Oh jeez where to begin...

sure, any engine that see's neglect will come apart...but tell me, with regular oil changes, coolant changes, etc, how long will your gas v8 last before it needs a rebuild? 200k? give or take 80k...

my diesel will go over 1 million miles before it needs a rebuild. you read that right...1 MILLION MILES. crank shafts, main bearings, valves, piston rings, pistons, rods, etc, just last frikken forever in a diesel engine. now there's 2 major reasons why a cummins engine lasts so long...

1. the engine is VERY overbuilt because it was never designed to be a motor for a road vehicle. it was designed to run @ 2200rpm 10+ hours a day 7 days a week in heavy equipment and boats. Its a motor built for excavators, and loaders, and dozers, large boats, ford F650's, and large RV's...the dodge ram is the smallest vehicle they ever put that motor into, and they detuned the motor via computer tune, and injector size so the dodge transmissions and drive trains could stand a chance of holding up to their torque.

2. it runs on diesel fuel. diesel fuel is like an oil. its thicker and has more oil based properties than gasoline. it coats parts and reduces friction acting like engine oil itself keeping parts well lubricated.

Gasonline is more like a solvent than like an oil. gasoline tends to strip lubrication away from things. it requires spark to ignite, and produces higher dryer temps than diesel. it causes more friction, heat, and its process of burning wears parts out faster due to its nature. then you take the fact it was built to be a passenger vehicle, and it really was designed to produce the power they came with from the factory without hardly any detuning which is why a "chip" for a gasoline only makes 10-20hp tops, and a "chip" for a diesel makes anywhere from 65-250hp..

that's not hard to do...put too much fuel in without supporting mods, and overspool the turbo, or put too much boost without studs and blow the head gasket which can blow the turbo. but even then, the engine itself is fine, the turbo is just shot.. put a new turbo on, put a head gasket on, and its back to 100% again. cummins bottom end is VERY hard to damage. it would take severe neglect to hurt the rotating assembly. The bottom end in a cummins is literally good for 800HP with ZERO modifications to the pistons, rods, block, crank, bearings, cam, etc... only head studs push rods and valve springs need to be addressed to make the engine handle 800hp...and it will take it all day long.

now get over 1000hp and thats when you will see rods start bending and pistons start melting...

read above...these engines if even given just oil changes every 10,000-15,000 miles and a coolant change every 100k will easily go 500k without any major issues...injection pump, turbo, or something similar might die, but the engine itself will still be fine.

till one of your injectors crack lol injector cracking ain't a problem for 2nd gens...

 

Nice.
Not really trying to bash the Cummins, just providing another point of view for other folks.
I will be honest, the only thing I hate about the Cummins (other than the douchebag following around my area) is the price.

 

Guy i know has a 96 3500 cummins, supposedly rolled it over to 1million miles. If its true, its the most bulletproof motor i've driven. But he's quiet the bull****ter.

 

^^^ Many people have rolled over a million with 12/24v cummins dodges.

 

I agree with the frustration of diesel shopping. It's maddening seeing all these idiot high schoolers in my area taking daddy's truck and putting a stupid *** stack on it, chipping it, running the guts out of it, and then when it's starting to cost more to fix/maintain than they would like, they list it up for sale for $15k and talk about how it's worth more than that and "oh look it's got stacks LOLOMGWTFBBQ" and all that crap. I'm not about to pay $15k for a ragged out pickup with 300k on it and it's had some 17 year old snot behind the wheel freight-training it for two years.

But, I digress. It's the nature of the beast. I'd be happy with a 190HP 6Bt turned up a little with a reliable cooling system. No electronics for me, please. I'd rather have a one-wire setup that is reliable no matter what and can run on WVO/WMO/biodiesel without a hiccup.

 

this...

I'll add this, too: I've a close friend who is a parts manager at a Dodge dealership.. she see's many a CTD down and out with less than 150k miles on them.. the consensus from the mechanics (and the ONE diesel mechanic they have) is that the engines are being ran outside their intended parameters.. meaning, they damn near MUST be stressed out some, such as towing/hauling, instead of runnin' groceries and kids to ball games.. .. otherwise they build up quite a bit of gunk which dislodges at inopportune times- causing anything from EGR issues, to valve spring failure, to what the hell ever else you can imagine..

