Hey guys, looking for some advice.

I have a 6.5L TD 1996 Silverado 1500 with approximately 260K miles on it. I bought this truck about a year ago and have only put around 7K miles on it since I was deployed for a good chunk of that time. My wife drives it mainly when I'm gone.

Over the past 6 months its started acting up. On start it will sound rough and kick black smoke until you tap the trottle and then it smooths out and the smoke goes clean immediatley. More concerning is that while driving down the road (maybe twice a week, sometimes more, sometimes less) it seems like someone just turned off the truck and you lose power steering and brakes and need to pull over, throw it in park and restart. Its has so far started back up everytime.

Additionally, it has had an issue about 4 times in the past 6 months where you go to start it and it just refuses to light off. Startter seems to be cranking fine and the glow plugs click and the indicator works but it just wont start. If you let it sit for another 15 min then it ends up starting. This has happend after driving it down to a store and then coming out and also after it has sat untouched for a week.

From my reading so far it sounds like its likely a PMD failure. The previous owner has the relocated PMD kit installed which mounts a black PMD to the underside of a heat sink mounted on the intake. I do not know how long ago he did this mod or how old the PMD is.

At this time, I am pretty ignorant on diesel motors and am trying to learn. I dropped off the truck this morning at the chevy dealer to be looked at but I'm not confident they'll find the problem. Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what could be causing these symptoms? If it is the PMD, does anyone have any experience with the Pensacola Diesel Remote PMD mount with DTech PMD?

Lastly, looking as this is going to cost me a few hundred dollars, is it worth it? How much life is average to get out of these engines? I would like to start modifiying it but am worried that I'll throw some money in it and then it reaches the end of its time before I really get the use out of it.

Thanks for the help and any advice.

 

Yes it does sound like PMD going south on you. Just take your heat sink off the intake mount it in the front bumper and put new PMD on it you can buy harness or make your owen

 

This PMD problem is bull, like every single owner of these models have this problem isn't there something we can do to get the Chevy Manufacture to recall them and fix them, this is crap, like a sham, almost makes me want file a complaint,and start a petition or something.. anyone else?????