Lookin at a GM 6.5L Diesel maybe possibly..

[maxfax]

Well then, at least I know what I may be getting into..   So how about the mechanical 6.5 pumps that were mentioned earlier??  Anyone have any info on those?

Wyland, if this truck had a Cummins in it I'd be all over it..   However I don;t think I'd touch another Dodge..  Too many bitter memories of the last one..   I had an '07 3500 HD with the 6.7...  Awesome power, and the potential to be a great engine but the rest of the truck was a night mare..    Had I kept it till I was out of the engine warrenty I would have dumped the emissions controls and I think the engine at least would have been fine..   

In 07 it was a 3 year 36,000 mile warrenty on the truck, 100K on the engine..  By 56,000 it had 2 Turbos, 6 Transmissions (excluding the original..   Brand new every time) Complete front end rebuild including wheel bearings ball joints and tie rods, rear diff rebuilt..  Countless PCM re flashes, and It was strange to NOT have a CEL.. THe only things I didn;t pay for were the 2 turbos and 5 transmission jobs....  At best it got 14mpg..  Since most everything fell apart out of warrenty I didn;t even have lemon laws to fall back on..   I though I was going to end up paying for the last trans I put into it as Chrysler was starting to get grumpy about replacing them all the time..  If they would have just fixed the thing.......

[burn_your_money]

If you switch to a mechanical pump and ditch the electronics you will need to hook up a real wastegate to the turbo. Stock has a vacuum actuated one.

[burn_your_money]

These pumps have been good to fuel shops. GM says that it's only because of the amount of trucks on the road and that the failure percentage is actually low. That's what GM says anyways...

Stanadyne has done a lot of updates on the pumps over the years. The old ones had a few critical weak pieces in them but those have pretty much all broken by this point. Now it's mainly an issue of the electronics in the pump failing, usually because of too much heat. Mechanical failures are fairly uncommon.

We do get the odd guy in the shop with a truck that still has the original pump on it and it's still running great.

[Rabbit on Roids]

they are a pretty good engine with an extremely terrible pump.

[maxfax]

That's what GM says anyways...

Yeah..   I learned long ago not to believe anything they say.. My personal fav being "You don;t have to check or change tranmission fluid ever"   

So are you saying that if the pump has been rebuilt and all the updates are done it should be okay??  Other than the electronic issues...

I got the new PMD and relocation kit today (wow that was fast)..   I kinda hate to stick it on and tell the guy his truck is working as he may want to keep it..    But I guess I might as well to make sure I woudl want to buy it...

[OM617]

I had an '07 3500 HD with the 6.7.
....
In 07 it was a 3 year 36,000 mile warrenty on the truck, 100K on the engine..  By 56,000 it had 2 Turbos, 6 Transmissions (excluding the original..   Brand new every time)

You should have used the lemon law.

[maxfax]

You should have used the lemon law.

I would have, but PA lemon law states the problem has to happen within the first 12 mo or 12K miles..  The original trans died at about 38,000 miles  RIght out of warrenty of course..  The other transmissions were replaced under the trans warrenty...

 I should have found another dealer after about the third one..  I knew it had to be a problem within the truck itself, but they claimed to check it over and find nothing wrong..  After a round of nasty phone calls I got it towed to another dealer about 50 miles away for the last trans... They replaced the trans, control module and wiring harness..   I kept it till about 80K when the thing started to slip again when hot and under load..  

I changed the trans fluid, cleared the DTC's, towed it within a half mile of the dealer I bought it at.   Drove it the rest of the way there, left them check it over and gave them my service records..  Got it paid off and an extremely reliable gasser F-250, with a MANUAL transmission....  Hmm that might have been a bit shady..

[Turbinepowered]

These pumps have been good to fuel shops. GM says that it's only because of the amount of trucks on the road and that the failure percentage is actually low. That's what GM says anyways...

...

We do get the odd guy in the shop with a truck that still has the original pump on it and it's still running great.

See, GM just had it backwards! Their success rate is actually low, and the fail is strong with the pumps.

[catlin_cava]

These pumps have been good to fuel shops. GM says that it's only because of the amount of trucks on the road and that the failure percentage is actually low. That's what GM says anyways...

