80's Chevy 6.2L Diesel - tow vehicle.

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bigshrimpin

God
Are these old chevy 6.2L diesel trucks any good? I've never owned a diesel before and I have a chance to buy a clean 1980's military surplus truck for little money. I like my little jeep comanche now, but veggie diesel is cheap ($1.40/gallon) around here. I'm thinking about making the switch . . . any suggestions?
 
they aren't strong hp wise but torque wise good they will outlast the trucks. you can put an old banks turbo on them and make good HP. my neighbor has one currently and ithas 200,000 plus miles still going strong and he gets around 20 to 23 mpg and my 6.5 turbo has 220,000 plus and it get the same 21 city 23 hwy and 19.5 towing hwy. I say go get it and run it till she dies. I had an old 82 Diesel 6.2 dually and it ran like a top never any problems.
 
bigshrimpin said:
Are these old chevy 6.2L diesel trucks any good? I've never owned a diesel before and I have a chance to buy a clean 1980's military surplus truck for little money. I like my little jeep comanche now, but veggie diesel is cheap ($1.40/gallon) around here. I'm thinking about making the switch . . . any suggestions?
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Big, you said , "making the switch"... if at all possible, get the diesel and drive it and tow w/ it B4 ya let go of the Jeep ... won't take long to decide if ya likey or not ;) ...
 
The only good thing about the 6.2L's is that they get great gas milage, 18+ mpg in a 3/4 ton 4x4 Suburban.  There are a few problems I hear about all of the time.  They don't make enough horsepower, only about 120.  They tend to crack pistons, this is a result of injectors dripping fuel on the piston crowns.  If you get the injectors rebuilt every 100k, the engine is usually good for 300k.  Finally, the injector pumps cost a fortune and do wear out.  I would not buy this engine unless it came with a Banks turbo kit.  The Banks kits upped the horsepower to about 190 which is equivalent of a 400 cubic inch gas engine fron the 70's or a late 80's to early 90's 350.  With the banks kits, the engines actually perform quite nicely and get even better milage, 20+mpg.  The final problem with the 6.2's is not the engine, but the transmission.  They come equipped with a 700R4 which is not particularly strong.  It's about the equivalent of the 4L60e found in current half ton trucks from GM. A military truck may have a Turbo 400 transmission which is one of the strongest transmissions ever put in a light truck
 
76GMC1500 said:
The only good thing about the 6.2L's is that they get great gas milage, 18+ mpg in a 3/4 ton 4x4 Suburban.  There are a few problems I hear about all of the time.  They don't make enough horsepower, only about 120.  They tend to crack pistons, this is a result of injectors dripping fuel on the piston crowns.  If you get the injectors rebuilt every 100k, the engine is usually good for 300k.  Finally, the injector pumps cost a fortune and do wear out.  I would not buy this engine unless it came with a Banks turbo kit.  The Banks kits upped the horsepower to about 190 which is equivalent of a 400 cubic inch gas engine fron the 70's or a late 80's to early 90's 350.  With the banks kits, the engines actually perform quite nicely and get even better milage, 20+mpg.  The final problem with the 6.2's is not the engine, but the transmission.  They come equipped with a 700R4 which is not particularly strong.  It's about the equivalent of the 4L60e found in current half ton trucks from GM.  A military truck may have a Turbo 400 transmission which is one of the strongest transmissions ever put in a light truck
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they came with 155 hp they have 4L80 transmissions and the pumps on the 6.2's will out last the motors. piston's don't crack, it's the heads that crack from heat just don't let them get to hot the 6.2 and 6.5 motors had the same head cracking issues and the 6.2 had the manual injection pumps that last forever not the crappy electronic pumps that the 1994 up 6.5 motors have. The trans on the mil spec trucks all had 4L80 trans which is GM's strongest trans ever that they built for light duty trucks.
 
