Does anyone have any comments about a 95,3/4 ton chevy 4x4,6.5
diesel,and what do you think it is worth in good condition?? thanks

Greetings,

I owned a '95 Chevy 6.5L turbo diesel for many years and enjoyed it, but I
can say with all authority that it was a learning experience. Also, since
this motor had certain issues, it is not the motor to look for unless you
are prepared to put in time and money on preventative maintenance and
upkeep. It's also not the best motor of its generation for power, so
frankly in my opinion if you are looking for something powerful, reliable
and with easy maintenance then I suggest that you look at a 6.6L Duramax
diesel instead.

The 6.5L TD had indirect injection, ultra-high compression ratio (over
21:1), no intercooler, a small diameter turbo and only two valves per
cylinder. Now all of these things have their good and bad points but it's
far from state of the art.

The problems with this motor included a problematic Fuel Solenoid Driver
(based on a poor mounting location), a problematic fuel injection pump
(mostly because of the FSD), and had an issue with burn-through on the head
gaskets for the two rear-most cylinders.

All of these issues are fixable but they require knowledge, time and most
importantly money. If the truck you are looking at has had a new fuel
injection pump installed fairly recently, and FSD cooler installed and the
FSD relocated away from the FI pump, and preferrably a post-'97 high flow
water pump with dual thermostats and crossover installed then it just might
be worth a hard look at. If not, then just consider that you may end up
doing one or all of these modifications to this motor eventually. By the
way, a good rebuilt FI pump could run you over $1800.00 installed.

Just my two cents worth - Jonathan

<chuckvogel (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote

On Apr 24, 11:23 pm, "Jonathan" <Fire_Capt... (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Jonathan,Thanks for your info,very helpful,I have to make a decesion
by friday, just not sure what to do.I can get for 5000$,it is an
extended cab,and is in good shape,with 156000mi. This would be my 1st
diesel and am a little leary of it.It does have a new injector
pump,and air cond work,everything else is untouched.To my knowledge it
only pulled a john boat.The only thing that bothered me about my
inspection was a "deep,low" knocking sound that i could only hear from
inside the center of the cab,mabee the tourqe converter???? Couldnt
really hear it outside the cab,thats the only thing that i keep
thinking about.Any ideas,and what would you do buy or pass? THANKS FOR
YOUR INFO, I APPRECIATE IT ,CHUCK

On 25 Apr 2007 21:38:15 -0700, chuckvogel (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net wrote:


First, Johnathan, that was a nice post you made. Next the 6.5 is
basically a improved 6.2 and the low tech prechamber design gave the
engine a wider usable RPM range and generally good responce to
throttle input simuliar to a gas motor. The biggest problem area with
them was the injector pump (most expensive too) and it sounds like
this one had had this done. I have seen some 6.2's and 6.5's go 300K
miles (they did require at least one pump change). On the knocking
noise, diesel can be noisy especailly ifa injector or too goes bad. If
the oil pressure is good when hot then engines internals should be
fine. If you get this, do change oil regularly every 3K miles or so on
that older engine and you will likely get several years more out of
its internals. Also make sure cooling system is in good order as you
do not want to ever overheat it as it could go badly for engine.
-----------------
TheSnoMan.com

Let me add to SnoMan's post that I believe one of the most important
modifications/additions that you can make to this motor is an FSD cooler.
It is well worth the price. Please check out this link for a better
explanation than I have the patience to write:

http://www.thedieselpage.com/reviews/FSDCooler.htm

Thedieselpage.com is an excellent resource for GM diesels. One other thing
I can recommend off-hand (which goes in tandem with Sno's advice to change
the oil every 3,000 miles) is to use a can of Restore with every oil change.
With such a high compression ratio, this motor will blacken oil almost
immediately after a change and Restore I found helps by reducing the amount
of blow-by inside the cylinders at the rings. This is my personal
experience only, your mileage may vary. I used to say that when I changed
the oil, by the time I drove around the block once it would be black again.
It took about 4 or more oil changes with adding Restore, but I eventually
began to see a positive difference. I only hope that the guy who bought the
truck from me is keeping up with it.

Cheers - Jonathan

"SnoMan" <admin (AT) snoman (DOT) com> wrote

I had a 6.2 for a number of years. Got better fuel mileage than any truck
I've owned before or since. Could get 28 on the highway and it was a 4X4. My
only difficult problem was a broken lifter. That's how I figured out it took
5 full minutes to get oil to the rocker arms. All the exhaust rockers and
shafts were bad. About half the intake rockers were bad too. That was how I
learned about the cost of Diesel parts! $45+ for a lifter, $11+ rocker arms.
What are they for a gas V8, about $2? Anyway, it was a decent engine, very
hard to work on the lifters since there is no opening in the top of the
block to get to them. Used no oil ever, no blow by, always started
instantly. Made lots of "big truck" noise

The fuel pump died at about 75K miles. I repaired it myself. On mine there
was a rubber coupling inside the pump. It disintegrated and the rubber got
in the pump mechanism. Bought a late model coupling that was all metal and
cleaned out the pump. Was not so hard to do. Lots of people said I would
never get it adjusted correctly. Was not a problem at all.

The 6.2's Stanadyne pump is also used on some 6.9 and 7.3 Ford diesels and
they have the same problems

Al