We imagine the reactions are priceless. From the confused look on people’s faces at car shows to the flummoxed expression of someone sitting at a traffic light, it’s clear Nathan Mueller has raised the bar when it comes to the ultimate installation of diesel engines into passenger cars that never had them in the first place. The process of jamming an oil-burner where a little gas engine used to be is not new, but doing it in a manner that makes the finished work appear as though line workers at the factory did it certainly is. The true beauty of the cars you see in this report really lies in the thought process behind them and the detailed approach to their construction. A Minnesota man of action and a stickler for details, Nathan decided to apply his considerable skills as a fabricator to pull off what look like OEM diesel-production experiments due to their fit and finish. He refuses to allow anything to stick through a hood and just says “No” to allowing major hackery of the floor or firewall when building anything. In this case, the result is a pair of well-packaged cars that perform amazingly. If there’s one thing you’ll learn about Nathan in this story, it’s that when he speaks, big things definitely happen.

The Camaro

The magic of Nathan’s Duramax-powered ’10 Chevrolet Camaro SS is not the fact that there’s a diesel in the car—it’s how awesomely clean the engine is mounted in the car. This looks factory installed.

By lowering the subframe 3 inches, Nathan was able to get the stock Camaro hood to close, unaltered, putting the crowning touch on one of the sneakiest diesel swaps of all time.

The tale of this ’10 Chevrolet Camaro SS begins in a bad neighborhood in Dallas, Texas, where Nathan and a buddy were picking it up after buying it from someone who scored it for cheap from an insurance auction. Nathan isn’t exactly the type of person you’d refer to as being “bucks up,” so in order to accomplish his goal of installing a 6.6L Duramax engine in a late-model Camaro, he needed to buy one that was within a specific price range and a car that had not been stripped to the chassis. The rolling chassis was missing an engine and transmission and had some small dings and a broken rear quarter window. It was the perfect machine to use as the basis of something that had never been done before with a fifth-generation Camaro: give it a Duramax.

The car rides on factory rolling stock and sits very near the stock ride height despite the extra 400 pounds in the nose. Custom spacers for the front end help achieve the perfect ride height.

The car rides on factory rolling stock and sits very near the stock ride height despite the extra 400 pounds in the nose. Custom spacers for the front end help achieve the perfect ride height.

The intake bridge is something Nathan had to work on for hood fitment. He chopped off the 2-bolt flange and made a 2.5-inch hose coupler, so a 90-degree silicone hose can be used. Space is at a premium under there.

After stripping the engine bay of all the unnecessary items that would be in the way, the process of trial fitting the 6.6L oil-burner in the car itself began. Almost immediately, things took a turn for the interesting, according to Nathan. “I had an ’07 Chevrolet Kodiak shuttle bus for a donor vehicle. When we went to lower the engine and the Allison 2400 five-speed automatic transmission into the Camaro, it was immediately clear the unit was not going to fit. As a rule, I do not cut transmission tunnels or firewalls if I can help it, and that Allison was making it look like an impossible task.”

If you were to place the 6.2L LS V-8 gas engine next to the 6.6L Duramax LMM in this car, no one in their right mind would believe they can fit in the same space. That’s what makes guys like Nathan so unique: They refuse to accept failure.

Nathan calls his shop One of Won, and we dig the badge he installed on the Camaro to denote the fact that he put this together with his own hands and help from some talented buddies.

The Camaro serves as Nathan’s daily driver. He says he loves the performance of the Duramax in the lithe Camaro body and tight chassis. He says the extra weight on the nose barely impacts the car’s handling.

By removing the transmission and simply working with the engine, progress was made in developing new mounts to handle the 835-pound powerplant. But there was one problem: making the entire setup fit beneath the stock hood. “The fact is, it really isn’t too hard to put a diesel engine in anything if you don’t mind chopping a big, ugly hole in the hood and having stuff stick out,” Nathan says. “That was not the goal of this project at all. I like doing things no one else has done and doing them right. It took a long time for us to figure out what to do, but when my buddy Colin and I did, it was absolutely the right thing.”

When the throttle hits the carpet, the only sign some poor gas burner is being walked by a Duramax-powered Camaro, is the unique exhaust note and some telltale smoke from the tailpipes. Imagine what Mustang owners think when they see this!

Like Nathan says, it’s not that hard to put the diesel engine in the car. The hard part is getting the fit and finish correct so the car operates properly, looks right, and makes people at car shows flip when they figure out what’s going on.

