6.5TD Advice

[originalboxcar]

I'm looking at a '99 Chevy 3500 dually crew cab w/6.5 TD w/58,000 miles.

Is this a decent motor (power, durability, problems/headaches) compared to the duramax, cummins or ford 6.0 powerstroke?

Additionally, what the MPG for the 6.5TD?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards,

t~

[Robyn]

Hello and welcome
The 6.5 is a good engine and will serve well. The 99's had as few issues as any of the 6.5's.
The one issue would be to replace the PMD and add a cooler for it too. If you are going to work the truck hard a heavy duty water pump from kennedy diesel and a low temp fan clutch would be good.
As always with any vehicle, age is nothing condition is everything. If its a nice rig at a good price it well may be just what you need. The 6.5 compared to the cummins , the 6.5 is not as good an engine overall but the chevy truck is lightyears better. I have owned Ford Dodge and GM and the GM is a much nicer and better built chassis and body. The cummins is a medium duty engine that they have had for years before Dodge found them. The Stroke is well I wont sling mud as its not nice. Get the chevy and do the few mods needed and be happy
Hope my humble opinion helps.
Robyn

[moondoggie]

Good Day!

"...w/58,000 miles." Wow, am I jealous - nice low miles.

"Is this a decent motor (power, durability, problems/headaches) compared to the duramax, cummins or ford 6.0 powerstroke?"


Power: The truck you're looking at is/was probably rated 440 lb/ft of torque. That's not even close to what's being offered today by the Big Three. On the other hand, do a search & find ronniejoe's three articles on his 95 Suburban (Ron Schoolcraft, Schoolcraft Powertrain Engineering). It pulled the Hill within 1 mph of a 2006 PS & a 2002 DMax - pretty impressive. And that was two days after he got the upgrade turbo installed - no time to tweak. It shows what can be done with enough time & $ for mods.

Durability: From the poll on blocks cracking, it appears that 6.5 blocks crack in direct proportion to how close you come to using max output, & the frequency of doing so; it appears that whether the engine is modified or not isn't as much of a factor as had been thought. So, if you're going to run unloaded or lightly loaded, a 6.5 might last pretty near forever. A CAVEAT: IMHO if you build a replacement engine with the latest block being offered and/or add splayed mains, there's a good chance that even worked hard it will never crack. Certainly ronniejoe is going to test this theory in his Sub.

Problems/headaches:The 99 you're looking at has had most of the chronic 6.5 problems already taken care of. 1) Cooling was an issue with earlier 6.5's - a 99 has the dual thermostats, high-output water pump, & oil-sprayed pistons. 2) IP failures - the 1st couple years of 6.5's with the electronically-controlled IP had a high rate of failure, which was fixed a long time ago, long B4 99, with improved internals. 3) FSD/PMD failures - this is an electronic device about the size of a deck of cards, attached to the drivers-side of the IP. Buy the truck, then buy a John Kennedy FSD Cooler & extension harness & mount it in front of the driver-side battery, or Bill Heath's setup (I bought the JK harness & mounted the FSD & Cooler in front of the battery). 4) Cracking blocks with hard use: IMHO if I was buying this truck & intended to pull hard, I'd start saving so that at ~ 150K miles, & had the $ to buy an engine built by ronniejoe (Schoolcraft Powertrain Engineering), or whatever is like it that you prefer. These trucks are worth fixing IMHO.

"Additionally, what the MPG for the 6.5TD?" A dually crew cab won't win any mpg awards. It seems that the duallies really drop the mpg. I'd spend some time searching the 6.5L Turbo Diesel forum - this subject comes up from time to time, especially when fuel $ goes up. Hopefully some dually members will chime in here.

Blessings!

[Rot Box]

I won't try to make up your mind, but if you do decide to get it there are people on this site that know more about these engines, and trucks than the designers of them ever did. They have saved me more money than I can count. I have a reg cab SRW K2500 although it was built in one of "the problem years" I don't think it was nearly as problemistic as an early model 6.0L F#@D. As an owner I am very happy with the power (it weighs a lot less than a 4 Door, DRW though), and the milage (20+ unloaded), and comfort. With the money I spent on mine last year with 40,000 original miles, it was less than half the cost of a D-max with comparable milage :cool:

P.S. 99's came from the factory with all the goodies people like me want.

[Robyn]

I think you have gotten some really honest info here from the friendly folks at the DP
I hope this is helpful in your decision as to whether to or not buy.
Good luck
Robyn

[originalboxcar]

Thanks to everyone for your input.

regards,

t~

[Robyn]

You are welcome
Hope we can help in the future

Thanks
Robyn