95 6.5L diesel

[chevyracer005]

i just bought a 95 4 door long bed 4x4 chevy dually with the 6.5 in it. my question is what would yall do to this truck to make it tow the best and make it the most reliable.

[99-2door]

Upgrade to the 97+ cooling system for starters.

[tank454]

The usual exhaust and intake upgrades as well. You could also run a larger turbo, but I am unsure as to what companies offer turbos for the 6.5

[crossy's son]

Originally Posted by tank454

The usual exhaust and intake upgrades as well. You could also run a larger turbo, but I am unsure as to what companies offer turbos for the 6.5

No thats not what you want to do....he wont have the fuel to spool it or the bottom end upgrades needed... theres like one company that make an aftermarket turbo for a 6.5 and its like $1000. A-team

www.heathdiesel.com is where you need to shop around...

High flow crossover- http://www.heathdiesel.com/P/HDP1349/
4" good performing/sounding exhaust- http://www.heathdiesel.com/P/HDP1539/

This towing kit is awesome- comes with a performance chip and MECHANICAL wastegate so you can up the boost (adjustable)---http://www.heathdiesel.com/P/HDP1645/

heres a gauge package you should get for towing- you can get autometers or glowshift because they're cheaper but his comes with the pod and all the harnesses and everything !!!!---http://www.heathdiesel.com/P/HDP1168/ PYRO,boost, trans temp are important.

and i agree with above post ^^ find a 97+ donor and pull the dual thermostat better cooling system off it, or search around on ebay for guy parting one+ out.

DONT FORGET TO RELOCATE YOUR PMD !!! do it ASAP ! theres all kinds of kits out there. i recommend extending the harness and putting the PMD behind the front bumper so it stays cool....its th brain of the injectin pump and it heats up sitting on the pump in the engine valley and when it fries up inside it makes the truck die and its very expensive to replace and a PITA to get too.

Also, look at some Water/methanol kits, they add power and keep cylinder temps down....

But upgrade the cooling system first thing...

www.dieselplace.com is the best site for 6.5's !! they helped me out alot with our 94!

[chevyracer005]

thanks for the info guys. so i just found out the truck is a 95 with a motor out of a 93 does this change anything?

[crossy's son]

yea it changes alot.

93 6.5's are all mechanical, no electronics.

Thats a blessing for reliability. I'm not sure what to do to get more power though... i think you can turn the pump up.

www.heathdiesel.com has a section for 92-93 6.5 trucks.

It is turbo right ???

[Hatfieco]

You can turn the pump up pretty easily on that, adjustable wastegate, dual t-stat housing, dmax fan swap, mod the factory intake, and an exhaust. Gauges are a must. Tranny temp, boost, and a pyrometer are necessary as these motors do not like heat AT ALL. Over at the dieselpage there is a good section for warming up your 6.5.

[red suburban]

pretty good info here i'll just add some

with the motor being from a 93 the engine itself is the same, but they might have installed either the mechanical injection pump (older 93 era) or stuck with the electronic controlled injection pump (what your 95 had factory). if they installed the mechanical pump there is no pmd (little black electronic box mounted on the side of the pump). the pmd doesnt like heat and gm put it on the front of the intake manifold where it will get nice and toasty.


2 biggest headaches with these motors:
1. pmd on the electronic injection motors. if you still have it get a new one, extend the wiring harness so you can mount it either inside or behind the front bumper, and connect it to a heat sink.

2. cooling issues on the older motors. you can get the dual t-stat upgrade from a late 97-2000 model 6.5L at a junkyard, or you can buy a new setup at www.ssdieselsupply.com. the duramax cooling fan is another good upgrade but is optional. when you upgrade the t-stat make sure to pull the radiator and clean it from the engine bay side towards the front with a hose and some soap, will make a huge differance. get the higher flowing waterpump as well.

consider those 2 upgrades mandatory, dont make any extra power but they solve the vast majority of the problems with this motor reliability wise. for power without sacrificing reliability:

1. single 4" exhuast and opening up the air intake are the 1st steps to take. the crossover pipe is a hit or miss, when the factory bent the pipe sometimes the inner pipe got pinched and other times it didnt. easiest test is to pull off the crossover pipe and roll a ping pong ball through it. if it doesnt roll all the way through you got unlucky and replacing the crossover would help alot.