If you're in need of a diesel, by all means, get one.. if you do get one, howz about NOT rollin' coal everywhere you go- all you're doing is lighting a fuse that you really don't wanna light.. (read: cost of repair)..

reasonable power, to me, is around 400rwhp, and 6~800#'s of torque.. I can't imagine needing more than that at any given time.. for anything.. that can get made for not a whole lot, and it can be sustained for a long time on those things..

 

Indeed. I rarely pull a trailer, and when I do, it has my lawn mower on it. I have no real need for more than 250 horse power. What I like about the Cummins is the fuel flexability (well, any good non-CR diesel has that ability), the economy compared to a gas engine with the same power, and the longevity and ability to idle for long periods. Those are my needs.

Common rail diesels are pretty fragile. My gramps ran an '06 Liberty CRD and while I loved the engine in that thing, it was very easy to damage. The timing belt had to be replaced at 100k and that cost well over $1500 to have done. Not replacing it was asking for a blown up engine. The motor was sensitive to anything but pump diesel, unless gramps wanted to mod it, and he didn't.

 

Get what you pay for

not uncommon to see a cummins with over 1 million miles on it.. in fact I know a few with 1.3 million miles and still counting!

I agree, putting stacks on the trucks is just stupid. and I think its stupid when they want to modify a diesel just to make it smoke, and not actually build any power and think they have the best thing out there...gives us diesel guys a bad image..


EGR's are a problem for the diesels that come with them...(2nd gens have ZERO factory emissions equipment)

if you get a newer diesel, best thing you can do to it is delete the EGR, DPF, and cat. EGR is the worst thing you can put on a diesel as its pumping all that soot your putting out the tailpipe right back into your intake manifold to clog things up. delete it and the engine stays spotless.

now I'm my case and anyone with a 98.5-02's case, our trucks didn't come with ANY emissions crap. no cats, no egr's, no DPF's. which is why they run so good for so long and actually get BETTER fuel economy than the newer diesels with all that junk on them.

If you delete that crap you can drive a diesel like a grandma all you want and never hurt it.

reasonable power to me is 300-550hp which is the range my truck is in. if I turn the electronics down, 375RWHP, turn them up, 550hp. power when I need it, but doesn't have to always be there. I built my truck to be reliable with its power...so even though its got 550hp, it can tow heavy at that power without having to stare at your gauges...twins make towing a dream because they eliminate high EGT/temp issues and reduce turbo lag/smoke output. costs more to do a build like mine, but like most things in life, you get what you pay for..

for modding a diesel there's a saying... "pick any two because you can't have all 3: Fast, cheap, reliable"

 

Good posting. The EGR was another problem on the CRD my gramps had.

What year did the 6Bt stop being, essentially, one-wire and switch to a computerized system?

 

common rail cummins diesels aren't fragile. delete the EGR and cat, and its a good engine. they do have an issue with cracking injectors, but that's really their only issue once you get rid of the emissions system...cummins don't use timing belts.. everything in the engine is built industrial grade.

now I'm not saying ALL diesels are great, because that would be like saying ALL gasoline engines are great, and everyone knows that is simply not true... there are a lot of junk diesels out there, like the chevy 6.5 turbo diesels from the early 90's...junk..they couldn't keep an injection pump alive if their life depended on it. their 6.2 was an underpowered fuel guzzling POS. ford 6.0 power strokes were riddled with problems. VW TDIs have EGRs that clog the intake and the motor isn't built very stout...modify it beyond stock power and they bend rods..

so by no means are all diesels better than gasolines...but the cummins 6bt is an amazing motor just because it is extremely overbuilt. a good analogy is they built a standard powered engine with parts made to hold up to extreme high powered racing conditions...like taking a v8 and putting forged H beam chromoly rods, and billet cranks, and forged pistons, etc in a 4 bolt main block with extended oil pan and high volume oil pump, etc with roller rockers and all the goodies made to handle extreme conditions...

motors are ridiculously overbuilt...just look at oil capacity...v8 holds what 5 6 quarts? cummins holds 10 quarts in the pan, 1 in the filter... 11 quarts of oil! and diesel not having solvent like properties, does not break down the oil...oil lasts a LONG time in a diesel because of the nature of its fuel.