...

We do get the odd guy in the shop with a truck that still has the original pump on it and it's still running great.

See, GM just had it backwards! Their success rate is actually low, and the fail is strong with the pumps.

GM...Success...In the same Phrase??? I've never heard of it....

[burn_your_money]

So are you saying that if the pump has been rebuilt and all the updates are done it should be okay??  Other than the electronic issues...

Yes but the electronics are a serious issue. If you do get a pump rebuilt, make sure that they use a brand new GREY box and brand new OEM optical sensor. The Grey box is stanadynes latest update, military spec, gold plated terminal blah blah blah. They haven't been out long enough to see if they are really any better then the old ones though.

Personally I would switch to mechanical. Those electronics in the pump are big bucks

[maxfax]

I don;t know what exactly was used in this pump rebuild..   I've read the optional (err optical) sensor was problematic as well..   GM seemed to have a fetish for optical triggers that didn;t work back in that era.. I still wake up in a cold sweat from Opti-Spark (Optional Spark) ignitions...  I guess time will tell how good this rebuild was..  I still think they sent the pump back with a used PMD on it, it just doesn;t look like a 6 month old part that had been run less than 3K miles.....

I did get the grey PMD for it though..   Cheap they aren't..  But not much worse than the black one..  I've heard from alot of happy people that bought the relocation kit so hopefully that'll help..  Once again time will tell..


Took it a ride today and it seemed fine so far..  Pretty sure that'll take care of it for now..    The current owner bought it new with absolutly no problems for 150 some thousand miles..  That is till last summer when the pump took a poo..

I think if I end up with it I'll start scrounging parts for a mechanical swap right off..   So far on the list I got pump, waste gate control, throttle linkage, and trans controller...  I haven;t looked to see if I need a glow plug controller..   Then again a push button could remedy that...

[Rabbit on Roids]

***, i forgot that that truck has a 4L60-E in it, or more likely, a 4L80-E. both of witch are electronic controlled and probably have to be hooked up to the pump or throttle pedal. i know they dont have kick down cables or vac. modulators or anything. so that could be problematic. unless you got a stand alone controller. pretty sure painless makes a controller, not sure if it would work on diesel trans's tho.

[maxfax]

Yes this one does have the 4L80E..   There are a several stand alone controllers available for these..   The 4l80E should have been available with the non electronic versions of this engine, so the harness and pcm woudl work from one of those... 
 In actuality I *think* I could get the existing pcm to continue to control the trans as long as I were to have some variety of TPS..  The inputs needed for the trans to work would be coolant temp, map, throttle postion, vehicle speed, and RPM..  All of these woudl still be available.. Yeah there would be DTC's for the fuel system but none of these should affect the trans adapts.. 

As of now I have the truck to try out..   He bought a new one to try under the 60 day return deal GM is offering.. He ended up with a 2500 gasser..   I suspect he may not like the gas milage too much..

I took this 98 for about a 3 hour run this morn..   Definitly no hot rod but not that terrible for power.. Definitly not the 6.7 Cummins..  Managed 24mpg outta the thing too.. Once again nothing like the 14 the Cummins got.... I've never been much of a GM fan, but all issues aside it's a darn nice truck to drive, comfy too..   THe only real issue with it at this moment is that it's too nice..   I was gonna haul some junk to the scrap yard tomorrow..  I think I'm gonna have to use the old Ford though, don;t wanna bang this one up..  I had to take the VW to go for parts this afternoon, I was too greasy to sit in the Chevy..   

[lord_verminaard]

Just swap the auto for a manual.  The tranny will be the next thing to die after the pump. 

Like others have said, great engine, bad.... everything else.

Brendan

[maxfax]

The 4l80E is pretty robust..   Even the 4l60E wasn;t too bad post '96..  Of course proper care has alot to do with it too..  This one's been serviced on time and had an aftermarket cooler installed since new.. Judging by the shift adapts and CVI there's 70% + of the clutches left..  

If it came to a new trans or finding the stuff and swapping to a manual it'd probably be cheaper  and easier to rebuild the auto..

I guess I'm getting old or something, automatics keep becoming more and more appealing....  Mopars excluded..