chuckanut

Alright, I'm going to be hopefully getting a diesel sometime soon. Looking to spend $15,000 - $20,000. Looking for Cummins or Powerstroke. I'm looking for your guy's opinions. MPG, common problems, towing, etc. The reason I'm not going for the Duramax is that within my price range, seems to be the early ones which had injector issues.
Thanks

wiggles

Get a 02-06 (I think) Cummins
Should fall right into that price range

andrewmp6

The best powerstroke was the 7.3 made 94 to late 03 stay away from the 6.0 its hit and miss.The cummins i only know the 12 valve and thats the early one from then 90s.If your looking for something easy to mod the cummins is a little better and don't use glow plugs like the rest of the diesels.

PUNISHER

I have an 03 Dodge 3500 Cummins. Bought it new and I have 60K miles with no issues! Best truck I have ever owned and I have owned them all at some point in my life!

Lifted with 37" MTZ's with a Granatelli Module and I get 20mpg on the highway. That is no BS either!!

I am not a fan of the auotmatics, the auto trans sucks a lot of power out of them. That is my opinion and we all know what opinions are like!

chuckanut

Thanks guys. As much as I like automatics, I've not heard much good things on the Dodge auto. Unless I can find one that's already been modified I'll probably go manual. Thanks again

mentalbreakdown00

Ok so here's my opinion. Cummins is great, the truck surrounding them is garbage. They can't keep a auto trans in them, and the interiors suck butt to me. The later D max's are ok, but a mother pita to work on. Now lastly the Powerstrokes, I love my Ford's. I work for International, and the 7.3 is a good workhorse, but aging severly anymore. The 6.0 is a good engine, if you do all the deletes to it, and maintain in strenously, if you don't you will have problems. The 6.4 is what international still uses, it's called a maxx force 7 for us though. Great wonderful engine, and will out run the newer ford 6.7's all day, esp with the coolers and all delted and tuned. Now that being said, any diesel you buy, the more you hop it up, the shorter it will live. My 1989 Chevy 6.2 is at 313,000 and going..... . If I could buy one, I would be looking at a 6.4L Ford. Or a early cummins without the newer style electronic pump.

chuckanut

Ok, if I get a late 90's early 2000 7.3 liter, what kind of mileage should I be scared of? 200,000 mi ok? And what kind of mods to increase MPG in the 7.3? I really like the four doors and the room they provide.

Trimmy

I have owned both cummins and duramax and they were all GREAT trucks. For 15-20k you can buy a NICE 2004.5 or newer duramax which did not have the injector issues and all around are very nice, interior, exterior, ride, towing ability, its an all around great truck. I just sold my 05 crew cab long bed duramax with 75k on it for 19k so that is in your budget but they do take a little more knowledge to work on because of the complexity of the motor which is not that difficult to work on really. I also owned an older 01 duramax that I had to replace the injectors in and its not a bad job at all, it took me about 10 hours working by myself and cost about $1800.

I have also owned 5 cummins, 2 12v's one was a 97 one was a 98 they were both great trucks and you can make a lot of free power out of them with just basic hand tools. I have also owned 3 24v with the vp44 injection pump. One had 100k, one with 215k and one with 305k on it. The truck with 215k had about 10k in mods, dyno'd 653/1412 and ran a 12.34 in the quarter in a quad cab short bed truck. The trans are a little weak to be put behind the cummins in stock form but they are amazing transmission with some money put into them, actually a better competition transmission then the Allision. For the cummins a 600hp transmission build will cost you around $3800, a 600hp trans build for a dmax is around $4000. With your budget I would suggest a common rail cummins, or the 03 and newer trucks. My buddy has an 06 with a 6spd manual. He put a clutch in it, twins, big injectors, lift pump, dual cp'3s, head studs and springs and then EFI and he dyno's 836/1456

I have a few buddies with fords and have three of the new 6.4s at work. The interiors are nice but I see them on the side of the road broke down on the time. The two trucks we use at work the most have less then 10k on them and so far are doing alright but I know a few people having injector issues with them already. My cousin has a 6.0 and so does a good friend of mine who is a ford tech that only works on 6.0, both trucks are junk and you cannot give them away around here. I am not a ford fan but hey maybe you like fixing junk all the time, I dont.

Trimmy

My boss has a 2000 f350 and no matter how he drives it he cannot get better than 12mpg. I have helped him install a 4" TBE, Intake, and an edge juice with attitude to try to get better mileage but he didnt see any gains from any of it. His trucks is maintained religiously and has less than 75k on it.

Both of my dmax's averaged 16-20mpg
All 5 of my cummins averaged 15-20mpg. My built cummins saw around 15 mpg because I could not keep my foot out of it. Its hard to keep your foot out of it when you have enough power to break the rear end loose on the highway at 70mph.

chuckanut

Wow, thanks Trimmy for all the info. Maybe I'll start looking at Dmax's again. I love the way they look.

TheCK4x4

Buddy has a 96 12v cummins , thing is sweet he only paid 7500 for it and hasn't done to much to it besides paint it (use to be red) does good on towing and gets about 18-20 mpg on the street , it is a auto haha has 135k miles on it and funny to say actually about 3 weeks ago some part in the torque converter ****ed up , he's either getting a built ATS or jasper tranny that were gonna swap In there just cause he's rather just get a better tranny then spend the money and time just to fix the converter, other then the auto tranny in dodges everything else is pretty much flawless!

Trimmy

If he wants a better tranny tell him not to go with either of those builders. ATS trannies suck and there warranty is worse and has more loop holes then anything and Jasper there just rebuilt trannys so no better then he has now. Tell him to go suncoast, firepunk, or some type of reputable builder but neither of those two...

DieselDaze

personally I prefer chevy, every brand will have their own little set of problems no doubt.. I bought a duramax because it drove, handled, was more quiet and downright just 'felt good' driving around town... although a chevy guy I really wanted the ford 7.3 I just couldn't get over its noise and handling..

I have an 05 2500HD CCSB 4X4, LT ... right now it has 169k trouble free miles with the exception of your typical maintenance..

Very good advice here and I'll add this as it being my first diesel truck, coming from a gas rig working on diesels is MUCH DIFFERENT, and MORE MONEY !!!!

personally I love the cummins motor and a 'standard' tranny, but I can't get over the look of them, personal opinion and preference..

if you want a truck that is very comfortable and retains its value get a CHEVY...

Trimmy

Look into a dmax, I have a buddy that just bought an 05 with 150k on it for $15000 out the door and its nice. We have them all over the place in Ohio for way less then 20 and I am talking loaded 06 LBZs.

TheCK4x4

Alright will do!