1985 suburban 2wd
 

Myths aside, this one is for diesel lovers. I have wanted one ever since the 80s, in a ford pickup, barrelling up the highway in a four door dually ford ...in the 20s mpg. Sitting up nearly like a tractor trailer, the cap on back makin it even bigger..and the low rpms...the turbo...must have one...
anyway. after my own learnings, the straight six is a complete moron. Maybe they could have made the imbalanced inline even heavier in the world of pretend. I wanted a v8, and find ads from the old duramx trucks, still in decent shape for decent price. My daydream is a turbo and modern ignition and injection....is it possible? :turtle:

One thing I can say about old Suburbans....

I know a guy with a diesel Suburban with well over a half-million miles on it.

From your previous entries, I have to say that many readers may not understand your posts and their true meaning.

I see from other posts that you are a disabled Veteran. What conflict and what injury? Sometimes it is tough to understand what you are getting through to us. Please -- mean it no disrespect. For your sacrifice, we hold you in high regard.

RH77

American truck market.................

Isuzu V-8 Diesel = Duramax available in newer GM trucks
Cummins inline 6 Diesel = Dodge (A great engine wrapped in a piece of crap)
International V-8 =Ford Powerstroke most years.

Older 6.2 and 6.5L diesel engines offered by GM were not bad, but the old 5.7L was the one to stay away from. I have worked on all of these and I would have to say the Cummins inline 6 turns out to be the most reliable engine of them all, but I am no longer a fan of Dodge even though I used to be a hardcore Mopar guy in the past.

The Duramax is a great engine, but you do not want to have to repair one since labor and parts are expensive. These engine are too damn complicated.

Ford 7.3L DIT was always a decent engine, but had turbo issues on some of them. Just when Ford got the 7.3L right, they replaced it with the 6.0L which turned out to be one of Fords biggest mistakes and lost lots of money in the commercial truck business.

Can I get an "Amen"......Sold my Ram 2500 Cummins about a year ago, absolutely loved the engine, but as you say, the truck was a joke. Subpar transmission, body fit and finish reminded me of Dodges of the 80's. In fact, I think I would have rather had the earlier body style, the 20 year old tooling would have at least been a good excuse. Sure wish I still had that motor, though....

I used to be a hardcore Mopar guy and had some sweet rides in the past. My dream truck was a Dodge Ram 1500 4X4 extended cab. I found one and barely got financing for this beautiful 1997 Ram that looked just like the Walker Texas Ranger Dodge complete with rollbar and push bumper. It had the 5.9L which gave me no problems, but shortly after buying it, the trans went out. One year later the trans went out again. The place I bought it went half for me both times, but 6 months later the trans went out again. In this year I also had to rebuild the entire front end, all U-joints, ball joints, tie rod bars, track bar, swaybar links, front bearings both burned up, and all kinds of other problems.

I got tired of pissing with it and got me a Chevy :)

I was turned off since that truck and even recently sold my 1971 Dodge Demon because of my disgust with Chrysler corporation. The Demon hated me anyway and I got 3 times what I paid for it :)

Dodge Rams are perfectly fine if you like buying gas and like manual trannies or aftermarket non dodge setups. (Yes I own a low mileage 1500 crew because it was cheap and I was stupid)

Dodge automatics can be almost reliable but you must shift them manually as the sensors crap out and burn out the tranny prematurely if you don't notice. Also stay out of OD until you get up to about 65 (no your mileage actually goes up strangely) My truck even after replacement of the sensors gets about 18mpg in 3rd, 14mpg in 4th. Something very wrong with the gearing, especially since the thing is solid and doesn't slip.

Depends on your disability, but a mid-80s 4x2 Sub with a late model 6.5 with 6.2 pre-cups and a T56 could get a good driver into the 30s.

Like most of GM's "bad" engines, the last of the 6.5s had the bugs worked out, but you had to get past the fact they were not Class 4 or 5 engines line the Cummins B or the International 444 school bus motor. But the 6.5s are 300 lb lighter and will be a bolt-up in a Sub.