noob questions

[Boog]

I hope I'm in the right section to ask some general information ?s.
I have driven and done some work on big trucks over the years but have no experience whatsoever with the light truck diesels. I am primarily a GM man but would consider a Ford. I don't do much hauling and only tow my bumper pull camper or fishing boat. So I probably do not have the need for a diesel but I'd still like to have one. I would like to look at buying a mid to late 90's Chevy pkup so that would be the 6.5TD I guess. I know most everything I am going to find that old will have many miles on them so I need to know what to look out for when checking one out. Obvious things like smoke out the tailpipe, knocks n rattles, ooops scratch the rattles , excessive oil leaks much the same as checking out a gas engined truck. But how does one tell just what shape the engine is really in? I don't have the time or money to send everyone I might find to an independent mechanic for a compression test so what can I do? I hear the horror stories about these engines what with broken cranks, cracked blocks, cracked heads blah blah blah and am fully aware that a lot of these bad experiences are brought on by the owner's missuse and or lack of knowledge on that engines's intended use.
So I'm open for suggestions guys. A new truck is out of the question too.

 

[Matt Bachand]

Welcome Boog, Yes, you are at the right place.

IF I were to buy a new 6.5TD, I would check out a few things.

1st, a nice LONG test drive, including steep highway hills hitting them hard and watching the temp gauge closely. GM put the red at 260, the red should be at 210. VERY misleading.

After warmed up, while idling remove the oil fill cap and look for 'blow by' vapors (smoke) coming out of the oil fill tube.

No smoke = healthy

Excessive smoke = unhealthy.

Ask the P.O. how it tows, then ask what he was towing. This is more of a trick, as you'd rather one that hasn't towed much. Anyone will lie and say it tows great.

Overheating is the largest problem of these engines. Especially while towing heavy, a stock 6.5 can overheat in a hurry, and as mentioned before, anything over 210-220 is dangerous. Cheap mods can fix this.

Check oil, should be BLACK, if its not, its been changed really recently to cover something up.

I'd beat it pretty good on the test drive too. Make sure it's not gonna break on you. Don't beat it so hard that if you buy it you'll regret it

Give this thread a few days here, you'll get some great advice, much better than mine, but I figured I'd tell you what I would look for.

Also, while truck is running, crack the fuel filter bleeder (screw on top with nipple) fuel should come out, engine SHOULD NOT DIE.

If it dies, its a lift pump issue (inline fuel pump, not injector pump). No biggie.

These engines are easy and cheap to fix. Can get tricky at times, but nothing these forums can't help you fix.

Like you said, don't want a cracked block.

Whatever you do, keep us informed, we are a great crowd here, and we all really like our 6.5's.

 

[Matt Bachand]

One more thing, do the Injector pump test (the big $$ pump)

RPM's should be able slowly raise up to 2000rpm and slowly go back down at idle. Its tough as these are touchy, but try it a few times if it has no chance of going back down smoothly, the IP is probably on its last leg.

Ask about stalls... just to see what they say, say I heard about these engines stall alot. They did, thus their bad rep = cheap price.

Once again, easily fixed.

I'd bring a jack with me and check front end out too.

A fully warmed up properly running 6.5 will have no smoke. A puff of black smoke if you punch it, but thats it.

 

[Odlaw]

X 2 everything he said. Except the part about smoke. If it's a 92-93(desirable) and the mechanical pump has been turned up - it will smoke some. or if it's 94 and up (electronic) it could be chipped and produce smoke....or it could just have a dirty air filter):h

Regarding blowby; Don't freak out when you see some. There are a bunch that have none...but I have never personally seen them. My buddy works for the Division of Forestry and all their 6.5's have some blowby. The mechanic there tells me that some of them started to have 'normal' (for these trucks) amounts as early as 35k miles from new. My truck was purchased originally by my uncle and I remember it having some blowby at around 75k miles. I'm still driving it today with 189k on it. Blowby on it now is what I would call more than average but not near as bad as the famous youtube video - search 6.5 blowby. My truck runs great. Uses a quart of oil every 3k miles running back and forth to work. I just got back from a 800 mile round trip journey to North Ga. (didn't use a drop of oil) and I never thought twice about taking my garage kept, 2001, mint Z71.

