My first diesel to own is the 93 GMC 5sp that I currently have 20%disassembled and taking up realestate. It came into my life through my father who I finally convinced to stop buying and fixing SB Dodge 250 gassers. I still have one 91 SB 250 power ram but that's another story. My dad needed the truck for keeping material and trash moving around his construction business (one of my jobs) and now three or four years later at 58, he's retired from the trade. My dad could see what difference a diesel could make and bought two more. A '94 CC and then a '96 that was much nicer on the inside. In the first yaer i owned the 93 I had mechanics work on it. I didn't know exactly what everything was and doing construction pays enough to not want to get greasy. What made me start working on my truck myself was my desire to modify the trucks for more power and getting screwed by mechanics and not being able to trust what I was being told. That's what brought me to the dieselplace off a google search in the first place. I bought a service manual, and tools as I needed them and I have been our mechanic ever since. I see 6.5's in traffic pulling and smoking all the time. I had some cards printed up and I give them out to people with 6.5's when I can. I think the 6.5 has been a very transformitive experience. It hasn't all come at once but bit by bit I feel like I know the system more and more and my desired modifications get refined. I enjoy sharing every experience here on the forum and I know that every new post here is adding to the collective consiousness of 6.5

Well spoken QM.


Me, had the 6.5's now for about 10 years and am very mechanically inclined, but when it comes to these diesels...hmmmm. I think i'm still dumber than a scrub brush! http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Approve.gif

So are you asking everyone's diesel experience? Well my dad has a fuel shop he has owned and operated for almost 40 years so I spent most of my summers up there from about 15. Worked there on and off part-time and full-time for about 5 years. 1½ years at college, 3 with the Army, 6 months for him full time and now one full year with the fuel shop I currently work for. I've always had a diesel of my own to tinker with...'85 Jeep Cherokee Chief 2.2L Renault Turbo Diesel, '79 VW Rabbit diesel, '90 6.2L Blazer, '94 6.5 3/4 ton 4x4, and now my '94 Blazer.

i learned how to drive a tractor when i was seven. internatioal 884 diesel. awesome tractor. still have it today. we also have a farmall 560 gasser, ih 3688 and 5088 diesels, and our caseih 1640 combine has the 5.9 cummins in it.

Yeah, I didn't mention tractors. I too learned to drive a tractor before 10 and I have a 3cyl MF diesel and a 2 cylinder iseki garden tractor that needs to be rebuilt.

I have been curious about diesels for well over 15 years. Never owned one until about 9 months ago, and had a crash course in diesel repair. I've driven 7.3L Navistars for about the last 10 years, (always someone else's) but now, I'm happy to have my own in my driveway.

Hand-built my rig over Winter '99.


Jacked it up as 2wd, hand chiseled all suspension\brackets loose, re-drilled frame for 4wd components (100+ new holes), set it back down 3wks later 4wd.


Week later the 'F' 6.5L was secured and occupying it's reigning position between the frame rails


Took six weeks to interface '95 6.5L PCM harness to truck harness, design tach drive off Crank Position Sensor, rework instrument cluster for electronic speedo, add 'new' Service Engine Soon and Service Throttle Soon warnings.


Building 3" downpipe, adapting F**d 3.5" stainless exhaust system, reworking drive shafts, replumbing brake and fuel lines, refining 2wd\4wd supports and brackets, reworking ac housing to clear turbo, dis-assemble, rebuild and rework bed for dual rear wheels .


Time, and time again.


Meanwhile, I'm learning the various systems by guess or by gosh.


CDR? Why, that's nuthin' but a HVLP regulator.


Glow plugs? Been there, done that - flown my share of model airplanes.


Fuel injection pump? Nuthin' but a hydraulic pump with some precision leaks at the end of the lines.


PCM? Computers ain't smart - cain't do nuthin' but what they're told, do the same thing over and over again - just real fast idiots.


Throttle Position Sensor? Ha - don't make me laugh! I got five controls on my guitar, and that ain't even countin' the switches!


Man! Now - if I can just figger out that TDC Offset, I'll be a expert, just like all them other good monkey wrench guys. http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Wink.gifEdited by: gmctd

Westebeke & Detroit powered motor whale boats and Gig in USN back in the 80's, helped Uruguay Navy get some big 1940s era Ex USN EMDs fixed so the ship could get underway without making smoke.


