Thinking about buying a 99 Suburban 4x4 with the 6.5L Turbo Diesel and automatic tranny.

Looking for opinions from those who have experience with this engine.

Pros?

Cons?

MPG?

Things to look out for?

Any and all info welcome.

 

it sounds like a good rig but if you want to mod a 6.5L dont even bother

there was a guy somewhere that dumped a TON of cash into a 6.5L and maxed it out it had 20-30 more HP that a stock 02 ford diesel
just a thought

Brice

 

Actually not interested in modding it at all. This is a DD for momma, I want to get her burning my homemade biodiesel too. It will also be used as a family vacation rig. Probably never tow anything heavier than a 2000 lb boat with it.

 

great for realiability and fuel mileage i love mine its realible as ***** but for me i would like to move to a more powerful rig saying that ive towed over 9000lbs behind my 3/4 tonn up the malahat (a very hilly and curvacous area) very long steep hills, tows my 3000lb boat with hardly any issues ive beatin the snot out of it and she fires up in the first crank everytime....BUT i have the mechanical varient of the motor not sold past 93 so u have alot more computer crap to deal with one of the main things being a PMD that you will have to relocate almost right away behind the front bumper for best cooling performance other than that i dont know or dont think ive heard many other troubles with the computerized 6.5s

 

Good feedback so far guys. Any body else? Surely there are more than 2 people around here with some opinions...

 

had 2 of em both 96 one was a dually and one was a burban like your looking at , i loved that suburban we recently sold it . had 180k+ on her and drove great , we moved the pmd and put a cooler on it, upgraded the engine cooler lines is a must, got 22 mpgs with 3.42 gears , and even got 19 on a family trip with the 5 of us and luggage going to Tennessee. the only major thing we did was replace the inj pump at 165k or so. the dually was awesome it had 4in exhaust, intake modified , pmd moved it was a reliable truck and a reliable engine but sold off in 04 for a new dmax to tow the 38ft fifth wheel

 

if your running bio you got to tone down the mix for ds4 pump it has. they dont like it very much since it runs a optic sensor for timing

 

Unless u grabbed a Pre 93 vintage they have no pmd no optic sensor all mechanical injection baby u could run the damn thing on anything

 

That may be a deal breaker right there. If I can't run 100% bio in it I don't think it will work for me. When you say "tone down the mix" what level seems to work OK? Think 50/50 would be OK?..

Is there any workaround for this optic sensor? Any way to fool it or make it work with fuel that is darker than plain old #2 pump diesel?

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Yeah, if I could find a low-mileage 92 or 93 that was in good enough (read pristine) condition to convince my wife that trading her 2001 Grand Cheorkee for it is a good idea. Somehow I'm not seeing that as being very likely. Not too many 17 or 18 year old rigs around that are in as good of shape as her Grand. I may end up having to shell out twice as much cash and buy a Ford Excursion...

 

Buy it and swap out the 6.5 for a 12v