With a shade less than 900 lb-ft of torque available, getting this Camaro sideways is no problem at all. The stock differential and gearing fill the rearend, and Nathan has not had any issues with it standing up to the added torque of the Duramax.

The guys figured out that if they lowered the subframe about 3 inches they would have the engine low enough to close the hood normally. “We made the pieces to lower the subframe ourselves, and it worked. But we only had about 3 inches of ground clearance. With the way I drive, that was not going to work. With the additional weight of the Duramax engine, the front fender lip was a couple inches lower than the back, so we machined some spacers to put on top of the front struts as a leveling kit. That change to the front end gave us 5¾ inches of clearance. This was a huge moment.”

Powering out of a corner, we can see the suspension working in this photo. The solid-handling Camaro may have a little more weight in the nose, but Nathan says the car is fantastic to drive and requires no alterations from a normal driving style.

Nathan was very particular when shopping for the car to base this project on. This clean ’10 Camaro came out of Dallas, Texas, as a theft recovery.

The exhaust system on the Camaro uses a 4-inch downpipe that splits into 3-inch dual pipes and ends in 5-inch tips. The large tips actually look perfectly at home in the exhaust outlet holes. Proportionality is very important in pulling off quality builds, and Nathan has it nailed.

The brilliance of lowering the subframe means the steering went with it, so there was no need to account for changing geometry, and so on. Nathan was also able to use the exhaust manifolds from the Kodiak, as their layout make them a perfect fit for the tight confines of a Camaro’s engine bay. Things were really starting to come together.

Hot-rodders in the gas world may think the car is turbocharged, as there’s a hint of an intercooler visible through the nose. While they’ll be right, it certainly won’t be in the way they expected.

For anyone who has ever embarked on an ambitious project, the payoff is being able to enjoy what you have created and to revel in all the work that went into building it. Nathan does that every time he sees this car or twists the key in the ignition.

Perhaps it is odd to be celebrating what we are not seeing in this car, but the fact is that because of careful planning and diligent research, all the mechanical parts of the build are able to fit in the factory package—even the stock transmission tunnel.

Believe it or not, fitting the engine was just the beginning of the truly hard work, and there was also the fact that the transmission situation was still up in the air. A trip to the SEMA show in November 2015 really boosted Nathan’s desire to get the project finished, and hours upon hours of reading Diesel Power—as well as articles and informative posts found in Internet forums—gave him a good idea of a suitable transmission for the effort. “I had been doing so much research looking for something that would work,” Nathan says. “Then, on a trip to Diesel Redemption in Crystal Lake, Illinois, to buy the low-mileage Duramax LMM engine that ended up in the car, I stumbled upon the perfect transmission: a 6L90E six-speed automatic that was in a Duramax-powered Chevrolet Express ambulance. I had to buy the whole rig but ended up making some money on it when we parted the entire thing out. Going to SEMA really got my mind going, and frankly, I think there’d be nothing cooler than to see this car in that show someday.”

The low-mileage Camaro was bought as a theft recovery in Dallas, and the low-mileage Duramax engine was found in Crystal Lake, Illinois. The combination results in a virtually new diesel-powered hot rod that functions in the same way a stock, gas version would.

Here’s the man from Minnesota who’s behind all this madness. Nathan is a detail-oriented guy who plans and plots before opening his mouth about a project. Why? He’s not the type to flake out or admit defeat. When he speaks, things happen.

The diligence and planning paid off, because the LMM engine is from the same model year as the transmission, which came with a wiring harness that enables all the components to talk to each other like intended. “This job was overwhelming at times, until I was able to break it down into these individual tasks to get done,” Nathan says. “I understand most people are flaky and give up on things because they look too difficult, but going down a list of tasks instead of staring at a huge job is the way to go. You don’t earn anyone’s respect by quitting, and that is why before I say anything about a project like this out loud, I consider all the options. Once I say something out loud, I am going to complete the job—no matter how long it takes.”

Oh, just another ’10 Camaro SS with an LS engine, nothing to see here. Wrong! Nathan revels in twisting people into knots when they actually look at the car up close. He parks it and runs away at car shows.

It was important to get the car onto a chassis dyno once it was complete to make sure the Pela Motorsports Duramax tune is on point and Standalone Solutions wiring harness is properly functioning as well. They are.

