Preferred gas engines for 1 ton pickups

[VitaBene]

disingenuous, sorry missed the first U.

 

[WilliamBos]

I had a 2004 2500 that was Hemi powered. Engine was fine but I had buddies who had 360 powered trucks and they had much more low end grunt. HP and TQ mean nothing too a point. Look at the old first gen Cummins. Made about 180ish HP and 400 TQ but did a heck of a job towing because it made the power in the right area. Same with the 360. They should have left the Hemi in the cars and built upon the good engine they had in the 360. Same thing with all the older engines like the 454, 350, 351 Winsor, 460, ect. The HP wars made the manufactures go stupid and forget the basics.

You kill me with the whole spitting spark plug thing and tranny stuff for Ford. What maybe 1/10 of 1% had spark plug issues. I gave the guy my honest opinion of all the trucks with praise and and not to all brands in post #2. You just can not handle the truth. I swear you must be builders long lost brother or something.

Chris

Exactly. That first gen B5.9L had 300 foot pounds AT idle. That was more than the others had PERIOD.

I also agree, that the HEMI needs to stay in cars. It has no place in trucks, unless they re-engineer it to operate with power lower down in the RPM range. And they also need to figure out how to get it to drive by a gas station with out have ing to stop all the time. Fuel hog to say the least.

 

[Raw Dodge]

I love the 7% grade part and Ford's F-250 6.8 V-10 4.03 axle ratio vs a GMC 2500 with a 6.0 V-8 and 3.73 axle. Why not make it fair and run a 4.10. But even at that the GM was only 1 second slower and gaining in speed. Bigger engine, better gearing and still going to lose in a longer run.

I find that article hysterical,Id be running and hiding if I was Ford powertrain engineer.Barley able to nip out an engine almost 15% smaller,2 less cylinders,and a gearing difference from 3.73 to 4.30.If you put the 3.73 in the Ford,and 4.30 in the GMC,it would have RAN away and hid from the ford on the hill test,and left it in the dust even more in every other test...with that said,Im still a Ford V10 fan,and wide open really isnt the most important measurement of performance towing,how often is it necessary to drag race while towing 10K? The V10 is a good engine,it just wont win any races unless the competion has a much smaller engine,and a gearing handicap.It will pull all day long though ,with good torque.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I find that article hysterical,Id be running and hiding if I was Ford powertrain engineer.Barley able to nip out an engine almost 15% smaller,2 less cylinders,and a gearing difference from 3.73 to 4.30.If you put the 3.73 in the Ford,and 4.30 in the GMC,it would have RAN away and hid from the ford on the hill test,and left it in the dust even more in every other test...with that said,Im still a Ford V10 fan,and wide open really isnt the most important measurement of performance towing,how often is it necessary to drag race while towing 10K? The V10 is a good engine,it just wont win any races unless the competion has a much smaller engine,and a gearing handicap.It will pull all day long though ,with good torque.

I agree 100% but do not forget a Ford 3/4 or 1 ton weighs in at more than 800# more than a comparable GM or Dodge. I have owned all them and weigh each of my trucks the week I get them. For example my 2006 F-350 Short Bed Extended Cab 4x4 Diesel weighs 7,600# with me in it and 3/4 tank of fuel. My neighbor has a 2007 Chevy Dmax Long Bed 4x4 Crew Cab and he weighs 50# more than me and his fuel tank is larger and we weighed his on the same scale and same fashion and it was just a tad over 7,000#. His truck is longer, he carries more fuel, and he weighs more than I do and was still 600# less. So truck to truck there is about 800# given up.

Also the Fords run much bigger tires then the competition and we all know while the look good they hurt the final gearing.

I am a Ford fan but I do love the 8.1GM. Why they ever dropped it and keep the 6.0 kills me. The 6.0 is not a big block. It was developed to compete with the Hemi and the 5.4 Ford because the 5.3 could not make low end torque like the competition.