Tinkered with some Volvo & Mercedes Diesels now & again, Own Ford & John Deere tractors, got a 2001 VW TDI New Beetle last year, and GM 6.5 since 2001, about 20 years fooling with Diesels here & there didn't get into it seriously until buying the 6.5 and becoming a power junkie on a shoe string budget.


Had a wrench in my hand since just after I could walk Dad said I was always "fixing" something. Cars in Junior & Senior High school when you could still a salvageable with little effort muscle car for under $1000, and junk yards would let you scrounge your own stuff, cars that sounded like something powered by gas, not trying to supress it thru a chrome "Fart can". A lopey idle with a big cam was cool.


Jets my 1st passion since 1980, spent 6 years "In the Hole" (engineroom) working anything related to making the ships propeller go round and round. Got out of USN been doing pretty much same thing ever since.Edited by: Turbine Doc

humm.. 3mo's or so..

Gotta start somewhere i guess.. :)

I have the funny feeling this 6.5 is gonna teach me a lot.. unfortunately..

It seems.. i can never just own a vehicle where you just gas it and drive.. my jeep is the most reliable of the bunch..it's ALMOST a gas/drive.. but i like to bury it in the mud.. so it atleast has an excuse to not start.. i was kinda hopin the 6.5 was gonna be before i bought it.. guess not..

-- WheatKing

i got this truck in '98 with 55k on it and now with over 240k i've seen the good the bad and the s**tty. we've laughed, we've cried, it laughed while i cried.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Cry.gif you know normal stuff.

My first was a new 93 Chevy 6.5TD
Second one was a 97
2001 Dmax
2004 Dodge

Fun with all of them. Edited by: hoot

I was a gas mechanic for 15 years while I worked my way through undergrad and law school. I bought my first 94 K1500 6.5L turbo two years ago at auction despite the bad I had heard and fell in love with it when I was getting 21 mpg. I sold it and searched for a 6.5L in Suburban and finally found one a year and half ago and have been loving it ever since. I am holding out until duramax comes in a suburban.


Although I know gassers pretty good I knew nothing about diesels before my purchase other than they had more torque and better fuel economy. My own breakdowns and this board have given me a crash course in the 6.5L. Although I don't have a scanner and some other things I would like, at least now I can change the IP in under an hour and 15 minutes and the mystery of the diesel is becoming clearer.


Thanks for all the posts by the experts and beginners that have helped educate me.

I have had Diesels for about 15 years I was a couple of years without.


We had a Peugot 504 it was nice car but you couldn't get parts for the damn thing. I got a new glow plug controller that looked nothing like the old and it burned up glow plugs. After a couple hundred bucks in long distance calls I found out that the danm French made a replcement controller to cover 3 models and that it worked ok with 2 models and not well with the 3rd guess which one we had! I will never buy ANYTHING Automotive that is French. I believe in Click and Clacks staement that only French deserve to own drive French cars.


I bought my 1995 new in 1996 and been very happy with the Chevy.

I've always had a thing for diesels. My uncle used to own a cement company and I remember getting to sit in the big International cement trucks and pull the air horn when I was little. Great fun!

Since then, I've always wanted a 1-ton crew cab long bed dually pickup with a big, powerful diesel engine. I got my C2500 long bed extended cab with the 6.5 a bit under a year ago. I've put 30,000 HARD miles on it towing, hauling, or both for extended periods of time. With 172,600k on the clock now the thing amazes me every day with its refusal to not work. I know a lot more about diesels than I did when I bought it, and I'm learning more by the day (what brought me to the Diesel Place). I've always done my own work on cars because 1) I can't afford to let anyone else do it 2) I don't trust anyone else to do it and 3) I really enjoy doing it myself.

172,600 miles down, and I expect to own this thing well past the 300,000 mile marker.

Todd, thanks for that ride on way back machine, I re-membered that when I was 6 or 7, a contractor and his crew had started clearing the land next to our house for an apartment complex and A friend and I asked to ride on a dozer that was pushing trees down. I remember getting gear grease smeared all over my pants leg as the dozer reved up and poped these large southern yellow pines and bring them crashing down.


Perhaphs the fascination begins early in our lives.