With the engine and transmission in the car, Nathan concentrated on the electrical side of things and making all the factory gauges function properly. Using a harness from Ken Wolkens at Standalone Solutions made this job far more manageable. With regard to the fuel tank, the Camaro uses the stock saddle-style cell, with an added hose bridging its two sides and keeping the diesel flowing (detailed photos of this are available on trucktrend.com and Nathan’s shop website oneofwon.net).

While essentially stock for the most part, the Duramax LMM engine has an EFILive tune-up and a free-flowing, custom exhaust system. The combination delivers 516 hp and 896 lb-ft of torque.

Most people think of the dyno as a tool for measuring maximum horsepower and torque. While that is certainly the most publicized usage, the ability to tune and dial-in driveability is also an important function they serve.

When the dust settled, the engine made 516 hp and 896 lb-ft of torque. Those numbers, applied to a car that weighs 4,600 pounds with Nathan in it, equate to some very healthy performance statistics.



“The Camaro is amazing to drive,” Nathan tells us. “The thing has instant power and absolutely no lag. Even at 80 mph, the engine still has all the torque in the world. The car is ridiculous fun to drive, and it has been my daily driver since it was finished. I have thousands of miles on it. Reliability is what I am all about, and this car has been super reliable.” Make a note of this: The 6.6L engine might make more horsepower by the time many of you are reading this, as swapping the factory turbo with a Rychener Speed and Fabrication 65mm Rated R Stage 2 ’charger is included in Nathan’s ever-evolving plan for the unique sport coupe.

Fast Facts

Year/Make/Model: ’10 Chevrolet Camaro SS

Owner: Nathan Mueller

Hometown: Sauk Rapids, Minnesota

Odometer: 11,000 miles

Engine: 6.6L Duramax LMM V-8 with electrical harness by Standalone Solutions

Programming: EFILive with tuning by Pela Motorsports

Fuel: Stock CP3 injection pump and stock Camaro fuel tank with saddles connected

Air: Rychner Speed and Fabrication 65mm Rated R Stage 2 turbocharger, eBay intercooler modified to fit

Exhaust: Custom-built 4-inch turbo-back system that splits into dual 3-inch pipes and ends with 5-inch tips.

Transmission: GM 6L90E six-speed automatic

Power: 516 hp

Torque: 896 lb-ft

Wheels: 20-inch stock aluminum mag style

Tires: 245/45R20 Continental Extreme Contact

Axle: Stock differential with 3.27 gears

Suspension: Stock with 2.25-inch lift spacers in front

Body: Camaro SS paint scheme, Duramax badges, and stock hood modified to read “6.6L”

Interior: Stock with functioning factory gauges

Fun Facts: Nathan thanks friends Colin Doyle, Travis Marquette, Brian Maleska, and Jonathan Saxon for their help on the build.



The Charger

Nathan gulped when he approached the front of this ’06 Dodge Charger with a 5.9L Cummins engine on his forklift. He breathed a sigh of relief that there was half an inch of clearance at the back and at the front with the motor in position. Amazing.

That thing got a Hemi? Nope. Nathan went with a Cummins engine for this install because he likes keeping brands together, and he is very familiar with the engine platform, having wrenched on Cummins-powered trucks and a Cadillac with one of Clessie’s finest under the hood.

Similar to the Camaro build, clever engineering and a creative approach were the keys to nailing the Charger’s engine installation, ride height, and performance. The heavily reworked subframe is an important element of the drivetrain fitment.

Before reading any more of this report, we hope that at this point you fully understand Nathan is the kind of guy who doesn’t simply “settle” for something. In his world, things are either right or they aren’t. The 5.9L Cummins-powered Charger stemmed from another diesel-powered car Nathan previously owned, a vintage Cadillac. “I had a ’60 Cadillac with a Cummins 6BT engine in it,” Nathan says. “I did not build that one, and the thing was a total rat rod. I had to sell the Cadillac to pay some bills, and I missed it. I didn’t miss the specific car, because it really was kind of a pile of crap, but I missed the idea of it. That got me hung up on wanting a crazy diesel-powered car that had a smooth, quiet ride with all the systems working as they should.”

This car used to patrol the highways as a law enforcement vehicle. Now it owns the street as an undercover performance-diesel vehicle. Sound and engine manners are more truck-like than the Camaro, according to Nathan. “People are always looking to see where the big diesel truck is.”

