New Truck or New Engine

Lol, born in the 70s. I like Mopar motors and to each their own. Good luck with your engine swap!

Grit dog wrote:

JoeChiOhki wrote:

burningman wrote:
Why wouldn’t you put in a 6BT Cummins? Same no-electronics deal, better power, and it bolts right in

More readily available, sadly. Folks want a mint for a Cummins, out this way.

Lol. Old relics that haven’t been in production since before I was born are more readily avaiLbe?
It’s ok to say that’s what you “want” to do, but let’s not pretend those are in any way shape or form a great choice, or even a good choice.
Whereas 12V Cummins are comparably dime a dozen.

Unless you weren't born in the 90s, which are the fuso turbo diesels I'm talking about, they're very common medium duty cabover truck. On the west coast light duty 12 valve turbo diesels for dodges go used for $10,000 or more run into the ground and have dodges weaker a618 transmissions to deal with.

The fuso's were built for heavy work and can easily be mated to an np205 transfer case.

That's part of the reason I'm looking at putting a fuso drive train as a possible plan.

My truck is already a weird marriage of grafted on parts as her rear end is out an old winnebago, plus bits and pieces from Chevys and fords

ppine wrote:
If you spend the money and buy a diesel you don't have to this conversation.

Unless it's a Ford...

JoeChiOhki wrote:

burningman wrote:
Why wouldn’t you put in a 6BT Cummins? Same no-electronics deal, better power, and it bolts right in

More readily available, sadly. Folks want a mint for a Cummins, out this way.

Lol. Old relics that haven’t been in production since before I was born are more readily avaiLbe?
It’s ok to say that’s what you “want” to do, but let’s not pretend those are in any way shape or form a great choice, or even a good choice.
Whereas 12V Cummins are comparably dime a dozen.

When spending plenty of money, take plenty of time.

burningman wrote:
Why wouldn’t you put in a 6BT Cummins? Same no-electronics deal, better power, and it bolts right in

More readily available, sadly. Folks want a mint for a Cummins, out this way.

Breakdowns and fails can happen at anytime regardless if a truck is brand new or of older age. It seems to be the luck of the draw. I have had many issues with my second gen Dodge, but the money it costs for a new truck way outweighs the cost of replacing parts that go bad. Luckily I have a manual transmission, which in my opinion is way more reliable than an auto in a dually truck. I bought this truck with 5k miles on it...long story but...you will always have repairs, it is a machine and how it gets used depends on how much your maintenance will be. If it is paid for...well that is your choice if you want to sell it and go back into debt....unless you got loads of money to invest and you can take the depreciation....go for it.

When I bought my old 1976 ford 3/4 ton with a 390,it had a new long block in it..I did have to replace a few minor things but when I sold it a few years ago,I would not have hesitated to take it to Arizona or where ever,it was that reliable..

Any truck can break down including new ones except repairs on new ones, just out of warranty, are quite a bit more expensive...

Grit dog wrote:
But think about it this way. The thing that leaves you on the side of the road at midnight in the middle of no where as you put it, is not catastrophic engine failure. It’s about 95% likely it’s something else. Either something that also should be wore out by now, something that has had some symptoms but was “still fine”, or something newer or old that randomly stops working.

100% agree here. I sold my 2001 2500 Suburban this spring with 180k miles on the 8.1L big block. Motor was never opened, not even the valve covers, just oil/filter every 3k miles. Ran as strong as the day I bought it.

However, everything that bolted to the motor was replaced over time, and stuff usually failed on a road trip pulling the trailer.

When the truck was fairly new in 2005, the a/c compressor grenaded and took out BOTH front and rear a/c systems. Since it was VA Beach in August, the trailer spent the week at the CG, the truck spent the week at the dealer, and we spent the week in a rented Matrix.

Alternator, power steering, radiator, water pump, brake lines, fuel pumps (8.1 burbs had 2), exhaust (twice), transmission (twice), etc etc.

The transmission quit on a camping trip and left me stranded in a CG for 2 weeks while a Jasper was secured and installed. The Jasper rebuild was defective, and although covered under Jasper warranty, left me stuck in another CG after only 10k miles on the unit.

So my point is that Grit Dog is 100% on this one...if you decide to replace the motor, you need to replace all of the peripherals and accessories to get "new truck" reliability....and even then there's no guarantee you won't break down.

Good that you are thinking about alternatives and planning ahead but IMO it's too early to dump any major money into that truck. Spend the $1k your mechanic recommends and go from there.

I bought a '96 F-250 with a good body and interior. Engine had a bad cylinder so I got the truck for $600. It had 112Kmiles on it. I bought a rebuilt engine from Jasper for $2500. Done the swap myself in the garage. This was in 2017. In June of that year we drove to Alaska, spent over a month exploring the last frontier! Truck ran great, still does. Have put 45K miles on the engine. I like the older body style. I built my own custom flatbed to fit my camper. Works great and have had many people come up and tell me Cool Rig! Have no plans for trading for newer. I am old school, like my truck the same way. To each his own. My younger brother just dropped a wad of cash on a 2020 F350 Platinum. Yikes I don't have that kind of money, this one works for me.