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Tractor Talk Discussion Forum

6.5 Liter Turbo Diesel

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Dave Sherburne

01-17-2008 13:33:24




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I'm looking at a 1996 6.5 turbo diesel its cheap,
but the reason it is is because it skips and smokes [white] when running. What would cause it to
do this? And what other problems do these 6.5
Chevy diesels have?




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HeyPigFarmer

01-18-2008 14:51:29




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 Re: 6.5 Liter Turbo Diesel in reply to Dave Sherburne NY, 01-17-2008 13:33:24  
I wasn't saying that the Cummins and the Powerstroke were without their faults. It's just the 6.5 is about the worst diesel installed following the 6.2 and then the 5.7. See a pattern forming (GM)

Sure the Cummins had it's issues. The 89 to 91 models were aweful slow due to the fact that they were not intercooled and used the H1C turbo. In 92 they were intercooled and boost pressure was cranked up to 17psi and they were a lot peppier but then the tranny really couldn't take it. The auto's burned and the manual's were the GETRAG350 which unless you overfilled it by a quart you burned out the main shaft gears. Even overfull they were only good for about 100K if you were towing a lot. In 1994 they switched to the P7100 Bosch pump, new injectors and head design. Ran a lot better and had a longer injection system life due to the inline pump. In 1994 they were still stuck at 160hp and went up from there, also turbos were changed to the HX and HY models. The down side to the 94 to 98.5 models is the Killer Dowel Pin (KDP) it falls out of the timing cover and through your timing gears. The gears are fine usually but the cover breaks causing major leakage. Or you can nip it in the bud by putting a tab on it. This is a good days worth the work to change. As for tranny's autos were better but still shaky, the manual was the NV4500 which the overdrive falls off the back. In 98.5 they switched to the 24V. More power, more noise, less reliability. The lift pumps poop out causing your VP44 to cash itself in. Then 2003, switched to the common rail and the VG turbo. No real problems. A few little hiccups, few injector problems early on, but nothing real major.
The 6.9 and 7.3 IDI's had problems with glow plugs early on, plus they were slow, and had limited power potential. All the problems common with an IDI. Nothing real big mechanically other than the cavitation issues all IH/Navistar issues have. Back to the rotary pump, not a fan of them but some people have good luck. As for the 7.3 powerstroke, they eat cam position sensors if you let your oil get sunky at all. Also on the subject of skunky oil it tends to tear out your high pressure pump that runs your injectors. The wiring harness under the valve covers tends to go to crap making it start hard, miss, maybe your glow plugs poop out with this. They don't like short trips, injectors are really really expensive and somewhat tricky to change. The 6.0's had front and rear main problems early on, the early injectors had issues but that was cleared up in 2004.5 the EGR doesn't work correctly on just about any one with a stick up to 2005, although you get better mileage with it unplugged unless you have a 2005 then you can't unplug it. If you juice these to any major level you tend to have head gasket failures. But that's when you modify them.
I'm not blind to the problems of other engines. I have driven 6.5's we had one for a farm truck, they suck. If you drive them like a car and never really work them they will go a long time if you get a good one. In military use the average life is 14,567miles per engine.
As far as seeing more powerstrokes and cummins in the repair shop I believe it. They are the number one and number two selling diesel engine in trucks. They only made the 6.5 from 1994 to 1999, they were installed in roughly 9% of the trucks sold, compared to the cummins was installed in 28% between 1989 and 2007 and the powerstroke was installed in 66% of the trucks sold between 1994 and 2007. With that many more engines out there no wonder you see that many more.

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Joe in Ne

01-18-2008 06:07:11




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 Re: 6.5 Liter Turbo Diesel in reply to Dave Sherburne NY, 01-17-2008 13:33:24  
I like them. I have had 5 of them and have only had trouble on two of them with injector pumps. One which was covered by warranty. Have replaced glow plugs in one. Changed oil every 3000 miles. Have a 93 now I drive every day. Get pretty good mileage. Had a 99 that had 250,000 miles and never did any work on. I also have two Dodge cummins and a ford powerstroke. I use Dodge to pull heavy trailers as they have more power. Dodge will get better mileage but for everyday stop and go driving they all seem close to same on fuel. Dodge is better.

