Typically, when you think of a diesel engine, you imagine it to be something that powers a truck, like the Ford F-150, but you do occasionally see high-performance diesel engines fitted to sports cars too. However, many manufacturers are moving away from diesel engines. Hyundai has killed off its diesels and so has Mazda. Diesel engines run very differently from gasoline engines, so investing in keeping them alive while most new cars are going to gasoline hybrids or full EVs is a waste of money. But what if you have a diesel engine lying around and want to see if you can make it run on gas? Well, Garage 54 in Russia has done just that.

The motor that these guys are working on is a Toyota 2CT turbodiesel that was stripped from a minivan and left to sit for about a year before the above project was undertaken. First off, they begin by using the pre combustion chambers to fit spark plugs, but the biggest hurdle is reducing the typically high compression ratio of a diesel so that gasoline combustion can occur without detonation. To do this, the team first thought about fitting additional head gaskets, but that wasn't enough, so the next step was to shave roughly 4 millimeters from the top of each piston.

The team also removes the old diesel fuel pump and replaced it with a distributor from a Lada Samara. Intake manifolds were scavenged and modified from a Lada, and an old carburetor was fitted as the new fuel source. Miraculously, the engine fires up on the first attempt, although the lack of a flywheel does mean that the engine wants to stall at low revs. It's a remarkable result with not much effort. Sure, it's not something you can necessarily do in your backyard with rudimentary power tools, but it goes to show that almost anything can be achieved with a little ingenuity.

We wouldn't advise trying it at home though, and whatever you do, don't put gasoline in your diesel engine or vice versa.