6.2 DD Reliability?

[Jraymer360]

you can say that about most 80's anything at this point.






a 6.2 with a bad injection pump is usually pretty cheap to get.


and very cheap and easy to fix.

i can drop and clean the tank, run all new line, new injectors and injection pump for 7-900 bux


fawking things are ridiculously simple, cost effective, and reliable at stock power levels over all. stock powerlevel including a typical banks installation, which is superior to stock gm setup ime as well.

the original detroit design plus banks was great.

the detroit design plus gm truck engineers making boost was a disaster.

True but most of them from around here aren't worth putting the money into.

 

[bobbywalter]

thats why they make rangers with blown up ranger shit that needs replacing.



well ....in my tiny little mind anyway

 

[Will]

If I had to take a Ranger and a Chevy with a diesel and use both of them hard--the Ranger is going to the junkyard first.

Most of you guys are too young to know what you are talking about. The 6.2 arrived 31 years ago. I was 12 and working washing trucks at a Spring Green lawn care franchise. I learned to drive a stick there with 300 gallons of water critiquing my clutch work. In 1986 I joined the marines and was around them as they were newish in the military, but never drove one until '92. In '95 when I got off embassy duty and I was Ordinance Chief of a battalion, I got a new one with a 6.5--no turbo. We never had any trouble with them, but we did hear of reserve units whose hummers sat most of the time having trouble. We used our trucks constantly and there was never any trouble with the injection systems. In my own personal experience, I have owned 2 trucks with 6,2s--both I added a Banks turbo to, and neither had any trouble. That's 11 years running--my current truck I have owned since 2004. I towed my Powerstroke van home with it when the fuel tank pickup failed.

6.2 nay-sayers. Seriously, you don't know what the **** you are talking about. You have no, no idea. None. I've got 30+ years experience with this engine--and I don't know how to work on it. Can I say the same with my Powerstroke? No. I know secret shit about my powerstroke. Can I say the same about my TDI VW? NO, I know secret shit about my TDI Passat.

Don't embarrass yourself by repeating someone else's nonsense. And yes, my Banks 6.2 will likely kick your trucks ass in a race.

 

[bobbywalter]

drinkin will????




i know my ranger once equipped with a d35 and 8.8 is stronger then a 96--99 1/2 ton chevy, so i wont say that the ford goes to the junkyard first if it is simply from a work stanpoint. this is based on an actual load test, and 3 fawked up trucks. not intentionally either.

i would say if i had to work at the maximums where i needed more bed and cab space that a fullsize 3/4 ton turbo 6.2 truck is about the best setup a guy could want for reliable cost effective transport. whether its a ford dodge or chevy chassis.. the 6.2 in turbo at a conservative 180-200 hp is simply a great tool. emissions are not horrible and economy is decent. overall costs are ridiculously cheap in the long run.

my ranger has a 6.5 in it because the chevy counterpart to my ford was inferior in everything except ride feel. it was nicer to drive up to mid load... that is comparing a 95 e350 psd verse 95 g30 6.5. no contest. not even a little. they both had great storage space. the ford was a hulking brute in work capacity.

 

[Will]

My Ranger parts are a hobby. My 6.2 parts I use every day. So, yes, probably I have been drinking. But there it is.

If I had to make a 'round the world trip in a vehicle, what would it be?

My big green Chevy with the 6.2. It doesn't stop running. It never has stopped running. There's been trouble, but all minor. It has never been towed. It cackles its way home no matter what. I could start it, let it idle for 30 days and it would never stop. It is the Mount Rushmore of vehicles. There is nothing sexy about it that would make anyone burn inside to own it. It's ugly, it can't park anywhere, it's loud and obnoxious. But it has a motor as reliable as gravity and the TH400 is as reliable as the Gulf Stream. It's frame rails are 2" deeper than my E350 van. It's way more of a truck. I've thought about cutting my tri-axle gooseneck into a tag trailer, but my van couldn't handle it. I really don't like my Chevy pickup. My explosion of kids over the years is the reason I own it. I hate driving anything. Mostly, I ride my motorcycle. I would sell all this other crap if I could. I ride my bike. I even changed grocery shopping into a daily event instead of a weekly thing. I have a box on my bike and I go buy what I need, when I need it. I have a really objective view of my trucks. I don't like my van, but my wife does. I am spending my money on the bus--just spent $2,000 on an Air Ride system I will install soon. I own a lot of crap I need to move a lot, plus I use the pick-up bed a lot. Otherwise, that truck would be long gone. The van is in constant use because we have 13 kids in three families and some set of them are always going somewhere. It's an awesome people hauler. But I hate it, too. I like riding my motorcycle, by myself. My TDI VW has been parked for a month. I keep hoping someone will steal it.

Point is, of all these trucks, I'm giving you my honest opinion. I don't like any of them. I don't think a 14-second 1/4 is fast. I merge instantly on my bike--there is no catch-up. I don't consider a 1-ton van or pickup a performance vehicle.

From my experience, my own personal 6.2 is the thing I would take if I had to drive to Saturn. I also wish it were gone.

 

[Jraymer360]

My Ranger parts are a hobby. My 6.2 parts I use every day. So, yes, probably I have been drinking. But there it is.

If I had to make a 'round the world trip in a vehicle, what would it be?

