OK, so it's non-Mopar - feedback needed on a Chevy 6.5L Diesel

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halfafish

Damn those rabbits, and their holes!
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The back story: For a while I've been poking around at the idea of a small RV/motorhome for the usual camping trips and travel. The idea of putting one together exactly the way I want it is appealing, but so far that's all it's been. Casual pondering on a lazy day. And then this potentially falls into my lap.

A good friend who is a stand-up guy and can be trusted is going to sell his Blue Bird Micro-Bird school bus. It's a 2002 with only 67K miles. He's owned it for about eight years and maybe put a thousand miles on it in that time. The works out to maybe 4K miles a year before his ownership. It came out of Wyoming and is completely rust-free. I checked it out, it's in exceptional shape and the price is very good.

It's a Chevy chassis, powered by a 6.5L diesel. I have no knowledge whatsoever on this engine, hence this thread. Does anyone have any experience or feedback on this power plant? I drove it and I can't find any concerns, but ya never know.

As RRR says, thank you and drive through.
 
The back story: For a while I've been poking around at the idea of a small RV/motorhome for the usual camping trips and travel. The idea of putting one together exactly the way I want it is appealing, but so far that's all it's been. Casual pondering on a lazy day. And then this potentially falls into my lap.

A good friend who is a stand-up guy and can be trusted is going to sell his Blue Bird Micro-Bird school bus. It's a 2002 with only 67K miles. He's owned it for about eight years and maybe put a thousand miles on it in that time. The works out to maybe 4K miles a year before his ownership. It came out of Wyoming and is completely rust-free. I checked it out, it's in exceptional shape and the price is very good.

It's a Chevy chassis, powered by a 6.5L diesel. I have no knowledge whatsoever on this engine, hence this thread. Does anyone have any experience or feedback on this power plant? I drove it and I can't find any concerns, but ya never know.

As RRR says, thank you and drive through.
I know but I am driving through.
 
I have some experience with a 6.2 which is pretty similar (predecessor) to the 6.5. In general they are pretty reliable and have decent torque but are slow slow slow. Buddy of mine has an 83 g30 Chevy van with the 6.2 and he is the original owner and the only thing ever done to it was it blew the headgaskets at 1600 miles, got it fixed under warranty at the dealer and they put brand new head studs and never serviced since. He has been tempted to turbo it in the past to wake it up a little but always backs out to keep it stock. He was a commercial diver and has towed heavy *** compressors, hyperbaric chambers, and boats and the van never complained.
the 6.5 will likely have a turbo and should be a little faster but you will also have a bigger van
 
If you want the super ugly, I'll start from the bottom. Main webs split, cranks break, balancers fall apart. Then there's the heads.
DSC00277.JPG
 
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