New Diesel Owner.

[Clifton]

Good evening gentlemen, I am a new diesel owner and I mean I have only owned gas in my lifetime period, drove a few diesels but never had one parked in front of my garage. I just acquired a 2/1993 Chevrolet K3500 with a 6.5 Turbo Diesel. It has 210,000 miles showing on the odometer and supposedly needs to be overhauled. The younger fellows at the garage dont know a whole lot about it but say it has blow by. What can anyone tell me about these engines, I rebuilt several 6.2's in the Army and have replace some 6.5's but have never been inside a 6.5. Doing a little reading on this website I have found that I have a more desired version of the 6.5 as well it is also stated there is a gear to gear camshaft drive for 94 and later engines, am I to assume that they dont offer a gear to gear for 93 and earlier because it already is a gear to gear. I will have it at the house by the end of the week. The old truck looks like it was taken care of, the interior is in pretty decent shape as well as the outside, paint looks good and no dents. Any information about the old girl will be greatly appreciated, thanks!!

[racer55]

Blow by is somewhat relative,compression is a more deciding factor for overhaul IMO.

For blowby diagnosis have a look at this link:
http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/tdpforum/showthread.php?t=3131&highlight=cdr+testing

For your engine and mileage injector overhaul/replacement is in order if not already done so within the last 100,000 miles.

Since you are familiar with the 6.2 have no fear,the 6.5 is simply an over bored 6.2 with coated piston crowns for the turbo heat,nothing more.

The gear drive difference could be that the 94+ engines are electronic IP equipped and have a crankshaft position reluctor on the crank gear,mechanical IP's do not have that and require a longer snout on the balancer.

The timing gear set can be used on the older engines with no problems if they can be bought and with the use of the later balancer.
Fluidamper makes the same exact balancer for both styles but includes a spacer for the mechanical IP engines to make up the length difference,there are 2 different part #'s but the balancer portion is identical.

[Clifton]

Thanks for all the information, this site is an absolute wealth. This truck is parked at a garage shop in Seminole, has been sitting there for a while. The mechanics there say it has a lot of blow by but none of them are over the age of 20 and that is the first 6.5 they have ever seen. After reading the article you gave me the link to, the CDR is disconnected on this truck and laying over the side, this could be why they think it has alot of blow by. When I get it here I will see what it does trying to crank it up, it could possibly need to be rebuilt, if so the parts I have seen thus far seem no more expensive than any other diesel engine so I should be in decent shape. If I do rebuild it I will probably build it much like the one from the pulling project article you have here on the website. I would like to have one that would pull with the newer diesels. I am not much on hotroding a diesel like some of the fellas do out here so as long as it will pull good I will be happy. I have a 91 Chevrolet 3500HD with a big block a 4L80E and 456 gears. I hope this one will be able to pull with it and get better than 6 MPG while doing it.