Best Diesel Pickup Engines! Are they worth a damn? Chevy, Ford, RAM, GMC

so guys I know this isn't a perfect backdrop to the topic we're gonna be talking about but you know there are a lot of people out there who think they know a lot about diesel engines and what makes them run what makes them fail problems they have and what they consider a reliable engine what they consider an unreliable engine and then there's folks that actually know a lot about diesel engines because they work on them so I'm actually here with a buddy of mine named Justin who is a diesel mechanic and I wouldn't just say diesel mechanic your whole deal is modifying upgrading diesel engines right that's all I do so I try to stay specialized work on the domestics only at ford chevy dodge cummins powerstroke Duramax and it lets me really focus on what I'm trying to accomplish so customers come in with various concerns from having issues where the truck won't even run all the way up to having performance goals and needs in mind so we just try to sit down and break it down and say okay this is what we're trying to accomplish this is what we have to do a lot of people come in they've been on the forums they've been looking around they have kind of a general idea what they want a need but there's a lot of misinformation out there so I try to interject my experiences with what they're trying to do and we've put together a good package for for their goals so it's not a question for you so when you look at Ford Powerstroke engines especially the six oh and the six four from the early 2000s to mid to late to 2000s what's your take on these engines are all of them that you find even if you find let's say a low mileage 6o engine at a dealership that doesn't look like it's been ran hard even though there's really no way of telling until you get into it what's your take on these engines are they all gonna fail are they all gonna blow up on people or you know are there things people can do to them or are they okay for a while stock well you know that's something that you have to ask yourself about any vehicle of course so anytime you buy a used vehicle that's a concern has it been maintained what did they do to it they have a lot of problems that could be true to any vehicle especially diesel but yeah as far as the the 6l power stroke a64 power stroke they do have their own problems there I feel that there are resolutions to all those issues and it all comes down to you know how vehicles are maintained now the problem is now we're looking at vehicles made oh three through seven oh three through 2010 basically on six thousand six fours and there are people out there that don't know what they're doing that work on vehicles so you got a factor in hey who who's been working on this thing up and to the point that I got it so the problem is that you know what I see when I go into them people leave stuff loose stripped and broken bolts a lot of hands that worked on it so that's what really makes people you know over time there's been people who aren't qualified to work on these vehicles that have been creating in even worse condition for anybody else to come along and actually you know do a repair a simple basic repair can actually be set back hours because of a strip or broken bolt that they oh yeah they just discovered so but you know of course you know there are like going back to it there are some fixes for your common issues coolant loss due to stretched head bolts and and blown head gaskets EGR cooler failures there's quite the support in the aftermarket for all those all those modifications that need to be done to make these trucks what people throw around this term all the time but bulletproof bulletproof is basically there's there's a way to break it down for you it doesn't necessarily mean that you have the bulletproof brand parts on your vehicle it's going to mean that your basics are done you're going to either your EGR deleted or you're gonna have a fortified EGR cooler you're gonna have a ARP head studs and om gaskets there are some aftermarket gaskets out there there may not be as good as om with ARP head studs and then there's a lot of supporting mods that you know whenever you have the engine apart the STC fittings the the dummy plug stand pipes there's a various fittings from the sixth floor that have actually transferred over to the six though that that are advantageous to put in while you're there and yes there's fixes for all these stuff so these trucks can go you know another five hundred thousand miles of have a lot of customers come in to have over five hundred thousand miles on their 600 and six fours so it's it's all depends on you know you can do this stuff as preventative or you can do it when it needs it obviously it's cheaper to do it when it's a preventative because things like the cylinder heads aren't cracked already but you know there are fixes for these drugs they are great and there's stop trucks that have gone half million seven hundred fifty thousand miles so so somebody were to bring let's say six oh six four to you and they wanted it made reliable let's just say they don't want to use a term bullet proof but they just want that truck to be a damn reliable truck for three hundred four hundred thousand miles if they properly maintain it what would that generally cost something like that of course we're gonna lift the cabin number one so it looks a lot more intimidating than what it is but in reality you know we can have a cab pulled in an hour to two hours depending on if there's any aftermarket accessories in the way that actually allows us to look over the engine as you can see on this one there's not much to see except for the old caps the EGR cooler and the top of the turbo so and the intake the batteries that's about all you're saying you don't see the valve covers you don't see anything that we're actually working on so once we get the cap out of the way things are a lot more streamlined we can jump in there and pull the heads off send the heads out to have them magnaflux and checked out for issues or the valve seals everything else so but you know your typical job for a truck that's let's just say that it needs cylinder heads on a 6-cell we're at about 6,500 bucks with air P studs and that's when we're talking an all-stock truck not one that already has some of these supporting locks already so it could be less if you've already spent some money on the stuff that these drugs need but that's really going to get you where you need to be to have a solid foundation of course we're going to put a different calibration in the ECM to accommodate any mods that we do or in there so the truck runs with no check engine light and and typically mileage will be increased just from the ECM calibration alone so there's a lot of different combos for different folks but you know your basic bulletproofing is going to be what's going to keep you on the road okay so interesting because you can find a really good condition 6oh truck I found a 2006 model truck that was in really good shape it had about a hundred thousand miles on it a while back this is a long time ago guys but the truck was only twelve thousand dollars because everyone's scared to buy them and the truck was in good shape it ran great and if I put six thousand seven thousand dollars on top of that to make it more reliable I've still probably saved versus buying a maybe a Cummins or a Duramax truck with low miles or that that people perceive