My big green Chevy with the 6.2. It doesn't stop running. It never has stopped running. There's been trouble, but all minor. It has never been towed. It cackles its way home no matter what. I could start it, let it idle for 30 days and it would never stop. It is the Mount Rushmore of vehicles. There is nothing sexy about it that would make anyone burn inside to own it. It's ugly, it can't park anywhere, it's loud and obnoxious. But it has a motor as reliable as gravity and the TH400 is as reliable as the Gulf Stream. It's frame rails are 2" deeper than my E350 van. It's way more of a truck. I've thought about cutting my tri-axle gooseneck into a tag trailer, but my van couldn't handle it. I really don't like my Chevy pickup. My explosion of kids over the years is the reason I own it. I hate driving anything. Mostly, I ride my motorcycle. I would sell all this other crap if I could. I ride my bike. I even changed grocery shopping into a daily event instead of a weekly thing. I have a box on my bike and I go buy what I need, when I need it. I have a really objective view of my trucks. I don't like my van, but my wife does. I am spending my money on the bus--just spent $2,000 on an Air Ride system I will install soon. I own a lot of crap I need to move a lot, plus I use the pick-up bed a lot. Otherwise, that truck would be long gone. The van is in constant use because we have 13 kids in three families and some set of them are always going somewhere. It's an awesome people hauler. But I hate it, too. I like riding my motorcycle, by myself. My TDI VW has been parked for a month. I keep hoping someone will steal it.

Point is, of all these trucks, I'm giving you my honest opinion. I don't like any of them. I don't think a 14-second 1/4 is fast. I merge instantly on my bike--there is no catch-up. I don't consider a 1-ton van or pickup a performance vehicle.

From my experience, my own personal 6.2 is the thing I would take if I had to drive to Saturn. I also wish it were gone.

give me an address and i'll make sure that TDI won't be there in the morning! don't worry it'll go to a guy who loves VW's.

 

[GentleRF]

Will.

While I and my wife would enjoy rehoming your Passat for you, my surmise is you would like a small pile of cash left in its place. Yes? That and the necessary trip to where you are would break the bank (fixed income, low).

Rick in East Bremerton

 

[Will]

Well, I bought my Moto Guzzi motorcycle from a Hungarian guy that has a Tdi shop in Madison. He works on everything, but he seems to specialize in these VWs. He has a buddy with an LTL wedge and an F350 and I think the guy brings him work. I saw Alabama plates on a Tdi in his shop. This mechanic says the engine in my '96 Passat is the holy grail of Tdi's. It's 10mpg better than my brother's Passat on the highway. It's slow, he says, but absolutely reliable and extremely efficient. Mine has around 310,000 miles on it and he scoffed. He was pointing to extra engines he had in his shop from, I assume, wrecked vehicles, and saying they had 500,000 plus, and were just getting broken in. Back in Hungary, they fix everything as new parts are hard to get. If you live near Madison, Wisconsin, take your car to him--any car. I saw the things he could do--very impressive ability.

The good things about my Passat are the mileage-40 in town and close to 60 on the highway. With an 18 gallon tank, you can go really, really far without refueling. It's a tight handling car with the mechanical bits really well built.Transmission and brakes and everything--brilliant.

Where it falls down is that the interior is rubbish. It's very spacious--NFL offensive lineman would have no problem riding in the back--and a couple dead ones would easily fit in the enormous trunk. But the interior door handles break off. Some mornings, the dash lights don't come on and I have to guess how fast I'm going. The door panels are pulling loose from the doors. The headliner is coming down. The seat fabric is whipped and it has seat covers. The power windows work intermittently. It's wonderful to drive, but very annoying to be in. It's like an '80s Chevy Citation inside, quality-wise. It's a nice place to sit, unlike to Citation, but everything you touch either breaks or doesn't work, like the Chevy.

I haven't driven it in 2 months. It's air conditioning compressor exploded last year doing $500 of damage to engine components. I fixed everything, putting an idler in place of the compressor, and drove it quite a bit last winter when I had to move kids in small numbers. This summer, I have mostly driven the E350 because the air works, or ridden a motorcycle when I didn't have anyone to haul.

Compared to the 6.2: the Tdi and 6.2 both use very simple rotary pumps. The 6.2 is indirect injection, which means the fuel is injected into a pre-combustion chamber (like a mother-in-law cabin) where is is swirled into a blast of air to further atomize it. It has very high compression--almost 22:1--and when it starts on fire in the pre chamber, the start of combustion throws everything into the main chamber to finish the job. The result is a cackly, loud engine. The Tdi is a direct injected engine, running a much lower compression, about 18:1, but similar injection pressure. The secret there, I think, is the pre-chamber was basically moved into the piston.

The 6.2 is loud--it sounds like the pistons are whacking the cylinder heads. It feels like the pistons are whacking the heads. Things shake loose.There's always something rattling. The high compression and the prechamber vomiting the partially burned mixture into the main chamber is why. The Kubota I had in a Bobcat was the same way. It would just smash everything around it.

Why is the TH400 my favorite tranny? I don't know. 25 years, 9 of them owned by me. Still lugging crap around with that nasty 6.2 hammering on it. Nasty 6.2 with 12psi of boost on it.

 

[Will]

It's winter now and the VW Passat doors don't work in the winter. I'm frozen out of it. At least it is white and blends into the snow bank. Don't they have winter in Germany?

I've been driving the Chevy diesel and the Powerstroke van. The van has to be plugged in both block heater and battery charger to start below 30F. The 6.2 has been starting down to the teens without assistance, but it has Optimas and those things are awesome winter batteries.

I've been riding the Suzuki TU250X because it has better fuel injection than either the Guzzi or the Honda 919--starts with a touch of the switch. Plus, it's skinny tires (110 rear and 90 front) are the same on rain as on dry roads and are ride-able on snow when it's unavoidable.