Chevy 6.5 litre motors - anyone had one fitted?

Hi Motherhen

Can't help you with knowledge of the diesel conversion but I suspect you will will still have 2 problems. 1 - whether the auto gearbox in your Patrol can handle the extra torque since Nissan rate the Auto diesel Patrols at 2.5 tonne compared to the 3.2 tonne or so for the manual.

Your Patrol would still only have a 2.5 tonne tow limit and I would be surprised if your Bushtracker didn't weigh more than that.

Cheers

Darryl

Gday,

I have driven one (very nice), and done a fair amount of research over time (only thing stopping me converting my GQ is cost lol)
Aparently in Patrols you need to upgrade ur radiator. the belhousing adaptor they use leaves little room for airflow under the bonnet in the GQ. So u need a heavy duty cooling system.

All in all, ive heard a lot of good things, the occasional mishap occurs in any vehicle situation, but if i had the money id definitely be sticking one in...power..economy and that V8 Diesel rumble.

yeehaa
Rev

A mate of mine had one in a '75 F250. Used it to pull a 8 horse goose-neck around. I don't know exactly how much that weighed all up but he'd sit comfortably on 100 and push it out to 120 sometimes. It used to run a bit warm during summer but he didn't have anything actually go wrong with it apart from glow plugs. He'd get about 4 or 5 kays per litre with it.

I have the 6.2 litre Chevy in my troopie, done by Brunswick about 4 years (60,000km) ago. No problems at all with the motor. Back then the conversion cost 10 grand with trade in of a running 2H motor.

I need the torque to tow a 3 ton boat and the V8 motor handles that well, does not run hot at all. Only once by trying to maintain 90kmh, towing the boat into a very strong head wind, did the temp gauge climb up to the 3/4 mark.

It has the original radiator core with bigger header tanks for the larger diameter water hoses. They fitted a fixed fan blade and also an oil cooler. They fitted a complete new exhaust system and a 90amp alternator as well as the heavy duty clutch I requested.
No problem towing in fifth gear but I am careful with that extra power available. Never use first gear now on my daily driving ( the troopie literally 'jumps'), only use it for towing or to get up the steep driveway first thing in the morning.

Fuel consumption around town is 14 l/100km.

Scottie, the foreman at Brunswick, is very nice to deal with, Greg, the owner? does not want to speak to you once you handed over the money.

I do not know if the 6.5 l motor has any problems, the 6.2 does not have any for me - yet.

Klaus

2.5 years ago we fitted a 6.5 to our 62 seires cruiser, it was the best thing we ever did. total motor rebuild and balance was $11500, the adapter kit and fitting brought the total to $19500. its a great tow viehicle, we average 22mpg when not towing the best we have ever done is 25 mpg. we do not have any over heating problems, if you give it full noise for an extended period you can make the temp gauge climb a little, but it remains within a safe working range.

it sounds great, will pull the bend out of a river and best of all no computer.

the total job took 2 weeks and was done by linquip in gympie.

hope that helps
regards johno

I've got a 75 series Cruiser with a Brunswick 6.5 in it. It's worked just fine for years. Not as fast as you might think but still surprises me at times. Off-road it is simply phenomonal when combined with a Detroit Locker.

One difference you can't quantify on paper is the ear to ear grin you get every time you open it up from 800rpm under load with a straight through pipe. Never get that with a Jap 4 or 6 no matter how many computer chips you install.

Big bucks no matter which way you look at it though.

Rumblerumblerumblerumblerumblerumble........:-)))))

wwwaaaahhhhhhhh.....
I want One !!!!!!!

Hi,
well a friend of mine has one in his chevvy, towing horses, and yes they go well, yes they get warm, fairly warm, especially with the computer control for the fuel injection nesstled in between the valley cover. At over $3000 to replace the module, not cheap. Parts can be a nightmare here in oz, sometimes $$$ wise, this is why the Qld Ambulance up here have given them the flick, otherwise, I believe a good motor.

Gordy

What and how heavy is the vechile you are trying to tow, if they are going to offer you 4,000 for the old engine can't be that bad.

Hi motherhen ,
just read ya article on fitting a 6.5 L65 engine .
my advice to you would be don,t go near them !!!
speaking from lots of experience eg. Ambulance fleet .we spend a bloody fortune
keeping them on the road a few examples ,they leak oil from every place you can think of , they have a problem of porous blocks eg. water in oil , they have cyl head problems , injector pump problems ,harmonic balancer failuers ,use oil ,
premature failure of water pumps ,power steering pump pulleys crack and fall off
vacuum pumps are popular to fail ,get very noisy!! glow plugs are comon to fail
elecrronics on pump are notoriously unreliable and bloody expensive .
The pump has been upgraded in the US 3 times since 92 the black box (FSD) has been upgraded twice and the problems are still the same .
If ya gonna put an engine in a vehicle that has emission control system the engine ya put in must comply with the same regs that the vehicle was built to comply with
otherwise the vehicle is unroadworhty.
some onfo to chew on .in short ( heap of bleep ) and not cost effective to rebuild

cheers mechpete Shepparton.

As has been said, the grunt combined with the sound makes it all worth while. My Humvee has a 6.2l, gives similar fuel economy to a loaded 1HZ powered troopy. Parts are pretty cheap compared to Tojo bits, most can be bought direct from the US, quite often on Ebay. Yes there are problems with mid to late 90's 6.5 blocks, well known and casting numbers and other info is freely available. The FSD on electronically controlled pumps is problematic as is anything electronic that is mounted on a hot vibrating diesel, remote mounting kits are available to mount the FSD on the vehicle body. The mechanically injected engines are in the same vein as a Nissan 4.2, 2H and 1Hz, basic and reliable.