Highbeam said:lukem said:Whatever you do, don't get a naturally aspirated powerstroke, or anything GM pre-Duramax. I used to drive nat-asp powerstroke and it was a complete dog.
They weren't called powerstrokes until about 1996 when the 7.3s became direct injected and turbo equipped. Prior to that the old 6.9/7.3 was an indirect injected engine with a regular old tractor style injection pump. It was gutless by any standards and mpg was not very good really, the only manual was a 4 speed. They sounded gurgly too and smoked. For a year or two before the powerstroke the 7.3 diesel IDI (indirect injection) did have a turbo added on to it but it was still way behind the powerstroke that came later. Banks made a turbo kit for the older non-turbo ford diesels. Parts are cheap and the old ford diesels are actually fairly dependable and easy to work on. As you know, until the 2011 model year, ford diesels are actually made by international/navistar.
The chevy pickup diesels before the dmax were made by detroit diesel. The newer duramax is made by isuzu. I believe that they still make and use the 6.5 turbo diesels in the military humvees so parts availability will be good. A similar thing to the ford happened where the old original 6.2 was IDI and non-turbo with a simple injection pump and very low power, cheap parts, and easy to work on. The newer 6.5 turbo never really became powerful, dependable, or good and was completely dropped in GMs civilian market for the dmax in the early 2000s.
Now the cummins. Well, they always had it figured out. Much better direct injected engine from the start that was capable of plenty of power but detuned to try and prevent blowing up the dodge trucks of the era. Even the original early 90s cummins 12-valve engines are still sought after and used for conversions, they were always far superior to the dodge truck. Dodge would not be here today if they hadn't chosen cummins for their diesel.
My friend has a 12v swapped into a F350. It is the best of both worlds.