I may have inherited something!

[deltag8r]

Ok here it goes. I may be inheriting a 97 Chevy Tahoe with diesel two door. It has 100.000 miles on it. It runs fine. Im not sure of the engine (size or liter) but know its a diesel. Any opinions. Good, Bad, indifferent. May be looking to inhance it a bit with mods. Whats best for just highway use and some pulling.

[partsguy662]

6.5 in that buggy....There are ways to get some power out of them, but nothing "earth moving" by any stretch of the imagination...

[horsehaulin]

My 6.5 runs great, use to haul trailers for Hotshot's that breakdown in the local area. Only problem I have had is a bad IP which was covered by GM warrenty. A Tahoe is going to be much lighter than my truck, therefore a little quicker off the line. There are lots of upgrades for these engines, if you know where to look. Heath diesel, SS Diesel, and Kennedy all have great equipment for the 6.5TD.

[minisub]

6.5 in that buggy....There are ways to get some power out of them, but nothing "earth moving" by any stretch of the imagination...

Ain't that the truth....:hehe:

[C.A.P]

I still would rather have a 6.5 than a gas engine in a Tahoe

[horsehaulin]

CAP, especially since gas is higher than diesel in my area, and I am getting almost 20 MPG at this moment.

[Randall12v]

I still would rather have a 6.5 than a gas engine in a Tahoe

only for MPG not for reliability.

[C.A.P]

Come on I had a few 6.2 and a 6.5 they aint that bad . They wont win any races but they will get ya there. If you have worked on them they all have the same issues and are not that bad to diagnose !

[horsehaulin]

I have had nothing but good luck with my truck, and it pulled a 12,000 LB tower trailer belonging to the USCG without a problem. I burn a quart of oil every 10K which is not bad in my book. I dont win many races, but I still smoke a bunch of those import guys.

Tony

[rs359]

I have found weakness in the following areas
1) pmd pump mounted driver the black electrical box on the injection pump.
most of the injection pumps replaced on this motor are because of the pmd failure (NOT THE INJECTION PUMP!) usually the motor will start up and die shortly after. A remote mount kit can be purchased on Ebay.

2) Timing chain. Driving the injection pump with a Chain is very hard on the chain gear kits are available to get rid of the chain.

3) Harmonic Balancer which leads to rods escaping from the Block just keep on top of it and replace at any sign of wear .

After these are taken care of the 6.5 can be a reliable fuel efficient
vehicle it can even be hotrodded but dont expect a whole lot out of it .
Hope this helps Rich $.02

[horsehaulin]

The PMD is a problem area, but can be resolved by getting it out of the engine bay and either in the front bumper, or moving inside the cab with an extension cable and cooling plate.

Timing chain, dont go the gear drive method, great for the newer engines, but not the 6.5. The 6.5 timing chain is usable to 1in of play, and even more. There is too much backlash of the valvetrain at decel for a gear drive, some have been known to break the cam or IP drive gears.

Fluid Damper has just released a new damper this year that addresses the harmonic balancer issues on these trucks. I would recomend one of those as I have seen rave reviews of them and most are commenting how the trucks now idle like a gasser.

Tony