[Vwdiesel] Diesel pickup truck engine comments...

[Gerry Wolfe]

There have been some comments here about North American diesel truck engines.  I'll pass on what I have been hearing (I work for a company that builds underhood air compressors, and spend the entire day talking with people who use them on North American trucks).

  1.. The old 6.2 - 6.5L GM diesel is a piece.  Crank failures were common, even in light usage.
  2.. The 6.6L Duramax (an Isuzu) is head and shoulders above the 6.2-6.5.  Very quiet, works great.  Biggest flaw is the crank locating pin (mild steel) that shears too easily.  We have to replace them with hardened steel ones to handle an additional pulley that draws only 25hp.
  3.. The 7.3L PowerStroke was a good one.  Better economy than the 6.0L 'Stroke, rugged as all get out.  It is missed.
  4.. The 6.0 PowerStroke gets mixed reviews.  Excellent power, less economy than 7.3L, good reliability.  Lots of piddly issues, such as leaky IPC sensors, turbo intercooler tubes blowing off, lots of ECU issues when first released.  A monster when you put a Banks or equivalent ECU on it.  The same basic engine is used on F250 right up to F750.
  5.. The new 6.4L PowerStroke gets abysmal fuel economy.  Folks from work drove one across Canada to test out the underhood compressor install, got about 10mpg instead of the normal 15mpg that the 6.0 used to give.  Twin sequential turbos.  To get at the back of the engine, you have to take the body off the chassis.  If you're into investing, get into the 6.0L commodity market :o)
  6.. Everyone speaks of the Cummins 5.9L 24v reverently.  The new 6.7L should be just as good.  A bit noisy, big.  Keeps on tickin'.  I saw a Dodge Ram at the drags a couple of years ago with a 5.9 that had 100+psi boost, twin sequential turbos, 1500+ft/lb torque that turned 12sec flat ETs on street tires.  Owner said that if he could have got more fuel thru the pump and into the injectors, he could have done better.  O-ringed the cylinder head, no other engine internal mods.  No breakdowns.
Seems like the biggest issue with the new truck diesel engines is the smog emissions.  You have to capture the particulates, store them in a canister of some sort, and when it gets filled the engine automatically goes into a "hot" mode to incinerate them.  That's the most common method of handling it, some manufacturers (Cummins I think) have simpler methods.

Anyhow, like I say, comments I hear from folks at work.  Your results may vary.  Your opinions may vary.

rgds, g.
GerryWolfe at shaw.ca
www.members.shaw.ca/GerryWolfe

Ninety percent of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at.