2. here you can either start playing with the turbo wastegate, adding an intercooler, turning up the pump (mechanical pump)/getting a chip (electronic pump). if you start messing with the turbo get a boost guage and dont let the boost exceede 10 lbs unless your willing to start replacing head gaskets and suffer reliability issues. some get lucky at 12 lbs and others dont. if you add an intercooler then 12-15 lbs is max.


with the tranny is it an auto or stick? if auto you can wire the torque converter to stay locked up (for highway speed towing) at the flip of a switch, to keep the heat down when your tranny would try to unlock the torque converter. tranny can still downshift with the torque converter locked just fine, just keeps it cooler. around town remember to turn it off though.

check out www.dieseltowingresource.com, most of the 6.5L guys from www.dieselplace.com moved to over there

[chevyracer005]

thanks guys for the help. its a turbo diesel out of the 93 and its auto. my dad wrecked his 2000 dually with the 6.5 in it the insurance totaled it today and gave it back to him cause of all his lost wages cause he didnt have his truck. what should i take off the 2000 motor other than whats mentioned already above

[GM Guy 1]

before you jump the gun on the dual stat upgrade, go to maxxtorque.com, it is an online magazine for the GM diesel community. Bill Heath himself writes an article from time to time. Locate the spring 2009 issue and go to the "Heath Diesel's 6.5 Heavy Duty Cooling Upgrade" article. Here he discusses why the single is good, and he has a kit as well for the single to make it perform well.

Also, is the motor a 93 complete, with mechanical pump and all, or was it tore down to long block and all the 95 stuff put on?

I will agree that Heath Diesel is the place to go. Proven stuff.
I will not agree that SS diesel is the place to go, some stuff is OK, but other things, such as the PMD cooler, is known to have issues.



But as far as stuff to swap, i would swap the airbox from the 2000 over. the round filter is way superior to the flat panel.

[red suburban]

agreed with above post, never said ssdiesel was the best to go to but their exhaust and cooling upgrade i like. for any other performance upgrades, heath is #1 for a 6.5L, great customer service as well.

[GM Guy 1]

I will agree on the exhaust, very good point. You can get a full turbo-back 4" (3" DP that bulges at the end to turn into the 4") stainless steel system cheaper than Heaths aluminized system. Also, I believe the exhaust SS Diesel sells is a Heartthrob product.

[MC]

Put a 4BT Cummins in it.

[GM Guy 1]

Originally Posted by MC

Put a 4BT Cummins in it.

In a half ton, yes, but a one ton, i would say 6BT or 6BTA.

But as long as you have any common sense, the 6.5L can be a good motor.

[Avec]

A well tuned and properly upgraded 6.5 can put out about same HP/TQ numbers as a stock Duramax. Bigger injectors, bigger turbo and intercooler are the main things. If you are going to go to the top, you main need something like splayed mains to hold the bottom end together. There is a limit to the indirect injection, but 300 hp is do-able (50% more than the stock 195).

Lots of people put lots of miles on their 6.5. Mine has over 300,000 on it and fires up easily in the negative twenties.

[Hatfieco]

Originally Posted by Avec

A well tuned and properly upgraded 6.5 can put out about same HP/TQ numbers as a stock Duramax. Bigger injectors, bigger turbo and intercooler are the main things. If you are going to go to the top, you main need something like splayed mains to hold the bottom end together. There is a limit to the indirect injection, but 300 hp is do-able (50% more than the stock 195).

Lots of people put lots of miles on their 6.5. Mine has over 300,000 on it and fires up easily in the negative twenties.

Yeah but for the money it takes to get 300 reliable horses out of it, you coulda swapped in a 6bt. There is only a few companies that even make an aftermarket turbo for the 6.5 and at that point if you want to boost over 11-12lbs to the motor (14ish with an IC) you need to swap pistons out. Mahle makes a set, but they arent cheap. I say cooling upgrades, let it breath better and drive it. If you do that, you should many miles out of it.

[Avec]

Originally Posted by Hatfieco

Yeah but for the money it takes to get 300 reliable horses out of it, you coulda swapped in a 6bt. There is only a few companies that even make an aftermarket turbo for the 6.5 and at that point if you want to boost over 11-12lbs to the motor (14ish with an IC) you need to swap pistons out. Mahle makes a set, but they arent cheap. I say cooling upgrades, let it breath better and drive it. If you do that, you should many miles out of it.

I agree it takes money to get that kind of power, just sayin'. My 6.5 is stock and it does just fine for me. I have pulled heavily loaded trailers up and over, just paying attention to the temperatures. I wasn't the fastest up the hills, but fast enough.

[GM Guy 1]

I think everyone but me is flat addicted to horsepower... I think that dad's 92 has gobs of power, and i am satisfied with the power of my 4.3L and 6.2L!

[crossy's son]

I think its because both your trucks have real trannies in them....80% of the diesel trucks had torque gobbling autos.

and your dad's 92 is an old mechanical 6.5 and IMO they run pretty good, same as a 350 the few i've riden in. and they're easy to turn up, and its a 5spd and probalby has the 4.63 gears in it. so your dad's 92 has alot going for it. lol

[GM Guy 1]

actually its got 5.13s, and thank you, I pride myself on the manuals!