Diesels are better(continued from FOrd tech forum)

Half the fun is driving the tow rig. My point is regardless of towing and initial cost, todays diesels are superior to a gas engine in my book. Mileage, maintenance, power, design of the engine...all better than a comparable gas engine option. THe only downside I see is cost when there are parts failure.

I've always had gas powered vehicles, but after having a diesel pickup I'll never go back.

 

You made me out to sound like I'm the one preaching the virtues of gas! After owning my TDI Jetta and my new truck, I'll never buy another gas powered vehicle again, unless it's a classic car or something. Even then, I think a 69 Chevelle or something like it with a Cummins or DMax in it would be sweet and unusual. Probably would get lynched at the track for it though...

Anyways, the benefit for gas is that it costs alot less than diesel. Other than that, I see no benefit.

 

Why would you spend another 5k for the diesel, then pay 60 bucks for oil changes, 50 for air filters....and so on, when I already have a tow rig that is argueably the most practical setup for towing with a 1-ton truck. This is daily transportation, not a truck that is going into the hot shot hauling industry. Yea, diesel is great, I think that topic has been covered 1000000000000 times, but you make it sound like a gas motor is simply a piece of ****. Sorry, but 370hp and 460 lb ft of tq should be "fun" in a light weight pickup. If its not, Im a damn fool I guess.

 

I totally agree with you. I am sure that if I were to buy a another truck, it would be a gas engine. I don't daily drive my truck, I definetly don't daily tow with it, so what is the point of spending all of that money in the initial purchase, and then like you said the maintenance, and higher repair costs (for the most part) and get marginally better fuel mileage (even a 5 MPG difference would take a long time to pay off), and currently higher fuel costs. Just not worth it for me, and I can see why your Dad would choose the gas engine for the same reason my parents bought a 6.0 gas truck vs. a Duramax a couple of years ago for towing there 32' fifth wheel all over the country. They get 9-11 MPG, and paying a lot less for regular unleaded then diesel fuel is.

 

Exactly. Today's modern gassers will get the job done, and so will a diesel. Sure the diesel will probably get you there faster, but this is only when we are dealing with some SERIOUS weight, like 20k trailer loads. How fast do you really need to be going up the hills with that much weight? I think everybody agrees that the diesel is the dominant tow motor, but implying that a gas motor is far less useful is somewhat of a stretch.

 

Sorry Evan, I just qouted you because you asked to not hyjack your thread and to make a new one.

 

Relax man, I didn't say they were a pile of poo at all. Gas motors are fine and I agree that with the power numbers of today's engines, it will be plenty for almost everything. Heck, the small blocks of today put out more power than the BBC in our 1976 C30 dually that my dad used to drag an 18K rated gooseneck loaded gross at 30K from here to Texas.

All I was saying is after driving both a gas and diesel engine I prefer the diesel in daily driving circumstances 10 fold to a gas engine. They are just so much more fun to drive and run forever.

I do find this interesting though...

diesels do hold twice the amount of oil and most are recommended for an oil change at every 10K or so, not 3K that some people rediculously do with diesels. The oil cost is the same, infact less if you have your oil changed at a "stop and lube" since you only pay for filters and labor once every 10K instead of twice with a gas engine.

I never said gas engines are POS's, just that diesel engines are better in almost every circumstance vs. a comparable gas engine, IMHO of course.

 

10k miles on an oil change? I dont know what Dodge recommends for the Cummins, but Ford says 5000 miles on the PSD, 7.3 or 6.0. Unless of course you are running Amsoil bypass filter setups and the like, but then again we are talkin stock rigs here. After a quick look on the internet it appears that Dodge recommends 7500 miles on a particular service schedule. Chevy recommends 3000-5000 depending on application and usage. It may be ridiculous to change the oil at 3000 miles, but if thats what the manufacturer recommends, Im not really gonna think twice about doing it that way. But then again, when you said 10k mile intervals, you were probably just talkin about Cummins........

I cant remember the last time someone else changed the oil in one of my vehicles, but from what I remember, they would only cover oil up to a certain number of qts, then the additional qt cost jumped right up.

 

Only 3-5K out of the GM's? Wow. IIRC the ISB is listed for 11K oil intervals in a medium duty application and I think it's the same size pan as the ISB in the Dodge's. far as I know the Dmax and PSD hold just as much oil as the Cummins does. My drandpa changes his oil twice a year with his '95 PSD and drives over 25K a year, and had 258K on the odometer last time I saw it six months ago. I think changing the oil below 7-8K on a diesel engine is a waste personally, when a decent oil is used of course, but that is the way I see it and don't expect anyone to stop changing their diesel at 3K. I'll be changing mine at about 10K, but I use Exon XD3 Extra that is supposedly 50K oil in OTR trucks.

Take it easy man, I'm just having a little fun.... oke:

 

rotfl good one...

How many quarts does the dmax hold?

 

Hmm, I don't know why you couldn't go 7-9K then?

 

My truck could hold 30 quarts and I'm still going to change the oil every 3.5-4k miles. Call me whatever you want timmay jr.

 

rotfl Seems to be a recurring thought around here.

 

I second that, I'll change the oil according to what Ford sets as the interval. If I had an Amsoil bypass filter kit I might run the oil in longer, but I dont. I guess your 7500/15000 miles intervals are yet another fantastic reason to consider Cummins a dominant motor

 

Don't makeup a bunch of garbage. I never said that cummins is dominant because of oil....

 

That I find silly. Our trucks hold 11 gallons of oil in their Detroit 60 series engines, we change the oil at nearly 20K in them. I don't care when you change your oil, I guess you didn't read my post very well.