Diesel truck with best MPG

dodge man · Nov 2, 2012

My Cummins holds 12 quarts of oil, and yeah its a bigger more expensive oil and fuel fitler, but the service interval is 15,000 miles. So in the end, I think the normal maintance cost is a toss up between a diesel and gas truck. The other maintance stuff is going to cost more on a diesel, such as tires, transmissions and other major repairs.

buickanddeere · Nov 2, 2012

Direct injected V8 is going into the 3/4 ton and one ton duallys too.

YogiBear79 · Nov 2, 2012

So is the direct injected V8 expected to be competitive to the diesel's pulling power? If not what's the point? They currently offer gas 3/4 ton trucks.

Code54 · Nov 2, 2012

They seem to be decent engines but still a different beast. One of the interesting issues will be how they hold up over the long run, not 100000 miles more like 200,000+. That is one thing that is nice about Diesels, they are known for their long term reliability in heavy duty applications (one of the reason they go in 18 wheelers).
I'm not anti gas engine or anything but it just depends on the application - I love the little 4 cyl in my wife's RAV4 - runs perfect, gets decent mileage and adequate power for the application.

buickanddeere · Nov 3, 2012

YogiBear79 said:
So is the direct injected V8 expected to be competitive to the diesel's pulling power? If not what's the point? They currently offer gas 3/4 ton trucks.

How much pulling power do you want? For years 318 Detroit Diesels hauled 40ton of freight plus the trip from coast to coast over two mountain ranges. How much power does drag racing Bubba need with a trailer full of cattle or horses? Are you one of those passing at 75mph trailer towing idiots ?
The 425-450HP direct injected gasses will trailer just fine.
The current port injected 345 and 403HP engines are plenty now.
Who wants a diesel when the gasser burns a little more of the cheaper fuel. Cheaper to purchase, cheaper to maintain and lasts just as long.

Patches · Nov 3, 2012

I"m not sure about the "lasts just as long", but I hope to get 150/170,000 out of my Tundra without any major issues; it's 5 years old now with 80,000 on it so I'm looking at another 5 years. By then it's 10 years old and if there's still fuel left and I'm still here, it's time for a new one

buickanddeere · Nov 3, 2012

Last decent light truck diesel was the 2001 24 valve ISB Cummins with 245HP. 2002 and later went to high pressure common rail injection.

Peacock · Nov 3, 2012

buickanddeere said:
Last decent light truck diesel was the 2001 24 valve ISB Cummins with 245HP. 2002 and later went to high pressure common rail injection.

That would be 2003 and later....

frischtr · Nov 3, 2012

buickanddeere said:
Last decent light truck diesel was the 2001 24 valve ISB Cummins with 245HP. 2002 and later went to high pressure common rail injection.

Common rail actually first appeared for '03... '02 was still the VP. The common rail 5.9 was still a great engine, just piss-poor factory fuel filtration lead to injector issues in some cases. The common rail injector on any diesel is a precision piece, which requires much better filtration than any older style diesel engine. Factory fuel filters are still sub-par IMO.