Perhaps. I had my 1995 5.9 cummins tested when I tested the 6.0.

The 5.9 is stock (to my knowledge : I have not done anyting to it - bought it used with 45,000 miles on it . . . no tunes . . . does not have a OBD II connector). Put out almost 280 HP at 2600 RPMS.

The 6.0 put out about 380 HP at slightly higher RPMs.

Can not remember the torque curve but both looked pretty good.

I could detune the 6.0 and make it a "turd" like the 5.9 but will the 6.0 be a dependable turd?

The 5.9 turd has cost me ZERO in repairs over 300,000 miles. The 6.0 has already cost me $5,000 before it reached 70,000 miles (china junk engines are more dependable than that). I suspect one could detune the 6.0 to 100 HP and it would still fail every 100,000 miles.

Here is another comparison:

I could drop everything right now and jump in the Dodge 5.9 Cummins with 300,000 miles on it and pull a 26 foot car hauler from North Carolina to California and I would not worry a moment about making the trip there and back. If fact, just to prove a point, I would leave with just enough cash to buy fuel and eat and no cards as backup.

I would not drive the 6.0 to Florida unless I knew I had a stack of cash just in case. The 6.0 just has not proven itself yet. Although it has made that round trip to Florida once without problems and got good gas mileage. The truck is growing on me but we started out on a bad foot so it is going to take a while before I will trust it.

 

6.0 owner be like: "There was that one time I made a trip without problems."

 

lol, Classic. Looks like I found my new sig line...

 

If your cummins put out 280HP then the pump has been worked on.

380HP? What tunes were you running?


Sounds like the dyno you put them on is full of ****.

 

That's kind of what I was thinking too. I do think that my 5.9 in my truck does have at least similar power to a stock 6.0 though with 75hp injectors, upgraded turbo, advanced timing and a turned up pump.

Funny thing is selling all the used parts off my 6.0 paid for the Cummins, the parts I replaced on it when I went through it and all the upgrades to it. So my only costs for the swap were all the adapter parts.

 

The dyno shop had its own tunes for the 6.0, basically, I am told, to keep the transmission in the proper gear.

If my memory is correct (have it written down somewhere), the 6.0 should be tested in 4th gear for maximum output.

For some reason he could not keep it in 4th gear so he had to run the test in 3rd gear. I have a link to the graph I will post.

I do not believe he tuned the cummins or if it can be tuned.


To get max RPM in the 6.0 for an automatic, the truck should stay in 4th gear. We had problems keeping the truck in 4th gear (kept wanting to change up to 5th). And the gear change made the curve look weird but the max HP was around 380 it is just that the graph did not look right.

So we ran the test in 3rd gear.
If I read the legend correctly on the graph, the max HP was 302 HP at 3300 RPMs although the graph seems to only go up to 229 HP. I am not sure where the 302 comes from but I assume that is the maximum figure.

Perhaps I am reading the graph wrong.

 

I will post the cummins graph if I can find it.

 

Your Cummins is a P-pumped motor, you can crank them up to almost 500hp with pump mods only. Not saying it will be all that practical at that level because it will be one smokey high egt beast, but it is possible...

 

Edit: I thought you had the Ram and the Ford on the same chart.
and I read that whole chart wrong..........
Forget I was even here.

 

How can one tell? I never work on the truck myself. Well, I changed the water pump and the T-Stat that is all.

I have a shop just a few miles from my house and they are pretty much experts on the 5.9 cummins. They do all the "engine" work.

All they have done so far is replace a transmission, the transmission lines, installed a upgraded transmission cooler, and power steering pump. Never had to do any work on the actual engine. So they have never had a real look at the engine.

For full disclosure, I am having a small issue. The engine's cold start is tough. The engine typically fires in a few seconds but it takes 5 minutes or more (depending on temp) to get a smooth running engine.

And if I do not keep a 1/2 full tank and park the nose down hill the truck will start and run for 10 seconds and then turn off as if it is running out of fuel. (but only does this on a cold start - no problem after warming up) Then it is a B*** to get started.

The guys up the road believe I have a leak in the fuel lines some where or the pickup inside the tank has issues allowing the fuel lines to lose vacuum.

Not a big enough problem for me to address at the moment.

 

In 1994 Dodge switched from the VE injection pump to the P series. So, if your Dodge is a 95, you have the p-pump.

 

I thought you said that it cost you ZERO in repairs....

 

IT is a 1995.

 

I was talking about the motor. The transmission is not so good.

That said, I have to take the blame for the transmission failure to some extent. The 5.9 diesel does vibrate a bit and this caused the transmission lines to rub against something and develop a leak (Dodge should have protected the lines a little better -- we added protection at the areas where the lines failed so should not happen again). And I let it run too low on transmission fluid for too long until finally it failed. The transmission lines cost hundreds of dollars - about $400 if I remember correctly and one cannot purchase aftermarket lines. The transmission cost $1,500 from Autozone and an upgraded cooler (much bigger than stock) cost $300.

I do not know how long water pumps and power steering pumps are suppose to last but they both failed in my truck. Was not considering those items part of the engine. If such is not accurate, then those are the failures to date. Also changed the belt as well.

The water pump took me an hour at most to change. Easy.
The T-Stat was changed at the same time as water pump.

The guys up the road did the power steering swap. Seems the entire cost was under $200. May have been closer to $100.

I can live with those kind of repairs.

 

So the water pump is not part of the engine? Riiiight....

By your own admission you are a neglectful owner. Anything will fail when you don't maintain it.