gm 6.5 vs. 7.3 PSD

[cmarrero76]

Here is a question for those of you that have towed with different truck with different engines. I currently own a 99 gmc 1 ton duelly with the 6.5L diesel. I love the truck and it has been good to me so far. I own a small car business and recently pruchased a 3-4 car hauler. Fully loaded it can be anywhere between 15-18k pounds. There is one hill coming back from auction that is about a 6% grade that my truck barely makes it up. I have a 2000 F-350 SRW for sale at my lot and I'm debating on maybe keeping the ford for my towing. what do you guys think about the 2 engines towing. Both tranny's are automatics. I personally hate fords, but I also don't want to kill my truck coming back from the auction once a week on that steep hill. My truck has a little perf addons, but gets HOT going up that hill. Thanks in advance

[cmarrero76]

I have a reprogrammer ecu, bigger injectors, elec fans, afe filter, straight pipes for my perf mods in my 6.5.

The ford just has straight pipe and K&N stock filter.

[daustin]

I'd be concerned about using a SRW truck with that much load. You could swap for one trip and see how the ford does, then decide. After i went with a DRW truck for towing my car trailer, i'll never go back to a SRW for that again. It's just so much more stable with the DRW and if you have a rear flat your not in the ditch or anything.
Don

[chrisk1500]

How much boost are you running? Intercooled?

Give the 7.3 a shot and see how it does.

[justy]

I would say the ford will do better.

Ford 7.3 powerstroke 275 hp (205 kW) and 525 lb·ft (712 N·m) of torque

Chevy 6.5 180 - 215 horsepower 360 lb·ft to 440 lb·ft of torque

You could get alot more out of the 6.5 with the right parts. But stock the ford will have more towing power but less mileage.

[MoJoe]

Agreed with justy, the 7.3 of the Ford will perform better if only considering engines. I would perfer a DRW when towing from the bed and that much weight any distance. As suggested, you can try it out and see how it does. You also can convert the Ford to a DRW relatively cheap.

[nwallis]

I was never a fan of the Chevy diesels and from the ones that I've driven of the 6.5 and the 7.3 I'd say that the 7.3 is without a doubt the stronger of the two and it probably wouldn't take much to turn it up even more. I wouldn't worry about it being SRW as long as it's a gooseneck trailer which I'm assuming with that kind of weight that it is. Just slap a brake controller in it and save that poor 6.5. You'll have endless chances for turning it up with a programmer and injectors and turbos etc. etc. etc.

[sbc2008]

Get a Dodge Diesel lol

[cmarrero76]

just came back from my first trip with the ford. This is what I found:

-Definately need DRW with this load. Everytime the wind blew, I thought somehow I was going to flip over (a little exaggerated)

-The one big hill I have trouble with, I still had trouble with the ford and the engine temp seemed to shoot up a bit

-The ford tranny seemed like it couldn't decide which gear to stay in, kept shifting up and down where my 6.5 didn't.

-The ford seemed to get worse mileage with the silmilar load. It was better unloaded than the 6.5, but worse with the load.

I guess with the addon's I've already done, the old duelly can still work for a while. I just helped a friend rebuild his 6.5 on his H1 hummer and we are going to try to run an innercooler and crank the boost a bit. maybe if that turns out good, I may do that to mine. I read online somewhere that someone did that same thing and it stayed up with the newer diesels

[vegaman04]

You can make anything work the way you want it with some $$$$$$!

[justy]

It's all in the injectors and turbo and tuning. I've read a few 6.5 diesels on thedieselpage.com that would blow away my stock 07 duramax. So they must know what they are doing to get power out of that 6.5 like that. I'm sure that would be a good engine if done right. But I'm sure the amount of money you stuck into it. A cummins or something might be cheaper. Maybe if your lucky a duramax engine. I've been calling my local junk yard about every 3 weeks to see if they got another duramax block around. I asked what one would cost me and he said 3000. So I'll pay that for sure. Other places want like 7000 for a block.