4L80E's didn't come out until 91, it is a turbo 400 with an overdrive and electronic controls. Most of the military 6.2's had the turbo 400 for a tranny, and civilian ones got the 700R4. They also came with the DB2 STANADYNE injection pump that is a pretty good pump, but they have quite a few problems with the heads warping causing hard warm starts or no warm starts. They usually would last 150K+ miles if cared for. The first 6.2's were only around 140HP, but they were offered from 120-160HP depending on the year, GVW and usage. The 6.2 was also known for the 0-60 in 5, that is 5 minutes or 5 miles. They are a good long lasting engine that can be easily turbo'd with OEM parts from a scrapyard(92+ 6.5's, swap the manifolds and install the turbo and intake). If you have any real specific questions you can brush up over at www.dieselplace.com, or I can ask them over there for ya.
 
lol thanks
 you know if i ever find a wrecked 6.2 or pre 94 6.5 with manual pump and non turbo running motor truck i'm going to buy it and put that motor in an I/O boat that would be a super motor in a I/O i wish i has one of those now i'd put it in my 250 Sea Ray. Mercruiser makes the whole mariner kit for the 6.2 and 6.5, my 6.2 had 265,000 on the factory pump ran great. The mil spec motors had 155 hp all and they had the 4L80 before it was avail on the market for us to buy. If you're going to run veg oil it will make that pump last forever.
the other site that is good is www.dieseldoctor.com so is the one Fer listed.
 
bigshrimpin said:
Are these old chevy 6.2L diesel trucks any good?  I've never owned a diesel before and I have a chance to buy a clean 1980's military surplus truck for little money.  I like my little jeep comanche now, but veggie diesel is cheap ($1.40/gallon) around here.  I'm thinking about making the switch . . . any suggestions?
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BS, if I decifer correctly, that military truck wont have the overdrive trans so the fuel mileage wont be as good as a civilian model.

All I know about em is that diesels are loud and they stink.
 
I think it was penisular desel that had the marine kit for the 6.2/6.5. Mercruiser marinized the VM diesel( formally BMW Marine), the 7.3 Navistar, and now with their partnership with Cummins, the Isuzu 1.6( the Cummins  engines were allready marinized). they have just introduced soome new enmgiens that I haven't had time to look at.
I used to work for a manufacture that built large street sweepers, we used the 6.5 NA (no ass) normally asperated engine in our twin engine sweeper( the 6.5 didn't have enough power to run the hydraulics and push the truck. We got a deal on a bunch of them from GM, but with no warranty. We put the engines in the trucks and drove them to Rocky Mount from Wake Forest ( about 90 miles round trip) to check them out, half the engines didn't make it. They had so many problems with them we ouot thermocouplers on the  heads and found the temps around the injectors were getting so hot, it was holding the injector stuck open, when you backed off the throttle it hydrauliced the motor kicking the rods and crank out in a spectacular fashion. We cut one head up in 1" slices to inspect the cooling passages, the passages were so restrictive it was causing cavitation and isolated heating. We went back to using the 5.9 Cummins and 7.3 Navistar(its only a powerstroke if you stick a ford sticker on it). I've allways be a fan of GM vehicles, but i'd have a hard tiem buying a 6.2, or a 6.5. they are just outclassed by the Cummins(not Dodge) and Navistar(not Ford).

Anyone tried to put a Yanmar in a pickup?
Take a look at Yamaha Marine International website, they are marketing their sterndive package with diesel engines for the European market, too bad we can't get them here.  
 
GM 6.5 marinization kits are built by these guys out of NEW YORK. And I'm pretty happy with my 6.5, needs headgaskets right now, but it's my fault(that hypertech sure made it scream though :o).

http://www.maxpowermarine.com/page/page/151941.htm

HPIM0047.jpg
 
for some reason, i can't get Pensular Diesel spelled out on my post, it keeps coming up "thingular". It was Penisular that marinized "the Beast" as it was called. Theres a company called US Marine Diesel (i think thats the name)that still offers the 6.5, the tooling was sold to AM General to continue producing the motor for the military after GM dropped it. They completely redid the tooling and improved the engineso it would hold up in military trim, they offer the 6.5 in a supercharged  version at 425 hp
 
The sensor thinks you are trying to type the word for "male member" and its changing it to "thing". I tried to call something the slang for lady of the evening the other day, it came up "sleeper".
 
PENINSULAR was the first to marinize a GM diesel. The old 6.2's. GEP is currently building the 6.5 for the military using the INTERNATIONAL castings(yes the same company that built the 6.9 for FORD). They are casting them under the name OPTIMIZER 6500. They are supposed to be releasing the new military MIL SPEC engines here soon with the forged cranks(rumored to be LUNATIS work) and even more block and cylinder head improvements.

http://www.peninsulardiesel.com/
http://www.optimizer6500.com/
http://www.amgeneral.com/vehicles_gep.php
 
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