The car’s 5.9L Cummins is hopped up with several modifications, and power is estimated at 450 hp and 1,100 lb-ft.

Said craving led Nathan to consider his options. Having messed with Cummins engines for years and being a “Cummins guy,” it only made sense for him to use the venerable inline-six engine. But why a Dodge Charger? “I’m not a really big fan of crossing the brand stuff up,” he says. “It seemed like a natural fit because of the Cummins and Dodge Ram connection. I was able to buy the ’06 former cop car Charger for cheap, I got a low-mile ’97 vintage 12-valve engine for a good price, and I also found a freshly rebuilt NV4500 five-speed manual transmission that came with a dual-disc clutch.”

You can imagine that a guy who builds these types of hot rods isn’t exactly easy on them—and Nathan isn’t. That being said, he claims to have never seen less than 25 mpg on the road.

Despite the engine’s 1,100 pounds being right at front of the car, body roll, nosedive, bumpsteer, and other elements of handling are not adversely changed, according to Nathan. Big factory brakes haul the Charger down from speed.

It may sound shocking that the car still runs a stock rear differential and axles. It shouldn’t be. The 245/45R20 Continental tires are the reason for its survival. Rather than breaking driveline parts, the Charger just roasts the tires.

That’s when the fun, excitement, and stress began. Nathan says he clearly remembers driving up to the car with the Cummins hanging on his forklift and thinking there was no way the long inline-six would fit without major surgery. He was wrong. In a seeming impossibility, the engine fit with ½ inch at the firewall and another ½ inch to the electric fan at the front of the mill.

“To be honest, getting the engine in the car was not nearly as hard as converting it from an automatic transmission to a manual,” Nathan says. Getting the engine to fit required a bunch of notching and modification to the factory subframe. Unlike the Camaro, the rack and pinion had to be repositioned in this car, and that was an undertaking. Lowering the rack got the engine down far enough so the hood closes cleanly.

We can only imagine what fellow hot-rodders think when they get a load of this former-police-car-turned-unique-street-machine powering out of the bends and making that signature, deep, Cummins bellow.

Because of his fond memories in the Cadillac, Nathan wanted to use a large car as the platform for his first diesel-power conversion. The police-spec Charger was a great choice, because of its size, robust suspension, and the fact that he got it dirt cheap with no engine or transmission.

Because the engine weighs 1,100 pounds, a strut tower brace was added to maintain the integrity of the shock towers. And like the Camaro, spacers were added to lift the car a couple of inches and regain factory right height. The oil pan’s deep sump was trimmed 3 inches and welded back together to gain 5 inches of ground clearance.

Getting the NV4500 transmission to work in a car that has never been offered with a stick was a bear of a task. “We started with a Wilwood Disc Brakes floor-mounted clutch pedal,” Nathan says. “It was terrible because of the angle and leg effort required. We then replaced it with a Wilwood hanging-style pedal, and it is pretty much perfect. Yes, the firewall does flex a little (because it is not reinforced for a clutch pedal), but not enough for me to care about.” The relocated shifter is pretty trick, as it’s a stock unit for an ’85-to-’93 Mustang T5 transmission. By using a long rod and air brake clevis joints, Nathan was able to position the shifter in the factory location (photos of this piece and more of the build can be seen on trucktrend.com and at oneofwon.net). It works like a champ and has since the day it was finalized.

Until this car starts, the only indicator there may be something different about it is the large-diameter single exhaust peeking out from the back.

You will notice nothing hanging low beneath the Charger. To maintain near-factory ground clearance, Nathan took 3 inches out of the Cummins’ oil-pan sump and shortened the pickup tube as well.

Not out of the woods yet, Nathan and his pals had to tackle a cooling system, a driveshaft, an exhaust system, the electronics to make the car fully functional, and a fuel system. “The cooling system took a lot of hours,” Nathan says. “We finally thought we had a plan and made some cuts. We actually fit a four-core aluminum radiator and an intercooler in the front of the car.” Using a driveshaft from a Ram truck and custom-machining a steel replacement for the rubber factory guibo joint, the driveshaft problem was solved. The exhaust system, typically something you’d think would be easy, was not. “I wanted a full 4-inch system and making one was not an easy thing to do. I worked with my friend Roger at Exhaust Pros to make the tubing right.” Driving around with a battery between his legs and a jug for a fuel tank after getting the car running was not Nathan’s proudest moment, but it worked and showed him they were onto something.

