whats your favorite diesel pickup
7.3 Navistar IDI for me. Don't care if it is in a Ford or cornbinder chassis. Rock solid engine although I'm not exactly in love with the E4OD behind it in my 89 E350 bus.
5.9 12V Cummins is also a great engine. Not only found in Dodge pickups of course. Lots of ag equipment used them as well as medium sized Ford trucks like the school bus chassis.
My uncle uses an E350 Ambulance (conversion van) with a 7.3L to transport mail to post offices.
That 7.3L has over 500,000 miles on it now (almost all of those miles put on by him) It's not exactly a powerhouse/torque monster, when compared to a Cummins 6BT (even when it had low miles), but it does do a great job.
The only problems he's had, is the Dana 60 rear end had to be rebuilt twice, the Flexplate broke at 400k (we replaced the Rear Main Seal at the same time), and it likes to eat Vacuum Pumps like candy, about 3 or so a year. At 500k+ it is definitely nearing the end of its life, the motor is just plain wore out.
In 2007 or so, I passed up a chance to buy a 1997 Dodge 2500 4x4, Cummins 6BT, NV4500 5-Speed, Standard Cab / Long Bed, 5th Wheel Hitch, Trailer Brake Controller, Rust Free, Mint condition paint, 148k miles and it had been serviced at my family's shop from day one (So I knew the truck like the back of my hand). The seller was offering it to me for $3,000 (which is the average going rate on a nice cummins in my area), at the time I already had one Dodge Diesel and wasn't looking for another one.
