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What Is Red-Eyes Turbo?

Are the 6.5L Turbo Diesel's good engines? Are the ATS turbo's any good?

  • Okay heres the deal I'm looking to buy a 1982 GMC 3/4 ton, 4x4, 4-speed, 205 transfer case, with a 6.5 Turbo Diesel with a ATS Turbo. How good are these ATS turbo's? I am mainly going to use this truck as a farm truck, not really pull anything just hunt in so I don't tear up my newer truck, but I do want a turbo diesel. I will also use it to put highway miles on it going to and back from the farm which is a 15 mile drive just to get there, plus the guy thats selling it says it gets 20+ mpg's. I will only be using it for the highway driving in the summer and I will just use it as a tear up truck on the farm or until I want to hunt and for whatever else I use it for until then. The engine has 35,000 miles on it and the front differential has 5,000 miles on it. I am guessing he had a 6.2L diesel in it and swapped it out with the 6.5 turbo diesel with the ATS turbo. My question is are these 6.5 turbo diesels good engines? Also are the ATS turbos any good as well? Would this engine get 20+ mpg's? Also does anybody know what the seller means when he says "Will run 70 mph loaded"? Please answer my "QUETIONS"! Thank you so much to all who answer!

  • Answer:

    It is hard to tell between the 6.2 and 6.5L motors. Anyway, common problems for both displacements are; Main Bearing Web Cracks. Crank Failures, usually caused by age failure of the harmonic balancer. PMD (Pump Mounted Driver) on the electronic injected motors on '94+ model 6.5L, heat causing pre-mature failure due to mounting location. Can be easily moved. The 6.2/6.5L are good motors in my opinion. They are not powerhouses, but they are good with fuel economy and usually last 300K and more. They were built by Detroit. The 6.2L was introduced in '82 and was a high-MPG alternative to the gas motors, and even got better mileage than the 4.3L V6 of that era! The ATS turbos are great. They have been around for a LONG time. I had one on an '86 Ford 6.9L IDI. It made a lot of difference in power output. Keep in mind that the turbo is going to have a low PSI output. The 6.2/6.5L motors have a high compression ratio, so they are usually run at about 6-10psi. Much more than that and your gonna stretch the head bolts. For what your going to use the truck for, it should work just fine! I wouldn't mind owning a 6.5L as a second truck!!! Unfortunately I just can't fine one in good condition...

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Yes the 6.5 is a good engine design, can't comment on the health of the particular one you are looking at, but the reputation of the series is relatively good. The newer generation gm diesel 6.6L Duramax is a better engine but that does not mean the 6.5 was not a good engine. No personal experience with the ATS turbo but company has a good reputation. 20 mpg possible, I would safely guess 18 mpg possible from most diesel trucks. So maybe the way this one is set up it could get 20 The more torque the engine has, the heavier a load it will be able to pull and do it faster and easier "run 70 mph loaded" The turbo diesels do have more torque than similiar gas engines. This is what makes them good for pulling heavier trailers. A gas engine 3/4 ton pickup with gas engine could pull a trailer with 5 snowmobiles @75 mph, but really had to work hard to do it and gas mileage dropped to under 10 mpg. Upgraded to a 1 ton dually with 6.5 Turbodiesel and pulling same trailer could do 80 mph much easier and mileage was still @ 15 mpg

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