Not my normal place to hang out, but seen the topic and thought I would chime in. I really had not much diesel experience or even interest before I purchased my dmax, and the only reason I really got that was that I wanted a c/c and I liked the color. As with anything, you gain an interest in things you own and already being a Master Mechanic, i wanted to learn more on the diesel. One of my good local customers and I were talking shortly after I purchased my truck and he mentioned the diesel page. I started reading posts on it and relized how bad people were being misled by the dealers and being in the dealer myself, I joined and started helping out where I could. Obviously my interest and knowledge on the subject has grown vastly and am just starting to pick up as much as I can on the 6.5 also as there are so many on the road that also need serviced. Its by no means a strong point for me, but i frequently read the posts in this forum to see what I can pick up.

Hey QM, my name's Ted, not Todd! http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif Good to see you, I'm trying to catch up here after being absent for so long.

On another similar note, I remember being 6 or 7 and walking by the local fire department with my mom one day. The fireman let me sit in the fire truck and told me what all the buttons and such did. Little things like that really make an impression on kids, even though they won't remember most, if any, of the specifics you tell them. THat's one reason why whenever kids are around (namely my cousins' and friends' kids since I'm only 20) while I'm doing car stuff I make a point of including them and answering all their questions, even though it means it takes me 10 times as long. Not enough kids these days like cars, so it's our responsibility to spread the passion to the younger folk.

Sorry 'bout that Ted,


I remember at least one firetruck and making airhorn motions to the big truck drivers. I can't keep boys out of my wrenches.Edited by: quantum mechanic

I got my first diesel back in 1995. It was a 6.2L 'Burban 4x4. I loved that truck. I didn't love that it seemed to have expensive tastes in parts. It seemed to love to eat trannys, 700R-4's to be exact (never good when a girl knows exactly what tranny her truck has when she doens't know that much about them in general.) All my friends were jealous and loved to ride in it. My sister in law refused to drive with me as I used to put it into spots a miata couldn't fit into. I was super impressed when I helped my brother move an entire living room set with 3 people and an akita all inside the truck...lol. I used to get 800 miles to the tank to boot. That truck also ate a starter and one of my wires was slowly cutting itself in 1/2 causing my lights and radio to cut out. I was a bit leery of getting this truck until I found out that it was a different tranny...lol. Now we have another one and I love this truck even tho it causes us issues sometimes. :)

Jill

I'm drawn to diesels because I am into turbochargers. I think its cool you can have a motor with over 20:1 compression and still have over 10 psi.....and do that and still have it pass emissions.


I'm just a humble farm kid who grew up atround tractors....

My first was a 1981 VW Rabbit - Didn't do much work on it, she was tough and got about 50 mpg... After that I dealt with Fairbanks-Morse diesels in the Navy (subs) and I currently work at a nuke power plant where we have various industrial diesels... I have owned my 95' 6.5L TD for 2 years now. It has had it's share of problems, but I'm learning alot, that's gotta be worth something...http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif

I bought mine about 3 years ago. Back in '85-86, I helped the EN's maintain diesels on the Tin can I was stationed on. (I was an MM) Unfortunately, that didn't help make me any more knowledgable about the one I own.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Embarrased.gif

My stepfather from my age of 11 owned a truck repair garage and had a fleet of big wreckers. One of his hand built B61 Mack wreckers was once featured in Overdrive magazine. I was around diesels all my formative years. He was into them so much that he always drove (and still does) a diesel suburban. He's had 6.2's from the early days and even had shop trucks with the old gassers conversions, and get this....my mother had a diesel Cadillac.


Although I was around them a lot I never learned much about them at the time. I've always loved the brute force and pure simplicity of a diesel engine and yes......I like the clatter. I was recently asked why we diesel guys always leave our rigs running to which I had a speedy reply......'cause we like listening to them run.


Fast forward to my adulthood. 8 years ago I got a job 57 miles from home. I needed economy so I bought an '84 Rabbit diesel and have gotten hooked on the VW diesel. Have had many VW diesels since and love their simplicity, longevity and economy. I currently drive a '91 1.6 liter N/A diesel Jetta with 246k miles and get 48 mpg running at 75 mph.


Recently bought a '96 K2500 (almost a year ago) with a 6.5 TD and have learned a ton from this forum.


Thanks guys

I knew a buddy who had a diesel '84 Rabbit about 10 years back and learned very little about it. Talked another buddy into getting an '85 MBZ 300TD - now hes looking for another after selling a fine running war wagon with over 450k miles.


I worked with an engine development program by Perkins in the UK some 7 years ago. V12, 34 litres, 6 turbochargers, 3200hp.


My first diesel is my current rig, I've put only 3000 miles on it so far.