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RodInNS

01-17-2008 20:18:28




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 Re: 6.5 Liter Turbo Diesel in reply to Dave Sherburne NY, 01-17-2008 13:33:24  
Attempting to burn water or a severe lack of compression.... Walk on.
A good buddy of mine had a 6.2; snapped the crank in that. Bought a 6.5 and still has it.... and despises it. This is a guy that was born a Bowtie fan. He drives a Dodge with a 6BT now and wonders why he ever had a Chev... and never will again so long as he can get that Cummins.

There have been many people that got along fine with those engines and had little trouble. There's also people that got along fine with the Navistar engines in the Fords... but on balance the most of them around here were little more than pure trouble. There is a very simple reason why Dodge owns the diesel truck market. CUMMINS, and Lord help them if the ever forget that.

Rod

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Tyler in SD

01-17-2008 17:27:28




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 Re: 6.5 Liter Turbo Diesel in reply to Dave Sherburne NY, 01-17-2008 13:33:24  
Some of the 6.5s can run forever, and then there are some, such as the one that I owned, which are just money pits. Generally the electronic injection pumps introduced in '94 have all sorts of electrical overheating problems. I would say that if the one you are looking at is showing problems now, then it is likely of the money pit variety.



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smdv806

01-17-2008 16:09:34




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 Re: 6.5 Liter Turbo Diesel in reply to Dave Sherburne NY, 01-17-2008 13:33:24  
Hey hold on a minute people. I have one and it has been great. Just talked to my mechanic the other day and he says that he has way more powerstrokes and cummins come into the shop than the 6.5. The only problems with them is the Fuel Driver on the injection pump. If you mount them on a heat sink you will never have trouble with it again. You can get 400,000 out of one of these things easy. If you say it is a bad engine you probably haven't had one before. Mine will start 10 below zero like it is 100 outside. Ive had cummins diesels and I can tell you they have their faults too.

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Bob

01-17-2008 17:57:27




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 Re: 6.5 Liter Turbo Diesel in reply to smdv806, 01-17-2008 16:09:34  
I have one, as well, and it's been good.

Hardly any problems, halfway decent mileage, and enough power for what I ask of it. DON'T confuse that level of power with anything newer, however!

HOWEVER, I would not recommend buying one to ANYONE, because of head and block cracking, and crankshaft failure.

Sadly, ANY major problems will cost more to repair than the truck is worth.



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HeyPigFarmer

01-17-2008 15:08:06




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 Re: 6.5 Liter Turbo Diesel in reply to Dave Sherburne NY, 01-17-2008 13:33:24  
Scream and run from this thing. I am really big into diesel trucks, and this is one line of motors, the GM 6.2 and 6.5 that I absolutely despise. Reasons being that they are very very notorious for cracking heads, pretty much unless it's a brand new head it's going to be cracked. They use a cast iron crank instead of a steel one. The rubber in the harmonic balancers tend to go back, causing your cast crank to break which leaves you stranded. They are the only diesel engine put in a light duty truck that has a timing chain instead of gears, which really hurts because it is also running the injection pump not just the cam, they stretch and leave you with no power and hard starting. The fuel solenoid drivers (Others call it other names) but there are transistors in the pump that overheat, burn up and leave you stranded. They are indirect inject so they start hard in the cold unless you have good glow plugs and good batteries. The cooling systems sucked, unless it's one with dual thermostats expect it to overheat. They used an EGR before they were mandatory for emissions to quiet them down but also it robbed power. As Benjamin pointed out they are low on power. The blocks cracked regularly up until they started having NAVISTAR (yes the same company that makes the powerstroke) cast the blocks for them, these can be identified by the IHC cast in the valley. They only ran 8lbs of boost and were not intercooled because at 22:1 compression if you throw real boost to it you would blow just about anything up, but you need that compression to get the IDI to start. They are just a poorly designed half hearted attempt at a diesel engine. There is a reason why they are so cheap. If you want a diesel spend the money to get a Cummins (watch the automatics) , Powerstroke, or even a 6.9/7.3IDI would be better, or if you want a GM the Duramax is infinitely better than that 6.5. I would stay the heck away.

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BENJAMIN KIMM

01-17-2008 14:52:44




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 Re: 6.5 Liter Turbo Diesel in reply to Dave Sherburne NY, 01-17-2008 13:33:24  
They are a pile of crap...they are very underpowered and are notorious for burning exhaust valves turbos exc...



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