its a joke around my area that dodge/chrysler is the king of mini vans, gm with cars, and ford with trucks far as sales go. BTW i heard that toyoda has topped ford in trucks? a little but i was surprised when i read that in diesel power

 

Most larger engines are V, not inline. Only smaller semi, and 200-1400hp engines are inline 6's.

Most motors 800-5000+ hp are V 8's, 10', 12's 14,'s 16's, etc.

The major reason IMHO that cummins engines are "better" to mod with, availability of parts. Those guys can order "marine" style pistons for the 5.9, and put any EGT worries to rest. They can bolt on a new fuel pump, some high performance injectors (probably less than 100 each), and make 500 hp.

Cummins is not what it used to be though, the entire reputation was built on the old 150hp, and 210 hp turbo 5.9. that at one time moved a major amount of trucks.

Nowadays, most mechanics agree that you'll see more engine problems with dodge cummins engines than others. (rod through the block anyone? - popular.) Dodge trucks and the cummins that goes into them has something in common - lots of meaty thick metal looking parts, of which are usually low tech, and of crappy steel, (hardened wrong, bad placement for type of steel)

Dodge 3/4 and 1 ton trucks have a higher "total cost of ownership" than gm or ford. And, according to statistics, pull less than fords.(by % of miles traveled)

GM actually has the lowest cost of ownership. but also the lowest pulling %'s.

I didn't pull these numbers from my either, the info is out there.

Long story short, a ford truck pulling stuff. lasts longer than a dodge pulling less.

I know, it is ENTIRELY possible that the extra costs of the dodge may not be engine related, but the cummins only comes in a dodge, so too bad.

I bet theres a database somewhere that depicts the costs associated with trucks, (engine costs, electronic cost, fuel mileage etc), but I couldnt find one.

 

Not to stick up for cummins/dodge, but tell me this, how long and how many different engines did it take ford and chevy to compete with the 5.9? A long time right, nothing a turn of the fuel screw wouldn't fix if a cummins got beat by a chipped 7.3. If ford and chevy would've stuck with something (or built something that good, potentialwise) there would be a lot more stuff out there for powerstrokes. Now I'm talking about the 6.9, 7.3 and 6.0's and the 6.2's and 6.5's, right now a duramax and hopefully a 6.4 should beat a stock 5.9. In my opinion the later 7.3 would have been worth keeping, but it's potential was limited with the HUEI. I guess all and all the point I'm trying to make is the cummins 12valve had been around long enough and had building potential that parts became avaliable, not necassarlly cheap, but cheap enough to justify building it up and taking it off the road. If chevy's 305/350 would have only been used for a 4 year time span and changed to something else, the car world could be upside down as we know it, maybe the 302 ford would have been the rodders SB of choice.

 

Granted, the GM 6.2 was behind, the 6.5 some banks won't even give a loan for (1995?), the 6.9/7.3 idi were a little behind the 5.9 cummins at the time, but cummins was advanced at the time, having been tested in trucks before being put in a pickup.

There are versions of the 5.9 CTD floating around for marine use, agriculture, stationary engines, etc. This is because cummins markets their engines to these sectors. International only is interested in highway engines. This is the reason there is less choice of parts for a 7.3 ford diesel.

The parts you can find to soup up a ford diesel are specialty racing parts sold at a premium. Cummins engines that I've seen really done up, usually had marine piston/head setup, and other cheaply accuired parts, and an over the top hp chip/programmer.

The cummins 5.9 engine has had MANY makeovers, unlike ford/gm, they never changed the displacement. Never had to i suppose, however, there is probably just as many changes over the years to the 5.9 as any other brand.

 

Also, powerstroke has re-usable gaskets, so there. LOL

 

Actualy cummins upped it to a 6.7L. And Cummins 5.9 is still the most reliable diesel engine in a pickup IMO. Jurrie is still out on the latest run of diesels. Never heard of a stock CR 5.9 cummins throwing a rod threw the block. Heard of Duramaxes breaking cranks and 6.O powerstrokes blowing head gaskets and a lot more things. And yes a V will make more HP but an inline will make more torque wich is what matters when trying to pull a sled.

I think the % of people towing with them has to do with all the people who buy diesels because they're cool or as a hotrod. the chevys are the most car like in that they have IFS and the duramax behaves more like a gasser then the fords or dodges. Then the price of making power with a cummins is fairly cheap comparitively and the duramax has a huge aftermarket and is capable of extream power. The Fords also have a large aftermarket but are very expinsive to make BIG power with. More ford owners actualy buy there trucks for the purpose they were intended for. Ford definately wraps the best truck around the engine.

There were some old 6.9s adapted for marien use they had abot 300 hp but from what i heard aren't very reliable.

The used car dealer I bought my truck from said he couldn't get any banks to give loans on used 6.0s or duramaxs but had no problem ith Cummins or Fords prior to the 6.0

Sorry I've kinda been bableing for a while.

 

Lol, I wouldn't give anyone money either to buy a 6.0, although some ppl out there haven't had to many problems with em...... but "most" have. I heard bad things about the duramax when they first came out, but unlike ford's 6.0, chevy stuck with it and worked out the major problems.

Yes dodge did change to the 6.7, but I don't have anything good to say about it. They had it all with the 5.9L, ford had a good thing going with the 7.3 to, but..... I think emissions did those 2 engines in. The only one that really needed help was chevy.

 

The I-6 configuration dosnt make more tourque. Its the STROKE that makes the tourque. The cummins 5.9 has a greater stroke ratio than the 7.3 / 6.0/6.4. If you made a diesel V8 with the same stroke/bore as the 5.9 cyclinders, you'd end up with something that would be nicknamed "transmission killer"

6.9 Marine engines sucked, because there are no good "marinization" products for them. Because international doesnt want to sell that. Thats what i meant, cummins engines are in trucks, tractors, boats, generators, the list goes on, and each application opens a world of available parts for the 5.9.

And yes, recent 5.9 rods like to come apart. A guy here didnt even have a chip, and it blew a hole way larger than the piston.
I've heard several other stories about this happening, not to much on the internet though.

Adding to my theory that dodge and cummins look beefier than other brands, because they have lower graded steel and parts.

Buying a dodge with a cummins in it is like marying an ugly chick with a tight box.

 

fyi that's not a rod being thrown it's KDP (killer dowel pin) which is when the dowel pin vibrates out of it's usual place and nomally goes through the block....

 

You may very well be right. I've only personally seen this happen once, and I didnt actually stick around to learn the whole story, just that the guy was pissed because he babied his truck and changed the oil all the time, it only had 50,000 on her, and washed it every sunday, he was just pissed. No other word. Pissed.

It's one thing when you chip a diesel, bigger injectors, turbo, etc.

But when you're motor is DEAD, from nothing but empty highway driving, you would get mad too.

 

yup KDP happens randomly and you need to tab the dowel pin to make sure this DOES NOT happen!!! hahaha