What'd yall pay for your trucks?

[great white]

Ouch.... someday I'd like to play with a diesel, but you're making me want to avoid the 6.5

With good reason.

They can be reliable but not overly powerful. And to get them reliable means pretty much replacing everything right down to the block itself.

Problem is all the original gm blocks are crap by this point due to design faults and owner neglect, the electronics are tired and worn out, injection pumps are worn and expensive to replace, they have "quirks" and procedures that are specific to the breed (ie: almost no mechanics know what to do with them so you have to learn to do it yourself) and then you can toss all the other gmt400 problems that are age induced on top of that.

Add to this the fact that by the time you finally get it running right you'll have no confidence in it and always waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it will drop. These old first gen electronic diesels will "hiccup" every now and then even though nothing is wrong with them.

Frustrating as h-e-double-l

Honestly, if you want an older diesel to muck around with, find a 12 valve powered dodge (preferably without a "53" block and with a p7100 pump) and let 'er rip.

500 rwhp is an easy mark for those engines with not much more than simple bolt ons and adjustments. They're also 500,000 mile engines before rebuild. 1,000,000 miles have been made by them.

Problem is: it's wrapped in a dodge.

It's like a snickers bar: you throw away the wrapper and eat the good stuff inside.

When the dodge body dies you'll still have an awesome drivetrain waiting to be dropped into the next project. The 6bt cummins has been likened to the original small block chev: it's the modern hot rodders swap choice.

Don't bother with 6.9/7.3 idi fords unless you like stone axe reliability but with stone age (ie:200-ish rwhp) power. Stay away from powerstrokes until they get out of the heui injection and stay away from the 6.0 powerstroke unless it's been rebuilt and you know what to fix on it for reliability.

Stay away from duramax LB7's unless you like spending thousands on replacing injectors. Later models are ok but really expensive to buy used. People seem to think they're made of platinum or some other "unobtanium" type metal....

 

[JScott23]

$3800 at the dealership. Ford dealer ironically enough.

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[JScott23]

$2500, private party. rust free AZ truck

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[ShadowRejects]

I didn't really pay anything for my truck, besides the TLC I gave to it growing up. It was my dad's from 1996 up to about 2004 when he stopped driving it because he bought his car. So he parked the truck and drove it maybe once a month to haul off trash to the recycling center... I started work on it when I was in about 7th grade and a little bit of rattle cans and small auxilary lights and antennas got me far.

It looked like this when i was about 12. My dad bought it used with little to no miles.

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I then turned it into this for barely anything

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the good old days.

 

[JScott23]

With good reason.

They can be reliable but not overly powerful.

Problem is all the original gm blocks are crap by this point due to design faults and owner neglect, the electronics are tired and worn out and then you can toss all the other gmt400 problems that are age induced on top of that.

Honestly, if you want an older diesel to muck aroind with, find a 12 valve powered dodge (preferably without a "53" block and with a p7100 pump) and let 'er rip.

500 rwhp is an easy mark for those engines with not much more than simple bolt ons and adjustments. They're also 500,000 mile engines before rebuild. 1,000,000 miles have been made by them.

Problem is: it's wrapped in a dodge.

It's like a snickers bar: you throw away the wrapper and eat the good stuff inside.

Don't bother with 6.9/7.3 idi fords unless you like stone axe reliability but with stone age (ie:200-ish rwhp) power. Stay away from powerstrokes until they get out of the heui injection and stay away from the 6.0 powerstroke unless it's been rebuilt and you know what to fix on it for reliability.

Stay away from duramax LB7's unless you like spending thousands on replacing injectors. Later models are ok but really expensive to buy used. People seem to think they're made of platinum or some other "unobtanium" type metal....

This is 100% correct. If you want a diesel you're going to spend money ether way.. just depends on what degree you want to spend it with.

I sure as hell wont buy a dodge, and sure as hell wont spend $3000 to put a cummins in a chevy

 

[bluex]

Ahhh, well, maybe.
I figure that it's all relative.
Super low mileage. Exceptionally clean. Original paint. Original owner. One year only color. Super well maintained.
At the time, our $ was about $.85 U.S. Other trucks in that price range around here were rust-bucket beaters. And the 6 gets me 24-28 MPG. (Imperial gallon. U.S. gallon = 1/5 smaller)
And the price was about equal to 7 days of my wages!
To me, it was a good deal!

I didn't mean you paid to much, I meant I did....

 

[94Sierra4x4]

Got the '94 for free from the old man..
Paid $500 for the '97, not running, $17 fuel pump relay later...

 

[RyanMerrick]

With good reason.

They can be reliable but not overly powerful. And to get them reliable means pretty much replacing everything right down to the block itself.

Problem is all the original gm blocks are crap by this point due to design faults and owner neglect, the electronics are tired and worn out, injection pumps are worn and expensive to replace, they have "quirks" and procedures that are specific to the breed (ie: almost no mechanics know what to do with them so you have to learn to do it yourself) and then you can toss all the other gmt400 problems that are age induced on top of that.

Add to this the fact that by the time you finally get it running right you'll have no confidence in it and always waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it will drop. These old first gen electronic diesels will "hiccup" every now and then even though nothing is wrong with them.

Frustrating as h-e-double-l

Honestly, if you want an older diesel to muck around with, find a 12 valve powered dodge (preferably without a "53" block and with a p7100 pump) and let 'er rip.

500 rwhp is an easy mark for those engines with not much more than simple bolt ons and adjustments. They're also 500,000 mile engines before rebuild. 1,000,000 miles have been made by them.

Problem is: it's wrapped in a dodge.

It's like a snickers bar: you throw away the wrapper and eat the good stuff inside.

When the dodge body dies you'll still have an awesome drivetrain waiting to be dropped into the next project. The 6bt cummins has been likened to the original small block chev: it's the modern hot rodders swap choice.

Don't bother with 6.9/7.3 idi fords unless you like stone axe reliability but with stone age (ie:200-ish rwhp) power. Stay away from powerstrokes until they get out of the heui injection and stay away from the 6.0 powerstroke unless it's been rebuilt and you know what to fix on it for reliability.

Stay away from duramax LB7's unless you like spending thousands on replacing injectors. Later models are ok but really expensive to buy used. People seem to think they're made of platinum or some other "unobtanium" type metal....

Thanks for the info!

 

[ryandrews123]

Got mine in march of this year for $3,000. Mint interior, no rust, 170,000 miles. So far i have changed all fluids, new break master cylinder, and canopy.
now:

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then:

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[benz88]

Ouch.... someday I'd like to play with a diesel, but you're making me want to avoid the 6.5

Ive got 300K Miles or 474KM's on my 6.5 and it still runs strong like the day it left the factory. Original Motor and trans.