I have owned a Chevy 6.5 diesel, 2- Dodge 24v diesels and a Ford 7.4 powerstroke. I used to tow heavy loads everyday long miles in the mountains. The powerstroke was a joke, that thing could hardly get out of it's own way and ate a/t for lunch at $5k a pop, fug that. The first Dodge has a 5 sp manual and was a workhorse with virtually no problems for the 100k I drove it. The 2nd Dodge was an automatic and ate tranny's like the powerstroke. The Chevy 6.5 was my favorite, most don't think much of them but mine was powerful, trouble free, comfortable and fun to drive, it only lasted 300k though.
I no longer pull heavy loads on a regular basis and am happy with a gasser. Hell I could replace the whole motor for the price of a diesel injector rebuild. My 6.0 chevy gets 16mpg and starts on cold mornings. It gets 8-10 mpg towing and the fuel cost less.
I wish Chevy would bring back the 8.1 big block , I would buy one. The new Ford 7.3 looks pretty good and may convince me to try a Ford again, after giving them a couple of years to work the bugs out and prove itself.
Chevy needs to bring back a Big Block, Ford is coming out with a 7.3 liter Big Block.
I own a 2006 Chevy 2500HD Duramax/ Allison truck its a brute for sure, the newer ones are even more powerful. It will eat about any gas engine truck for breakfast, lunch and dinner as far as towing. I have towed stuff with the small block gas V-8's and they were a joke. The same mountains that I went up towing a 3800 pound camper, the gas motor would have to drop down in 2nd gear (four speed tranny) and rev out of its mind. The 2500HD would go up the same mountain in 5th or 6th gear and not even break a sweet. Empty I have gotten as high as 22.8 MPG on the open road with the Diesel, towing can be 12.5MPG to 14.5MPG, according to how hard I run. Only downfall to the diesel is of course higher fuel prices and repair cost. Where I live gas is 2.24 a gallon right now and Diesel is 2.89 a gallon. If the diesel needs injectors or a turbo its going to cost a chunk of change, the normal maintenance is not real bad. Since I only tow heavy occasionally, I would trade in a heart beat if Chevy or Ford could get serious with a big Block Gas Engine with about 500 Foot pounds of torque.