I went on thedieselpage.com and did a search for overheating & towing. Theres some good stuff in here to try. http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/t...light=overheat

[Torque454]

Install a manual turbo controller on that 99. Intercooler would be nice too. Need boost, trans, and EGT gauges also. Make sure your boost is correct for you reprogrammed ECM. Make sure the air filter isnt clogged. Install 4" exhaust if you havnt already done so. No cat, no muffler. If your injectors have over 100k on them those could be replaced and may have some benefit too. Make sure the radiator is clean and free of bugs and flushing the cooling system sure couldnt hurt any.

[thirdstreettito]

Well, instead of buying another truck, just use the powerjoke. Sorry, Cummins is best though.

[DarkCharisma]

I have driven my uncle's DRW 7.3 and a few TD 6.5's and the 7.3 pulls harder and better from what I've experienced. But then again, it does have almost an extra liter.

[jones20992]

my dad used to run an oil field hot shot with a 93 6.5 drw 2wd he ran about 40,000 gcvw and did so in the rockey moutins granted he drove truck for a living for 30 years so he knew how to get the most out of a truck and in 400k miles he went thru 2 motors and 2 trannys BUT that was at 40000 lbs and mostly off road and at the end of the day he still got to drive a chevy just keep in mind when he stoped running it at 400k miles the truck was done and i mean done

[Torque454]

The 7.3 is also Direct injected (most of them anyways) and sprays more fuel right from the factory than the 6.5 does. Most 7.3s also run tons more boost and and intercooler. thediesepage.com did a test and built a 6.5 to comparible specs to a 99 7.3 ford and 99 5.9 dodge and the (automatic) 6.5 actually outperformed an automatic cummins. Cant find that article off hand but here is another one of some intrest. http://www.thedieselpage.com/finale.htm The indirect injection is supposed to be a setback for the 6.5 but with a performance chip the 6.5 puts out the same amount of fuel as most stock diesels up to around a 2000-ish models and is very comparable in power even with less boost and no intercooler.

[jones20992]

look the 6.5 can be a real strong motor and they are super cheep the early 7.3 is no better then the 6.5 td the late 7.3 is 3-4 grand more money and for that much money you can make a 6.5 perform like a newer 6.0, 5.9, or 6.6 there is even a company that sales a 400hp 6.5 for boats not to mention the 6.2/6.5 has been the choice of the US ARMY for 25 years even when the d-max cam out in the H1 the ARMY still used the 6.5....why? because they are cheep easy to work on and make good power a 94 6.5 TD makes like 190 HP and 440 TQ A SAME YEAR 7.3 185 HP 360 TQ

[Joe]

Lets try to keep the talk to trucks and not bash each other

[GIMECHANIC_454]

thats alright i am currently in iraq and we have the M1151 uparmored gun trucks they weigh about 13,000-15,000lbs (depending on the mission and load carried sometimes a trailer is pulled as well) the tranny is a 4L80E mated to a AMG/NVG 242 T-case, 2.73 gear in diff (gov lock/ brake bias locker) and geared hubs on all 4 corners. anyway they have the 6.5L turbo diesels, i have seen the dyno sheet on this 6.5LTD if i can find a scanner ill post it its acutally not what i thought it would be but anyway, 187Hp and 286 TQ ft-lbs running on JP8 ($*tty grade of fuel) the numbers get better when you run real diesel in it the gains are esmtd about 20 hp and about 25 TQ ft-lbs, they are set from the factory with about 7psi of boost which i have found a ways to get more out of it, we wire the waste gates shut with lacing wire, we also advance the timing on the injection pump 5-7 degrees and we can run about 65-70 mph. so the 6.5TD has alot of potential and with the right hop-ups can be a bad A$z engine. but i am not sure what the numbers go up to after all the mods we do are applied but its enuff to propell a 14,000lb truck 65-70 mph.( you also need a good chunk of road too) .anyway just thought i would throw my 2 cents in