Chris

 

[WilliamBos]

I agree 100% but do not forget a Ford 3/4 or 1 ton weighs in at more than 800# more than a comparable GM or Dodge. I have owned all them and weigh each of my trucks the week I get them. For example my 2006 F-350 Short Bed Extended Cab 4x4 Diesel weighs 7,600# with me in it and 3/4 tank of fuel. My neighbor has a 2007 Chevy Dmax Long Bed 4x4 Crew Cab and he weighs 50# more than me and his fuel tank is larger and we weighed his on the same scale and same fashion and it was just a tad over 7,000#. His truck is longer, he carries more fuel, and he weighs more than I do and was still 600# less. So truck to truck there is about 800# given up.

Also the Fords run much bigger tires then the competition and we all know while the look good they hurt the final gearing.

I am a Ford fan but I do love the 8.1GM. Why they ever dropped it and keep the 6.0 kills me. The 6.0 is not a big block. It was developed to compete with the Hemi and the 5.4 Ford because the 5.3 could not make low end torque like the competition.

Chris

Next up for GM - 7.0L that will be a sweet truck engine.

I love my 5.3L, but do question why the 8.1 was dropped without a replacement?

 

[Diamondpilot]

Next up for GM - 7.0L that will be a sweet truck engine.

I love my 5.3L, but do question why the 8.1 was dropped without a replacement?

I have also hear that Ford was working on a 7.0 Code name 777 or Triple 7 Should be a good Ford/GM war.

I am guessing the 8.1 was doomed by the tree huggers and GM wanting to take a bite out of Fords Diesel sales. With the 6.0 and diesel the only options many could not live with the 6.0's numbers so they had to steep up to a diesel or go to Ford for the V-10.

Chris

 

[WilliamBos]

I have also hear that Ford was working on a 7.0 Code name 777 or Triple 7 Should be a good Ford/GM war.

I am guessing the 8.1 was doomed by the tree huggers and GM wanting to take a bite out of Fords Diesel sales. With the 6.0 and diesel the only options many could not live with the 6.0's numbers so they had to steep up to a diesel or go to Ford for the V-10.

Chris

And being LS based, it will be a monster. The Vette gets 30MPG highway, and with all the torque, it will be awesome.

 

[SteadyEddie]

I had a 2000 Chevy 2500 HD with the 8.1 & Allison tranny. Talk about power! The ONLY thing wrong was a large # of them were "consuming" oil at at amazing rate, in my case 1.5-2 qts/800 miles. This started right from the start & was well documented by Chevy & the dealer. They took it back as a lemon. Forums at the time had a lot of people talking about the same issue & rumors were flying around that a huge batch of 6.0 pistons were installed in the 8.1 blocks in error & the trucks hit the streets before it was discovered.

Chevy decided to pull the heads @ 4,00 miles & the cylinders were scored worse than a lot of 100,00 mile junkers! They wouldn't go for a new long or short block, so I filed under NYS lemon Laws. Their lawyers took one look at the paper trail from Chevy & told them to take it back!

 

[carpenter383]

I had a 2000 Chevy 2500 HD with the 8.1 & Allison tranny. Talk about power! The ONLY thing wrong was a large # of them were "consuming" oil at at amazing rate, in my case 1.5-2 qts/800 miles. This started right from the start & was well documented by Chevy & the dealer. They took it back as a lemon. Forums at the time had a lot of people talking about the same issue & rumors were flying around that a huge batch of 6.0 pistons were installed in the 8.1 blocks in error & the trucks hit the streets before it was discovered.

Chevy decided to pull the heads @ 4,00 miles & the cylinders were scored worse than a lot of 100,00 mile junkers! They wouldn't go for a new long or short block, so I filed under NYS lemon Laws. Their lawyers took one look at the paper trail from Chevy & told them to take it back!

I doubt they accidentally put 6.0 pistons in a 8.1 block, I don't know what the bore size is between a 6.0 and a 8.1, but With such a difference in cubic inches the 8.1's bores are most likley quite a bit bigger and unless they were VERY close in size (doubtfull) then oil consumption would be the least of the owners' worries. Then you have to consider wrist pin height/deck height differences. I'd say if you ever do find out what was wrong with the batch of 8.1's it's not 6.0 pistons.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Never heard the one about the wrong pistons but they are only 1/8" different in size. 101.6MM to 107.095MM. The real difference is in the stroke and as we all know any long stroke engine is a torque maker. That's why I love 383 strokers in boats. Same weight as a 5.7 but a good 125HP more at the prop shaft.

Chris