Re: Chevy diesel power

Posted by jdemaris on March 21, 2006 at 05:51:09 from (66.218.17.172):

In Reply to: Re: Chevy diesel power posted by Can't even use my name on March 20, 2006 at 14:20:12:

The 6.5 engines are still in production. The US military, as part of their agreement when they first started using the 6.2s and 6.5s, was a guaranteed supply for X amount of years. I forget the name of the producer now, but they are still in production.
In regard to replacement cost. I've met several truck owners that replaced blown 6.5s with 6.2s - often bought for $100. I drove one, and with the swap done properly, could not feel the difference from a 6.5. It's a bolt-in swap, 6.2 and 6.5s have the same basic blocks, heads, etc. I suspect the 6.2s may not hold up as well when run with the turbo and fuel turned up - but when you buy them cheap, who cares? I've got over 20 good engines - that because I used to buy them whenever I could. I'm in the rust belt, so many good-running trucks get junked because the frames rust out. I finally stopped collecting them, I won't live long enough to use them. I have bought several engines with less than 70K miles on them for under $100.
I bought my diesel Suburban off a Chevy dealer's lot. They had told the owner the engine was blown and it was not worth fixing. It had 120K miles on it then. I'm still driving it and it just turned 500K miles. At the time, it had bad injectors, and they made it knock like a rod had come loose. That was a new one for me. I've worked on diesels all my life, but had never heard a bad injector cause that kind of noise.
I've bought several diesel plow trucks that had been deemed "unrepairable" by local garages and dealers - and all of them required only minor repairs. Many are condemed due to lack of knowledge. Yeah, I'm sure many really blow up - but it's not been my experience.
In regard to the cracking you mention - where does it occur? I know the heads usually have stress cracks, but they don't seem to bother anything.
In regard to the vacuum pump, I've seen several with electric pumps. Seems to be a good fix - but I haven't tried it. My CAV vacuum pods seem to be good for 150K miles at least - and at $50 apiece, I've got no complaint.
One thing I like about the GM -Detroit diesels and the Ford IH diesels in IDI fashion - is the parts are cheap. I often buy new - not rebuilt- injectors for $20 apiece, water-pumps new in the $45 range, complete rebuilt injection pumps in the $300 range, etc. The new Ford IH direct-injection engines, Chevy Isuzu Powermax, and Dodge Cummins do not benefit from low-cost parts. So, it seems - many of the newer trucks can be very reliable - but once they get high miles on them - it's not cost-effective to be fixing them.

Replies:

• Re: Chevy diesel power Can't even use my name 09:31:55 03/21/06 (0)

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