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Jak, I will agree that a 6.5TD is not the best choice if you need a truck for pulling a heavy trailer thousands of miles a year, for which maybe you should have bought a semi. However, for a daily driver, I have a 1994 K-1500 6.5 4X4 that I bought used with about 54,000 miles on it when it was a couple of years old. It is now pushing 190,000 miles, and here's what I've had to replace: 2- air filters
2 or 3 fuel filters
2- repaired broken wire near EGR solenoid twice
1- serpentine belt
1- vacuum pump
1- brake master cylinder
1- set front brake pads
1- muffler hanger
1- turbo wastegate control solenoid
1- electric fuel pump
1- fsd = Fuel Solenoid Driver (I installed a used take-off unit of the updated version that I bought on ebay for about $20.00, and installed it on a LARGE heatsink I paid $5.00 for from a surplus place selling on the 'net. End of fuel system problems.) I have not yet changed the injection pump, the injectors, or the glow plugs. I recently checked the GP's, and all were good. (The injection pump HAD been updated before I bought it, but it has gone over 136,000 miles without further trouble.) The 4L80E transmission has never been touched, and it shifts as well as it ever did. It does use a quart, or a bit more of oil bewtween (3000 mile) oil changes, though. So, not EVERY 6.5 has been a nightmare! And, there certainly have been some Navistar, Cummins, and Duramax engines that have cost their owners a few bucks, too! Every brand has their good and bad points, and I don't see it as a mark of superior intelligence to bash ANY one brand over the other. Vehicles have come so far in the last 30 or 40 years, that, in most cases, the worst vehicle a person is likely to get is still pretty good. Of course, there are always hotshots who will beat a vehicle to death, install power chips to make it put out WAY more than the engineers ever intended, and then (FEMALE DOG) when something breaks, and quickly remove their little toy electronic boxes, then beg for warranty, and curse the manufacturer if they don't get it! The thing that bugs me about the new diesels is that you have to buy such a heavy vehicle to order the diesel. For my use, a reasonably powered diesel 1/2 ton that got super mileage would be great, yet, nowadays to get a diesel you have to buy such a heavy pickup that the diesel's good mileage is reduced by the weight and frontal surface area of a BIG pickup. You would think there would be some market for a lighter-duty unit, and the manufacturers would make them.
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