(update: the later example, Re: module for HTML XML conversion, is much better than this one.)

This is pretty specialized and inlines more than it should. You have to write a few lines of code for every part of your spec. So it is not the best if you have a need for generalized transforms but if you have an exact transform to do that won't change much, this can be great. XML::LibXML.

use warnings;
use strict;
use XML::LibXML;

my $parser = XML::LibXML->new();
$parser->keep_blanks(0);

# $parser->recover_silently(1); # <-- for bad HTML

my $doc = $parser->parse_fh(\*DATA); # If you have well balanced snipp
+et like below

# my $doc = $parser->parse_html_fh(\*DATA); # If you have HTML.

my $xml = XML::LibXML::Document->new();
$xml->setDocumentElement( $xml->createElement("engines") );

for my $spec_row ( $doc->findnodes('//div[@class="spec_row"]') )
{
    my $engine = $xml->createElement("engine");
    $xml->getDocumentElement->appendChild($engine);

    my $type = $xml->createElement("type");
    ( my $text = $spec_row->firstChild->textContent ) =~ s/\A\s+|\s+\z
+//g;
    $type->appendChild( $xml->createTextNode($text) );
    $engine->appendChild( $type );

    my $builder = $xml->createElement("builder");
    ( $text = $spec_row->lastChild->textContent ) =~ s/\A\s+|\s+\z//g;
    $builder->appendChild( $xml->createTextNode($text) );
    $engine->appendChild( $builder );
}

print $xml->serialize(1);

__DATA__
<div class="spec_section">
              <div class="spec_row">
                <div class="spec_row_header orange_text_1">
                  Engine                </div>
              </div>
              <div class="spec_row">
                <div class="spec_row_left">
                  Type                </div>
                <div class="spec_row_right">
                  Diesel                 </div>
              </div>
              <div class="spec_row">
                <div class="spec_row_left">
                  Builder                </div>
                <div class="spec_row_right">
                  MTU                 </div>
              </div>
              <div class="spec_row">
                <div class="spec_row_left">
                  Model                </div>
                <div class="spec_row_right">
                  2x 16V396TB94                </div>
              </div>
              <div class="spec_row">
                <div class="spec_row_left">
                  Power                </div>
                <div class="spec_row_right">
                  2561kw / 3480hp                </div>
              </div>
              <div class="spec_row">
                <div class="spec_row_left">
                  Total Power                </div>
                <div class="spec_row_right">
                  5121kw / 6960hp                </div>
              </div>
              <div class="spec_row">
                <div class="spec_row_left">
                  Engine Propulsion                </div>
                <div class="spec_row_right">
                  Twin Screws                 </div>
              </div>
</div>
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