Diesel vs gas......................
OK folks, there have been a few to many diesel vs gas threads that have shall we say gone to "Hell and a hand basket"! So if all of you would put in you BEST, no flaming reasons for going gas vs diese...
Forum Discussion
I'm new to this forum, but I'm not new to pick-up trucks or towing. The Cummins Dodge I'm driving now is my first diesel truck. The 2003 Hemi Dodge it replaced will likely be my last gasser. Not because the Cummins Dodge is "far superior" to everything else on the planet, but simply because it does everything I need a truck to do. Is my truck the "perfect truck'? Not by a long shot. But it was the best compromise I could come up with. For me, (and this is just my own opinion), the "perfect truck" would be a Ford Super Duty with the 5.9L Cummins and the 6-speed Allison trans. My Dodge came closest to to this proverbial "perfect truck".
My reasoning behind my buying the Dodge is:
I wanted the Cummins. I grew up on a farm and every diesel engine I have ever been around has been an in-line engine. They have proven their reliability to me many-many times over, no matter who made them. Is an in-line better than a V engine? Don't know. Don't care. My in-line have done everything I've ever asked them to do and that's good enough for me.
I wanted a solid front axle. Unlike a lot of diesel truck owners nowadays, I actually work my truck. I do a lot of towing, hauling and off-pavement work. While IFS offers a better ride going down the road, it has proven, in my personnel experience, to be more problematic in rough terrain than a live front axle.
I like the looks of the Ford SuperDuty better than I do the Chevy/GMC's and Dodge trucks, but when I bought my truck, the Ford 6.0L was already having reliability issues (at least more than the Cummins and Duramax).
I like the interiors of the GM trucks also, but the General hasn't offered a solid fron axle since the late 1980's.
The "my automatic transmission is better than yours" debate didn't matter at all to me at that time because I was dead set on a manual trans behind my diesel. I believe (again, just MY opinion) it would be hard to argue against the NV-5600 6-speed manual trans being probably one of the stoutest transmissions ever put into a light truck, manual or automatic. But with the driver control fo todays 6-speed autos (sorry Ford), my personnal auto vs. manual debate may be in full swing.
And as far as the iron vs. aluminum cylinder head debate? I believe if you look at 99 out of 100 head gasket failures on either the CTD, DM or PSD, the culprit will be either stretched or improperly torqued HEAD BOLTS.
The 6.0L PSD has been plagued by head gasket failures and it obviously uses iron heads on an iron block. Ford's fix for these failures are bigger, stronger head bolts.
In the hot rod diesel world, The Cummins engines are lifting their iron heads when boost starts to exceed around 55 psi on the average. Again, bigger, stronger head STUDS are the answer. Add fire rings to the equation, and 100+ psi boost figures are possible.
As far as the Dmax is concerned, the aluminum heads have not proven to be a negative factor in the hot rodding world nearly as much as the internals of the engine. Bent connecting rods from the massive cylinder pressures are much more common than anything traced directly to the aluminum head. Again, stronger head studs are the answer to keeping the heads glued on and the gaskets in place. If the head bolts can't hold the load without stretching, it doesn't matter what the cylinder head is made of, the gasket is gonna blow.
My reasoning behind my buying the Dodge is:
I wanted the Cummins. I grew up on a farm and every diesel engine I have ever been around has been an in-line engine. They have proven their reliability to me many-many times over, no matter who made them. Is an in-line better than a V engine? Don't know. Don't care. My in-line have done everything I've ever asked them to do and that's good enough for me.
I wanted a solid front axle. Unlike a lot of diesel truck owners nowadays, I actually work my truck. I do a lot of towing, hauling and off-pavement work. While IFS offers a better ride going down the road, it has proven, in my personnel experience, to be more problematic in rough terrain than a live front axle.
I like the looks of the Ford SuperDuty better than I do the Chevy/GMC's and Dodge trucks, but when I bought my truck, the Ford 6.0L was already having reliability issues (at least more than the Cummins and Duramax).
I like the interiors of the GM trucks also, but the General hasn't offered a solid fron axle since the late 1980's.
The "my automatic transmission is better than yours" debate didn't matter at all to me at that time because I was dead set on a manual trans behind my diesel. I believe (again, just MY opinion) it would be hard to argue against the NV-5600 6-speed manual trans being probably one of the stoutest transmissions ever put into a light truck, manual or automatic. But with the driver control fo todays 6-speed autos (sorry Ford), my personnal auto vs. manual debate may be in full swing.
And as far as the iron vs. aluminum cylinder head debate? I believe if you look at 99 out of 100 head gasket failures on either the CTD, DM or PSD, the culprit will be either stretched or improperly torqued HEAD BOLTS.
The 6.0L PSD has been plagued by head gasket failures and it obviously uses iron heads on an iron block. Ford's fix for these failures are bigger, stronger head bolts.
In the hot rod diesel world, The Cummins engines are lifting their iron heads when boost starts to exceed around 55 psi on the average. Again, bigger, stronger head STUDS are the answer. Add fire rings to the equation, and 100+ psi boost figures are possible.
As far as the Dmax is concerned, the aluminum heads have not proven to be a negative factor in the hot rodding world nearly as much as the internals of the engine. Bent connecting rods from the massive cylinder pressures are much more common than anything traced directly to the aluminum head. Again, stronger head studs are the answer to keeping the heads glued on and the gaskets in place. If the head bolts can't hold the load without stretching, it doesn't matter what the cylinder head is made of, the gasket is gonna blow.