to be more reliable just because of the type of engine that's in it so when you're when everything's said and done you could buy some of these older 606 four trucks do the work to them and still probably be at about that same price point as buying another truck that you perceive to be more reliable now when it comes to newer trucks because I've made a video on this where I said what is the best bezel engine you can buy I know the older diesel engines can all be made to be very reliable I know some of those older come in 12 valve engines you know people will you know basically say are the best engines ever built but my question to you is and when I made that video I told people 2013 and newer diesel engines from any of the big manufacturers are pretty damn reliable except for the after exhaust stuff all the DPF all the the stuff that you can't control because it's regulated by the government was I accurate and saying that are newer diesel engines in herre we reliable compared to I would say so really the the biggest concern with anything new is of course the the after treatment on the exhaust the exhaust fluid system and then the AGR system those team can cause premature failure ones let's just say for instance someone have one without that equipment these this is the time to be in a diesel owner we've got the most reliable engine transmission combinations ever that the 2011 Power Stroke with 67 in it is fantastic the six are 140 transmission I would say to me it's probably the best in the game right now but so as far as the combination goes I give it to the order right now there's a you know of course every one of them has an EGR as exhaust recirculation so it has carbon going back into the engine that's opened up intermittent the valve is open up intermittently till to reburn exhaust that stuff that can cause issues coking up the intakes up like that so let's just say that you had an off-road vehicle that you could take that stuff off these are these are the best things you can do for these trucks and it will extend the life of them significantly that being said you know power wise you know seven three engines 12-valve Cummins are great motors unfortunately all the trucks that are out there that have them in there are falling apart they're too old and everything's falling apart around a good running engine still so if you want to buy a good running truck that's not falling apart your options are we're go back to 2011 our 2007 depending on your manufacturer you know there's a lot of different years but if you want something new and reliable then get reliability we kind of have to get rid of the stuff that's choking them out but the the combinations on these trucks now they've really got them figured out the you know even the Cummins has come a long way they've actually changed very few things over the years but the things that they have changed aside from the way that they they appear and the interiors on those trucks is going really really through the roof but the Cummins is probably the least changed out of all of them the the Duramax well now is the l5p that is a whole different deal they finally made some big changes on that one still a six point six but everything is different the the power stroke has been very very consistent since 2011 very few changes to high-pressure palm and the turbo charging system but no to get back to your question yeah now is the time to be a diesel owner if if you were ever worried about something because really even with all the emissions intact you're you're gonna go 200 thousand miles in these trucks safe for maybe you know a couple bad apples that the Dodge has a problem with an SCR that's not really doing them very well I know they were working on that and they're taking care of those get their customers on getting those those SCRs updated so they're not plugging up but now's the time if you if you want to be able to obtain any kind of mileage while towing you don't have an option but to go to Indy so you're not going to be able to tow fifteen to twenty thousand pounds with a gas motor and get anything more than five miles a gallon yeah you're going to go to a diesel engine and and right out of the box they're more powerful than ever you know a lot of these trucks are 440 horsepower and nearly nine hundred or over nine hundred torque depending on who you're going with and it's just amazing the way that a stock twenty seventeen pickup will perform versus a completely turned up seven three or twelve valve that has a grand nine Grand dumped into it and they can do it with all that nasty emission stuff all over it - which is even crazier yeah that we've got corks on both ends of these trucks and you know it just imagine how that that chuck performs with it on court so you know there's options for all that stuff as well but well Justin I really appreciate your time man and guys if you have more questions I don't know if Justin's going to be able to come on in my comments page maybe answer some of them for some folks so Justin's with so Tech's diesel and again he works on all of them he he would be the one to know and you can tell just by this video that he knows what he's talking about if you guys have questions if you guys want me to interview him more and you want me to ask him some more specific questions please leave them in the comment field below he just is a wealth of knowledge and he's taught me a lot that I didn't know about diesel engines which quite frankly is probably a lot but great resource I'm gonna try to have him back on my channel hopefully we can get him going with the YouTube channel as well so he can show some of the cool work that he does yeah and guys and mostly what I focus on my shop isn't isn't your day-to-day repairs I do get some of those and I'm not the most pursed and if you want to hit me with an off-the-wall question about you know let's see so that hasn't misfire you can't figure out I'm probably not the most versed in that but if you have something that's performance related I can certainly guide you in the right right direction and and we can take the right steps to meet your goals performance is mostly 99 percent of what we do and in most cases performance parts can actually solve some of the issues that you have so that's what I focus on and so specifically if he has some questions about that and by all means ask Oh perfect brother well I appreciate it guys he is about to tear this whole truck apart he's going to be doing quite a bit of work to it but the battery was dead so this gave us time to chat about all this if you haven't had a chance please subscribe to my channel you may see more of some of these vehicles now that I have someone who who actually knows what he's doing with them take a moment to subscribe to the channel I'll talk to you guys soon thank you [Music]

Channel: Big Truck Big RV

Views: 973,271

Keywords: GMC Silverado mudding, forest river, heartland, thor, tires, mud, LED lights, lightbar, corvette, radio, bluetooth, ranch, snow, plowing, dirt, cars, reviews, auto reviews, accessories, truck accessories, SUV, tahoe, yukon, expedition, BMW, Lexus, Toyota, Tundra, Tacoma, Honda, Nissan, Titan XD, Diesel trucks, lifted trucks, huge lift, fiver, fifth wheel, travel trailer, gooseneck, towable, hitch, failed, fail, epic, cop, police, patrol car, hit and run, viral, todays video, tomorrow

Id: 2SvmQTa1-aw

Length: 14min 48sec (888 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 14 2017