6.5 diesel van take out

[Oredigger97]

Hi guys, just bought my 1994 6.5 but been researching and planning for quite some time. The lower end on mine is definitely getting tired, it has 180,000 on the clock, but it has new heads and a new injection pump and new grey pmd on it. A guy in a town over has a 6.5 on craigslist out of a chevy express 2001 that was an air force transport van from the air force base here. He is selling everything from the engine bay, literally everything, with a pmd relocate kit for the front bumper which I need, somehow it was never done. The engine has 77,000 miles on it and being a 2001 I am wondering if this would be a good replacement. I know the heads are different and obviously the manifolds and turbo, is there anything else that would be totally different? The heads on mine only have about 10,000 miles on them so I can use those. The guy was asking 1500 and is now down to reasonable offer, I think this could be a good buy if I can use most of the parts. I'm not worried about doing the work myself, my dad was a diesel mechanic back in the day and worked on a lot of 6.2 diesels and I know quite a bit but am always looking for more info. Any advice you can provide would be great. I am on the fence with doing this or saving for a few years and hope mine lasts and buy an optimizer.

[Dvldog8793]

Howdy
Welcome To TDP!
IMHO- That's a pretty decent price. The only question would be how many HOURS are on that engine. Military rigs can and do spend allot of time idling. Still probably no big deal. Especially if you could potentially pick it up for 1200... you could spend that much on a pump and injectors.
If that engine was for sale close to me, I would buy it.

Just out of curiosity....why do you think your engine is tired?
What was it used for?
What gears are in it?

ALL of my trucks have over 200K on them.

[Oredigger97]

Howdy
Welcome To TDP!
IMHO- That's a pretty decent price. The only question would be how many HOURS are on that engine. Military rigs can and do spend allot of time idling. Still probably no big deal. Especially if you could potentially pick it up for 1200... you could spend that much on a pump and injectors.
If that engine was for sale close to me, I would buy it.

Just out of curiosity....why do you think your engine is tired?
What was it used for?
What gears are in it?

ALL of my trucks have over 200K on them.

Thanks for the reply, that is exactly what I was thinking. It is a lot of extra parts I could potentially use and sell the rest. I just picked mine up, what I am going off of is the oil pressure is a little low, we will see what it is after I change the oil tomorrow, but now cold it is 40 and warm idle about 18 or so, 30-35 warm cruising. It also does puff an almost unnoticeable amount of smoke out the breather, it is hard to see without shielding the breather just right. I am in the process of putting new injectors in it and hopefully it will fix it, but it does seem to blow some blue smoke, at least to my slightly color blind eye. My dad says it smells more like unburned fuel so he thinks the injectors will help a lot with the smoke. Hopefully I can get my hands on a compression tester next week and check it. The truck was very well taken care of but was a rodeo truck so all it did was pull a horse trailer for about 12 years or so. It has been sitting for the last three so I am running through it will lots of tlc. It is also bone stock, none of the improvements have ever been made, so I am starting down that list as well.

[phantom309]

94 is a good year,.. 2001 is a good year ,. you'll need the metric bellhousing bolts for the later block,.

If i was in your position with a truck i just bought,.i,d run a few tanks of fuel thru it first before i made any decision about blowby,.

It's not a gasser,. diesels will stay in service and run for a long time with some blowby,.

My old 94 has been tired since i got it,. i put new injectors in it,. new glow plugs and wiring harness,.bought a custom chip with longer glow plug times some fuel mapping changes etc,.:D ,.and even with its generous amount of blowby (now vented to atmoshere with a filter on the oil fill tube) it still fires up on all 8 when its damn cold with no plug in,. has lots of snort with its 5068 pump,.and rattles away there quite happily ,.it leaks/uses 1 quart of oil every 1200 miles,.( nearly 300, 000 miles on it now)

when its up on a project in th cold northern parts like ft st john bc in the winter time etc,. i use the high idle switch a lot,.

folks are so hung up on blowby at idle,..:rolleyes: gets better when the turbo pressurizes,.

verify your oil pressure with a mechanical guage don't rely on the stock dash unit,
INMHO 18-20 at idle is fine,..

good luck with it,.:)

[Dvldog8793]

Howdy
I agree with 309...these engines will run for long time with the minimal symptoms that you described. ALL my trucks have/had the same or much worse symptoms that you describe. These are more old school diesels and are not as clean as some of the newer designs. The oil pressure sounds like it would be fine IMHO. My 1996(200k) has about the same as yours if not lower at driving. As said, if it really worries you check it with a mechanical gauge first.
If you have the extra cash:rolleyes: laying around, I would still buy the engine that you are talking about but pickle it and save it for the day when your current engine has some real issues.
Good luck!

[Oredigger97]

Thanks guys, i am going to run it for a while i think, that engine sold before i had a chance anyway. I'm in the process of doing all of the standard stuff as we speak. Need to get a hold of leroy and get a pmd relocate coming.