So, if you can find one with zero blowby thats obvious a big plus - but don't turn your nose up to a good deal because it has a little blowby.....in fact, use it as a bargaining tool!

As already mentioned - anything you need to do to a 6.5 can be learned right here. You WILL NOT find this type of expertise,knowledge and expeirence(and I'm not talking about me) on a ford or dodge like we have here. These trucks are cheap to maintain(for a diesel). Seven quarts of oil compared to 38 quarts for a powersmoke. - that was a joke but you get the idea.

If you're looking at a 94+ make sure you mention the horror stories you've heard about the injection pumps. Especially if you don't see a large heat sink in one of the nostril holes in the bumper or mounted somewhere in the engine bay and maybe even on the intake. If the little black box is still mounted to the pump(and still has a wiring harness plugged into it) you really need to milk the injection pump failure thing...if they've had the truck for several years and used it often they will know exactly what you're talking about - remind them how you heard the pumps are like $1400.00. You could knock a good bit off the asking price.

I've probably missed something obvious but that's all I can think of right now.

Welcome aboard!

Smitty

 

[VW_Lupo_TD]

major point when looking at used 6.5s is vehicle history.
if someone took care of their stuff and can prove it - that is worth something.
In my instance for example I can show every receipt from the first fuel stop Dec 12th 1993 !!! someone that is THAT anal can be trusted ;-)

the rest is all the technical stuff you can find here of course.

 

[NVW]

After initial start check to see if the upper rad hose gets hard quick, if it does it's an indication of head gaskets, smell the exhaust as well, should not smell sweet.

Leo

 

[buddy]

Whatever you do dont ask the stealer to work on it on your dime, or any crook mechanics that know nothing other than how to read a manual, because thats not even close to good enough, and they try to act like experts.

The 6.5s need attention, but they are cheap, and cheap upgrades, so for less than $10K have an awesome powerful truck. I might pay $5K for a clean one, but dont let them sell you on it being a legendary diesel, because its not good in reliability and power unless already modified some.

 

[dieselrob]

Everyone here has posted good points. I agree the 6.5 can be a good diesel with good upkeep and maintenance but you are going to spend a good deal of money to get one the way it needs to be to be used. I am talking about $1500-2000. Dont mean to scare you away but by the time you do remote PMD, cooling upgrades to make it tow much at all, exhaust, chip, gauges, etc. to get it competitive it will cost what I said at the minimum. And this is not including brakes, tires, front end suspension parts, etc that most used vehicles need. I would look seriously at a (I hate to say it on this site) mid 90's 7.3 Powerstroke also. Ok, I said it, bye!

 

[OregonHorseTug]

Once you find that factory stock keeper, there are some well known things to fix. I like to tell people that a $5000 truck is really a $8000 truck you haven't finished yet. If you're good at fabrication and can turn a wrench you can trim off a grand or more. This list makes it easy (rough estimates mind you):

$5k Truck
$400 exhaust and cross over
$550 PMD relocate (Heath)
$800 A Team Turbo
$650 PCM upgrade
$300 gauges
$300 other bits and stuff​

This adds up to 2/3 the performance of a Duramax for 1/3 the investment.

And never take it to a Chevy dealer for service.
Ever.

 

[dieselrob]

That probably is more accurate Oregon than the amount I estimated but I wasn't putting in the ATT. If you did the ATT also you might be better off than with a 7.3. The bad part about the 7.3 is they are now getting long in the tooth as well and the repairs on those wont be as cheap as they are for us. I know a guy here in town that just spent over 2k on just injectors.

 

[FastCR]

x2 on checking for head gasket failure, could point to overheating as well.
Everything I can think of has been covered on here.

 

[DieselCash]

Their is two nice looking 1993 6.5TD on ebay right now. I am not sure how you are looking for one. Craigslist has some every now and again.

I do not have to much to add on what too look for, it was already covered nicely.

 

[mitchedo]

You might want to try to listen to a bunch of 6.5's before you dismiss rattles. I didn't, and it was a $4000 mistake. My engine is much quieter after being rebuilt. It wasn't particularly noisy to start with either. The main problem was cracked heads. I did the "upper rad hose" test. Mine did not pressurize until the truck warmed up. I sniffed the tailpipe; it did not smell like antifreeze or have white smoke (except on startup, where it had a ton that I blamed on bad glows and cold weather). My main symptom was a slight bit of extra noise and pressure in the cooling system first thing in the morning. The truck ran great on my 1.5 hour test drive up a 6% grade. I flogged the crap outta it. No smoke; no overheating; ran great the whole time. It ran great right up until I yanked the engine.

