Managed to pick up a cold air box from a 98 for my 94 burb this weekend. The seller made some good points while talking about the 6.5 and the "bad" reputation this engine seems to get.

Many of these trucks were purchased as work trucks and in the construction business, a lot of these vehicles have much more run time on them than drive time. If you are looking at a work truck that has 100,000 miles on it, it may seem to be a good deal, but a lot of times, these trucks get driven 10-20 miles to the work site, idle for 10 hours, and drive 10-20 miles back to base. You then end up with 20-40 miles, but an engine that has 11 hours of run time. Many of these companies will change the oil at 3000 miles, but how much actual run time is on the engine? it could be equal to 50,000 miles. Granted idling is not putting the same stress on the motor, but at 100,000 miles, you could be looking at 500,000 miles of equivolent wear. An hour meter would be a better indicator of the wear on the vehicle, but it is not something that GM installed.

When you are looking at a truck with a 6.5, try to find out if it was used for a work vehicle and keep this in mind. I am at 213,000 right now, and with some fixing up, I hope to get another 15 years or more out of this beast, since I only put 5000-7000 miles per year on this thing.

 

That could be true for any truck. Ford sold 10+ times as many "work" trucks in the 90's.

If I'm buying a 20 year old truck with high miles I would prefer it came from a company that has fleet maintenance. At least I know it's had regular service and has been repaired by real mechanics.

Just my point of view.