The most dastardly part of the whole project was converting a car that had never been offered with a manual transmission into a gear jammer. In typical style, Nathan used his brains and his talent to make it happen. He also built the console.

The shifter attached to the NV4500 five-speed manual transmission started life as a gear selector for a stock ’85-to-’93 Ford Mustang’s T5 transmission. The addition of some clevis joints and a steel rod got the shifter relocated to the position you see here, and it works great. A Wilwood Disc Brakes hanging pedal was used in the conversion.

Using a stock Hemi ECM and getting crafty with wiring and mapping, Nathan got the engine to start with a key and all the gauges functioning as well. At that point, the Charger was basically a finished car, with only the finish and detail work (like making the custom center console) remaining.

Like the Camaro’s Duramax, the Cummins engine powering the Charger is also wicked up a bit. A 4,000-rpm governor and valvesprings have been added, along with a Holset HX40 turbocharger, 225hp injectors, a Zero fuel plate, a cranked starwheel, and the aforementioned 4-inch exhaust. Nathan estimates power at 450 hp and 1,100 lb-ft of torque.

With GlowShift gauges on the A-pillar, cupholders in the console, and a couple of touchscreens in the dash, this is the definition of late-model muscle. The fact that it gets incredible mileage, is a completely one-off vehicle, and looks like it was delivered from the factory? That’s the bonus.

Other than the addition of the hood stripes in the same color red as his Camaro, Nathan has simply enjoyed this Cummins-powered Charger the way he built it.



Nathan says the driving experience in the Charger is vastly different than that of the Camaro. “People look for the semitruck when I’m pulling up to an intersection. It sounds like a truck, and it makes some smoke. The Camaro is more refined, but the Charger is the one that got me going on this whole thing, so I really enjoy it. I have yet to get less than 25 mpg.”

Fast Facts

Year/Make/Model: ’06 Dodge Charger

Owner: Nathan Mueller

Hometown: Sauk Rapids, Minnesota

Odometer: 15,000 miles

Engine: 5.9L Cummins I-6 with 4,000-rpm valvesprings

Fuel: FASS Fuel Systems Titanium 150-gph lift pump, 225hp P-pump with 4,000-rpm governor springs, 18 degrees of pump timing, Diesel Auto Power Performance 7x0.014 injectors, Zero fuel plate, and a cranked starwheel

Air: Holset HX40 turbocharger, AEM 6-inch air filter, BD Diesel Performance intercooler boots, and a custom-plumbed 13x28-inch aluminum intercooler

Exhaust: Custom single 4-inch system with 5-inch tip by Exhaust Pros and a Pacbrake exhaust brake

Transmission: New Venture Gear NV4500 five-speed manual transmission, dual-disc ceramic clutch, and a modified ’86-to-’93 Ford Mustang T-5 shifter

Power: 450 hp (estimate)

Torque: 1,100 lb-ft (estimate)

Wheels: 20-inch stock aluminum mag style

Tires: 245/45R20 Continental Extreme Contact

Axle: Stock differential with 2.82 gears

Suspension: Stock 2-inch spacers in front

Body: Stock with painted red stripes

Interior: Custom center console, DVR system, Kenwood DVD/GPS, and GlowShift MaxTow gauges

Fun Facts: The worst fuel economy Nathan has recorded is 25 mpg. He thanks friends Colin Doyle, Travis Marquette, Brian Maleska, and Jonathan Saxon for their help with the build.



This pair of interesting cars was born in Nathan Mueller’s Minnesota shop called One of Won (for obvious reasons). We’re talking about a guy who seems to specialize in the impossible here!



These cars blow us away for the simple fact that there is an incredible amount of time and effort invested in the masterful fabrication work and getting the respective diesel engines completely integrated.

Both cars get driven a lot. Nathan put 15,000 miles on the Charger not long after completing it, and the Camaro instantly became his daily driver when it was done. The fun comes in enjoying the creations after they are finished—not just bragging about them.

Which one is faster? Nathan will find out when he takes both cars to the track and wrings them out. The Camaro is lighter but less powerful, and the Charger has significantly more torque and the manual transmission

Lots of people like to talk big and float grandiose ideas, but there are very few who can actually execute what they say. Nathan takes a lot of pride in knowing he does and can do both.

We’re not sure how he chooses which one to drive on a day-to-day basis. We’d be struggling to choose between these two beauties every time we walked into the garage. Talk about a great problem to be confronted with.