There is no other truck in the price range that would suit my needs. My truck is comfortable, and reasonably well-made. The best part is that it's inexpensive to fix compared to the other light diesels. Read my sig for what happens when you overheat them. My truck is on its third engine. I'm convinced it's due to overheating -- folks treating the 6.5 like it is a Cummins. It ain't. The tow limit is about 7500 lbs in factory trim. The 454 gassers can tow 10,000 in factory trim. The power is equal between the two, so the difference has to be due to the heat issues.

I'm quite happy with the $12,000 I have in this truck so far. I could not get anything in this condition for anywhere near the price. Be careful with the 7.3 Fords. Be sure you read about them; they tend to eat holes in the blocks, and they're far more expensive to replace than our little 6.5's.

Had there been a crew cab Dodge with a 5 speed and adjustable head restraints in my price range, I'd probably be driving a Dodge. ...though with NVG gone, repairing the manual trannies is not an easy task. I wouldn't own a Dodge with an auto tranny hooked to a Cummins.

If you like AC, stay away from the trucks with R-12 systems. They should have been R-134 by 95. Folks will tell you they work just as well if you convert them. They do not cool well unless you're on the open road.

 

[Non Typical]

Just to reinforce the point made here. While the 6.5's do have somewhat of a bad name for failing, all the problems can be fixed and you can get back a respectable truck for much less an investment that a newer rig. If you are simply looking to get a diesel, the 6.5 is probably one of the best out there. Due to the bad name they have got in the past, many of them are cheaper than their competition.

If you go with a 92-94 6.5, you will get the old style interior, which I don't like as much as the newer ones.

92-93 will net you a DB2 controlled 6.5 which could be easier in the long run for you due to mechanical simplicity.

Regardless of what you do, and what you end up with, this is the place to get your truck running the way it should have been from the factory. Probably better actually. :thumbsup:

 

[Matt Bachand]

I'll add that a small bumper pull camper or small boat should be easily towed by a 6.5 in healthy stock form. My rigs heavy, at around 9k and I towed a bobcat and trailer no problem, through towns, up grades, no highway. Last thing I towed and that was a few years ago.

I did have a sander with that and my plow just figured out in another thread I was up around 20k on 6 wheels... It was slow and heavy, but did it.

 

[VW_Lupo_TD]

btw there are 2 excellent 65ers on ebay right now. one is even a one owner and the other one has less than 14k miles. you just have to find out what has been done to it.

would i be allowed to post the links ?
whatever just search suburban diesel and click on cars and trucks.

 

[DieselCash]

btw there are 2 excellent 65ers on ebay right now. one is even a one owner and the other one has less than 14k miles. you just have to find out what has been done to it.

would i be allowed to post the links ?
whatever just search suburban diesel and click on cars and trucks.

You can post links on this site! No rules against it. :thumbsup:

 

[Boog]

Good info here guys. Brave guy to mention the stroke engine here. I am not in any hurry to buy one but will go look armed with more info about them after having received all the great tips from you guys.
I have a friend who bought a 96 crew long bed 4wd 6.5 to pull his 5th wheel campers and other trailers around. I don't know if it's been modded or not but it sure blows black when you gouge on it. I found out yesterday it's getting water in the oil now. Bummer. I gave thought to buying it and cutting the frame down and putting on a short bed. I will not drive ANYTHING that long as my DD. I think I'll pass on it now as it just isn't affordable to do all that and replace the engine too. I'd like to find one somebody bought for a DD around town and rarely did any towing with, you know the ones who bought one because it was the trendy thing to do back then though they didn't really need one. Either I'm looking at the wrong lots or there just aren't that many on the lots these days at least around here. I'll have to keep scanning the bay and see what pops up too. Thanks guys.

 

[Matt Bachand]

6.5's are a small precentage of total trucks made. Best way is to keep an eye on craigs list and the bay, ... The good news is, there's not a huge market out to buy them up either.