Well lets say that Ford put the first succesful diesel truck back in 1983. That would be more correct. Im glad Ford didnt put diesels in everything back in those days. Just HD trucks. As for Dodge I would have to agree with what Edselman said. I know a friend of mine had a dodge once. Never again. Hes back in a Ford. He couldnt believe so much could happen to one truck. The poor build quality. Junk transmissions. The thing literally fell apart around him. Dont mention Dodge to him. Youll get an earful believe me. And a few choice words thrown in for good measure. Hes a normally a mild mannered guy. Just dont mention Dodge. He'll bash them for good reason. Tells everybody he knows to avoid Dodge. This guy knows his trucks believe me. He can do alot of things mechanically on trucks that alot of people will never do. Ive heard this story repeated by other people too. When I see somebody in a Dodge, I feel sorry for them. Hey Dane nice post there.

 

Those early GM V8 diesels were not a great engine. They were basically a gasoline engine adapted to diesel rather than a diesel designed from a clean sheet of paper. They were prone to cracking heads and blocks even at low miles. They may have been first, but they were the worst. -TD

 

Tiger your right about that. GMs track record on diesel has not been good. Everything up until the duramax. The jury is still out on that motor.

 

I didn't say the y were good, although I know a number of the 6.5 's that has done well, but it still could use some more pulling power. The 5.7's were largely a joke, but make for a nice gas conversion, swap the heads to gas and what a beast! But that's not the point, but I still say Ford had the right approach in using a known and proven diesel to put in rather than fart around with their own build. Dodge trucks have always been cheap, close the door on all of them until they finally changed the body and it sounds like a tin can.

 

I love the sound of that Cummins TurboDiesel though...I've been wanting to put one in my '72 F250, the gas milage just doesn't cut it with the 351C. -TD

 

they're good motors, just everything around them gets to be bad news...

 

Hey Fellro excellent post

 

Yeah, that was my thought. Take a good motor and put it in a GOOD vehicle and come up with a winning combination. Plus, since those trucks wern't offered with diesels, it's a real head-turner when you see/hear one! -TD

 

"I get chased out of groups, belittled, laughed at, and everything else. Did I mention they are like cockroaches? They infest any dodge group I lookup to get information, even if it is for a totally"

Well, I know of some excellent Mopar groups. Chased out you say? I just don't see how that could happen. Blows my mind...

 

Seems like everyone I talk to has something negative to say about Fords. Funny though, when I point out that daily I see 7 Ford trucks to the others, they say that doens't mean anything. Um, hello...

 

I dont know anything about that 5.7 diesel except for its a 350 gas job swapped. But when I see my co-worker pull up in his mid 80's Oldsmobile 88, or whatever that big boat of a car is, with that 350 diesel engine, I just got to laugh and give him a thumbs up.

With all this talk about what new trucks have been good and which have been junk I dont know if anyone is really right or wrong. Even with my past post on here just ripping my 5.4 F-150 a new one! Did I mention I hate that damn thing? But Im sure some feather foot, basic light towing person has had nothing but good times with there new Chevy, Ford, and Dodge. The biggiest thing that I believe we ALL can agree on is, that the older trucks really defined the true meaning of the word TRUCK. And you know, it wasnt really that long ago. Its the late 90's that screwed everything up. Ford went to modular and shoved the motors 1/2 under the dash, poor engineering in other areas followed. Chevy...idiot Chevy, ditched that 350. I dont know much about Dodge to really comment, I personally kinda like them, just never had an urge to own one.

And Fellro86, great post on page 2.

 

So you hate your 150. Why? Fill me in. Compared to what just curious.

 

I am also. I have driven 2 5.4 liter V8's, one a gasser, and the other CNG. The CNG is a stripped jack <censored> and the gasser makes me cry on acceleration. I don't know why, it just seems "sluggish" It's in a E150, and the CNG is in a Econoline passenger van. The 15 passenger van with all passengers on board can still outwhip the gasser E150 without anything in it when on a road practically Are the 5.4 V8's slow or something? It has a 4 speed automatic and overdrive. turning overdrive off can help a little, but not much. Both vans have the same mileage, and are 1998 model year vans. My honest opinion? It might be the people who maintain the colleges fleet. I wonder if they have crap spark plugs, like champions or something on it. It seems like it should fly more, being a V8. The motor pool people do not keep the tires inflated on the vehicles, I know a guy who drives a late 80's early 90's E350 box van, and it has a "feature" of cutting out in reverse when you start to back up. He took it to them a year ago to replace the fuel filter, and suspects they didn't replace it. It also takes 10 years to accelerate, even without a heavy load.

Anyone have info on the 5.4 V8? Is it a engine with *****, or could a pinto outwhip it?

Dane

 

Shutting OD off won't have any effect on acceleration from a stop. It will have an effect if you take off from a 40mph run or something of that speed (when the tranny actually is in OD). All the button does is keep the tranny from shifting into 4th gear, so the only help you get is that it doesn't have to downshift to 3rd, it would already be in 3rd.

There are a lot of factors that determine accleration, not just the "*****" of the engine. The new F-150 has 300hp, but it's about 500 lbs heavier than the competition so it is a little slower. Those hemi ram's can't pass a gas station so who knows if that 345hp is really worth it.

 

Everyone is saying that Dodge has bad trannys and other stuff, I have a Dodge 15 Pass. Van, 86 Ram and 3 Ford Pickups, we only buy the fords because you can get them dirt cheap compared to the Dodges. The Dodges have thier problems but we tow just as much weight behind that van with it's little 360 as we do with the 460 in one of the 90's or the diesels in the other 2, so If the trannys in the dodges are so bad then why has ours never le us down? Why are there so many people here in Prince George that will back me that Dodges are great trucks? Go drive through Sask. and have a look at what is hauling the hay, over half of the farmers are running Dodge, Ford's E4OD wasn't so great either, I talk to the autowreckers here and they get so many trucks with bad trannys. I do have to say that ford had a good thing with the twin I beam though. Ford GM and Dodge have problems.