6.5 diesel Detroit Controversy

CumminsFever · Jul 7, 2024

skylark said:
Strong feelings indeed. If you had a girlfriend let you down time after time and she liked to randomly kick you in the balls, you'd have strong feelings too! If that girlfriend was a smoking hot , nymphomaniac ex prom queen and you were into pain then it might be worth it. The rest of us just cut our losses and get the heck out.

I read into your comments above that you don't really trust the 6.5 either. If you can't do all of the truck stuff then you might as well get ab El Camino.

Well, you read correctly. My opinion of the 6.5 is that it is a LIGHT DUTY diesel. This means 1500 territory. You correctly hit it, things you could do with an El Camino.
Beyond that is territory not yet proven reliable by the majority of the 6.5 out there. Perhaps the p400 will do it? A friend just put one in his truck, center mounted a 66mm turbo, and it's getting enough fuel to make north of 350hp. So far, the 6l90e transmission is the weak point.

smdk2500 · Jul 7, 2024

CumminsFever said:
(don't all 6.5 owners keep spare engines?)

I keep my spare 6.5 installed in another truck that isn't road worthy yet does that count?

Schurkey · Jul 7, 2024

I'd be concerned that the sugar in the chocolate bars would be troublesome.

someotherguy · Jul 7, 2024

Schurkey said:
I'd be concerned that the sugar in the chocolate bars would be troublesome.

Ingredients: "Milk Chocolate (Sugar, Milk, Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Milk Fat, Lecithin, PGPR, Natural Flavor)"

PGPR is "polyglycerol polyricinoleate" an emulsifier made from glycerol and fatty acids from castor oil.

I'm no chemist, but between the sugar, cocoa butter, lecithin, and PGPR.. I'm not surprised Hershey bars burn under the right conditions.

Richard

smdk2500 · Jul 7, 2024

someotherguy said:
I'm not surprised Hershey bars burn under the right conditions.

They sure do burn in my stomach when I eat them.

Schurkey · Jul 7, 2024

Food for people might be "carbo-hydrates".
Food for engines are "hydro-carbons" of multiple hydrogen-atom--carbon-atom arrangements.

Nobody has been able to tell me why the order of the words changes depending on the ultimate use.

454cid · Jul 8, 2024

Schurkey said:
Food for people might be "carbo-hydrates".
Food for engines are "hydro-carbons" of multiple hydrogen-atom--carbon-atom arrangements.

Nobody has been able to tell me why the order of the words changes depending on the ultimate use.

Hydrocarbons are just carbon and hydrogen, but carbohydrates have other stuff like oxygen (or maybe oxygen is the only other thing?)

This is according to Google. I never thought of it until you brought up the sugar concern. I had heard that sugar won't dissolve in gas.

skylark · Jul 8, 2024

CumminsFever said:
I'll give the longish story.
My old boss got a 53' flatbed load of waste chocolate from hershey every week. This was far in excess of what he could feed to cattle, and storing it wasn't an option at the time. So, some of it would fall into a fire. I noticed how, once it got hot, it burnt very clean. So, I took a 5 gallon bucket of chocolate home. Strait chocolate, like your standard hershey bar. In a cooking pot I melted a hunk of it, then put a 6.5 marine injector in our pop tester, and proceeded to spray melted chocolate. Torch in hand, i sprayed the chocolate and held the torch up to it. WOOF! A clean burn! Quickly cleaned out the stuff, and set up a spare engine on the stand. (don't all 6.5 owners keep spare engines?) In a larger cooking pot I put a hunk of chocolate and plumbed lines to the injector pump of the engine. Propane torch made short work of melting the chocolate, and a few revolutions later the old 6.5 came alive!
Ever smelled burnt chocolate? Horrible. Like burnt vegetable oil and burnt hair mixed. However, it did run. It ran clean.
To be fair, there was NO filtering involved, and I would not recommend this. However, with heat and filtering, motoring down the road is possible on chocolate bars.

I really like that you experimented with that.

CumminsFever · Jul 8, 2024

skylark said:
I really like that you experimented with that.

The 6.5, when mechanically injected, with marine injectors set at a fairly high pop pressures, can burn alot of junk fuels. I ran mine on 100% waste motor oil. The design of the injection chamber gives the 6.5 a great advantage over a direct injected engine. This is where the 6.5 shines brightest. Daily drive it while burning free fuels!
With the correct turbo setup, correct lifters, better rockers, and mechanical injection, the 6.5 can be a respectable engine. I still wouldn't tow with it. We can dissipate heat fairly well from the water, but the issue we see most is a bearing problem. The bearings grab the crankshaft. Mains and/or rods. What we are experimenting with currently is a bit more clearance in the bearing/crankshaft journals. Our theory is that the stock crank is swelling with heat. The heat you'd get while towing. Slightly more clearance gives more oil cushion, and room to "grow".
The experiments continue! Sadly, not in my truck.

Erik the Awful · Jul 8, 2024

CumminsFever said:
My opinion of the 6.5 is that it is a LIGHT DUTY diesel. This means 1500 territory.

Back in the day it was a heavy duty diesel. This should tell us how much diesels have improved in the last thirty years.

6.5 diesel Detroit Controversy

CumminsFever

I'm Awesome

smdk2500

I'm Awesome

Schurkey

Supporting Member

someotherguy

Even more awesome in person

smdk2500

I'm Awesome

Schurkey

Supporting Member

454cid

Sooper Pooper

skylark

I'm Awesome

CumminsFever

I'm Awesome

Erik the Awful

Supporting Member

Similar threads

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Share this page