine. You dont have fuel injectors that cost $250+ on a gas engine. There are a lot more gas engines out there than diesels. You cant buy a duramax at any junk yard for $300 like you can an LSx.
Only a die hard diesel truck enthusiast is going to want to put 30 grand into a diesel truck only to run the same time as a gasser LSx truck with less than 10 grand in it. Ive built plenty of dmax's, ive had the engine out of my truck 5 times, ive done the whole performance thing and it just got tiring for me. After each successive engine you blow up, you lose more and more enthusiasm for it. Not to mention money. And before long, you say to yourself "WTF am I doing here?!??". And you go back to a stock engine with maybe a 90hp tow tune and you realize that, really in all honesty, its all you need to make a dmax fun to daily drive.
I could go on.
you add all those up, and you'll understand why the market isnt there and why the diesel hot rod world is comparatively small.
Ben, where are the crankshafts breaking?
right behind the 1-2 rod journal, where the journal meets the counterweight
torsional? bending? is it a material problem or simply skimpy design due to the main operation range of lower rpms being exceeded?
If I (or anyone else) knew the exact cause, then it most likely wouldnt be a problem anymore!
If you do some reading; there is a lot of valuable info on this forum.
ben