I am lokking into a 98 suburban . I believe it has a 6.5 turbo diesel. it has 196000 miles.
What can I expect from this motor? How loog do these motors last?

 

it depends on its past. since its only 11 years old and with that many miles it could of had a lot highway miles which help lengthen the life of the engine a lot. but once you hit 200K the engines history will tell you what the next 100K will be like. if its been beaten and worked hard theres a good chance it wont last 50K but if it was a mom mobile with limited towing and a lot highway miles you could easily hit 300K without a rebuild.

things to check on the vehicle for tell tale sighns of the life of the engine and hoow good the parts on it will last are things like a blowby test. get the engine up to running temp which should be 190 to 195 on the gauge cluster. then open the dipstick tube and oil filller tube. no smoke means its got a lot of life let. the more smoke the worse the engine usually is. its not always accurate though. lots of people have blowby and the engine works fine and has lasted a long time but thats a good gauge on how the engine is.

also do a 2000 rpm test. again bring the truck to operating temp and in park slowly rev the engine to 2000 rpmand keep it there for 5 seconds then bring back slowly again till it reaches idle. if you cant do this smoothly or it surges the injection pump is likely on its way out.

when you go to go for a test drive tell the person selling it to not not start it so you can. when you start it take note how long it takes to fire after the glowplug cycle and once it starts what color smoke is coming out the tailpipe. and if you do buy the vehicle as always relocate the pmd

 

thanks Woody I did every thing you said to do and everthing checked out. I also took a code reader with me . No codes in computer . so i bought it.
I am very mechanicaly inclined and can trouble shoot and fix a gas engine with my eyes closed. I am new to diesel.
This morning when I was leaveing work it stalled out . It was hard to start. When it did start And I got it up to about 1800 rpm it stalled again . It started then stalled several times. after about 15 min it started and ran fine . drove home 4.5 miles.
this afternoon I whent out and turned the key ,I heard a whirling sound which i asume is the injector pump. It also made a clicking sound that stoped when the whirling stoped. It also started fine.
Any ideas what it may be?
The ip was replased in 06 Don't know the millage. The pmd is on the IP . There is a pmd with heat sink mounted on the driver side fender but it is not connected.

 

when you turn the key two things happen. the glowplugs go on so if the hood is up it makes a slight buzzing sound then it turns off after the wait to start light goes off. the second thing is the lift pump goes on and that makes a lot louder buzzing noise you can hear in the cab. the lift pump primes the system and sucks fuel out of the tank so the injection pump doesnt have to do two things at once.

you need to put the pmd out of the engine bay its too hot. if its in the engine compartment the best location is on the ip. this is because when its running its getting cooled by the fuel passing through the ip. get a cable and a new pmd and put the pmd on the inside of the bumper.

cheapest place to get reliable products

 

I actually had a 94' Chevy 6.5L Turbo Diesel truck before my dodge. Had 240,000 on it when I sold it and it still ran hard. I remember the PMD was one of the biggest things on those trucks. I eneded up mounting mine inside the cab. Even in the cab it got so hot you could not touch it. I'd say buy a new PMD if you can afford it, run the 6ft cable(sold cheap on ebay) into the cab, and keep your old one plugged in. When the truck dies, plug in the new one and see how she runs.

 

Guess I'm a little late.

 

late for what

 

Late on trying to help the dude with his problem

 

oh ok i get it