Reworked 6.5L pipe dream

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Chewy1576

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Yeah that's kinda how it works. Spreads the inner diameter of the tube out into an oval to make a tighter bend, like a cobra head.
 

CRF450R

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So what's your guys thoughts on the 6.5 I know they get dissed alot but my mother's ex ran a towing company when I was a kid and he had a 6.5 5spd 2wd 94 GMC tow truck and it went to almost 700 000km before the engine started to go south. My 98 Z71 has a 5.7 and it's giving me greed and I'm getting tired of 17 mpg highway 110km/h cruise set and that's 17 mpg on a good day now I live in Canada so that's like 13 I think US mpg. I found a 98 Z71 with only 241 000km but the trans is getting week and is missing windshield and and few body stuff. So I got thinking of buying it $1200 and putting both trucks side by side in the shop and swap the 6.5 and trans and transfer case and wirring over to my truck I figure it'll take me probably 30-40 hour's. Would I gain much mpg ? What about power ? My 5.7 vortec is a gutless wonder and I'm sick of throwing money at it.
 

letitsnow

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If work is mad at me, they make me take one of the old trucks with the 6.5. I can't wait to get out of that shitbox and back into my own truck with a vortec 350, so i can drive something with power. If that tells you anything...
 

CRF450R

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If work is mad at me, they make me take one of the old trucks with the 6.5. I can't wait to get out of that shitbox and back into my own truck with a vortec 350, so i can drive something with power. If that tells you anything...
My 5.7 vortec has over 350 km on it and it's got blow by and it's starting to get major oil leaks In my opinion its probably time for a new motor. I got one oil leak coming from left back side of the motor it leaks terribley bad all over the hot exhaust. I thought if I have to yank this motor why not toss this 6.5 diesel drive train in with over 100 less km on it in. I don't mid a gutless engine as long as it gets good mpg I hate a gutless engine like my worn out 5.7 that gets terrible mpg. I thought with this 6.5 I'd stud it liquid filled damper straight pipe turbo back a tune from Heath and vacuum pump delete and a PMD relocation would make alright power and should get good mpg and last long time or I'm I wrong? The only thing this truck does is haul my dirtbike around from track to track and all my riding stuff and gear aswell as a friends bike sometimes.
 

L31MaxExpress

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My 5.7 vortec has over 350 km on it and it's got blow by and it's starting to get major oil leaks In my opinion its probably time for a new motor. I got one oil leak coming from left back side of the motor it leaks terribley bad all over the hot exhaust. I thought if I have to yank this motor why not toss this 6.5 diesel drive train in with over 100 less km on it in. I don't mid a gutless engine as long as it gets good mpg I hate a gutless engine like my worn out 5.7 that gets terrible mpg. I thought with this 6.5 I'd stud it liquid filled damper straight pipe turbo back a tune from Heath and vacuum pump delete and a PMD relocation would make alright power and should get good mpg and last long time or I'm I wrong? The only thing this truck does is haul my dirtbike around from track to track and all my riding stuff and gear aswell as a friends bike sometimes.
Not worth the time and effort for that pile of junk time bomb.

If you want MPG get a 4bt out of a P30 box van. Turn it up a bit.

Otherwise just get a new GM Goodwrench crate 5.7. Upgrade to the MFI spider and drive it.
 

L31MaxExpress

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If work is mad at me, they make me take one of the old trucks with the 6.5. I can't wait to get out of that shitbox and back into my own truck with a vortec 350, so i can drive something with power. If that tells you anything...
I concour! I have driven a Tahoe with one. I had it floored to go anywhere. The mileage was also nothing to write home about. My tuned LT1 cammed 5.7 Suburban was better on fuel. It also easily had the power to pass on a two lane road. If I could have added 100 hp to that turd of a Tahoe I do not think I could have kept up with the lightly moded, tuned 5.7 Suburban.
 
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L31MaxExpress

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That suburban had a 5.7 in it that someone else had thrown out as a core engine too. Friend of mine owns an independent shop. He had a 1-ton Express work van come into the shop. Coolant in the oil. The guy insisted on a different engine. He ordered a used engine from LKQ. I picked it up for the $100 core charge. Turned out it had the heat tabs on it that machine shops add. It sat in my shop for a year. I robbed the heads, sold them and put them on one of those GM crate 290 HP engines in a friends 71 Chevy truck. Friend paid me $500 to put the heads on his truck with a used intake I had laying around. I left the short block that had been rebuilt 0.020" over with a 0.010/0.010" undersize crank sitting in my shop another 6 months. I bought the clean 99 LS suburban for $600 with a knocking engine. Put that "core" shortblock on the stand. I pulled the heads off the knocking engine. I drilled the pushrod holes to 1/2". Used a set of 0.016" compressed steel shim head gaskets. I threw a 1995 F-car LT1 cam into it. I threw a used set of 1.6 rockers in it. I cleaned the suburbans intake up and did a quick cleanup port job on the base. Found it already had the MFI spider. Threw it in the suburban with a set of hooker long tubes and hooker 2.25" exhaust. Cut the exhaust for a pair of thunderbolt 2.25" spun cats...Or possibly nearly identical Nissan Frontier or Titan rear cats...Forget which now and I had 2 sets that went somewhere. Put magnaflow magnapack 2.25" race mufflers on it. Added a cheap reman torque conveter for a 4.3 S10. Put a transgo HD2 shift kit and a superior billet servo on the 4L60E. I ordered a Volant cold air intake and tuned the black box. It ran like a bat out of hell.

This was merging uphill onto the 85 mph toll road between Austin and San Antonio that runs 90+ mph. It regularly pulled down 22 mpg highway. Had 3.42 gears and P275/60R15s. I actually kind of miss that Suburban.


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letitsnow

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I thought with this 6.5 I'd stud it liquid filled damper straight pipe turbo back a tune from Heath and vacuum pump delete and a PMD relocation would make alright power and should get good mpg and last long time or I'm I wrong? The only thing this truck does is haul my dirtbike around from track to track and all my riding stuff and gear aswell as a friends bike sometimes.

It's always fun to have a project. I just don't think that you will be happy with that in the end.
 

CRF450R

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It's always fun to have a project. I just don't think that you will be happy with that in the end.
Not happy with the 5.7 either. I'm not interested in 4bt swap them things are way way over priced in my area and are stupid gutless. Not really interested in a ls swap either. I thought this 6.5 swap would be a direct swap.
 
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