1985 6.2na w/4sp K30 thoughts?

[Ned Kelly]

So there is a local fellow selling a 1985 dually 6.2na 4sp K30 4x4 ,w/160k on it.
It may be a nice to have in addition to my fuel hungry BBC K30.
Front D60 verified from pics, not sure of the transfer case yet.
Price is right at $2200 with near zero rust (rare here) and good squares are rare.
I do mostly mud and forest trails. I prefer auto, but at this price I may go for 4sp.
This would be left as is, not a money project, only a locker and tires would be any add ons.
How is the 6.2na for mud?..probably not great...guess I could use it more for mellow trail rides.
What mpg do these things get?

 

[diesel4me]

The 6.2 in my '82 K2500 is lucky to get 16 mpg under combined city/highway driving...I do not believe the claims they can do better than that,not in a 4x4 3/4 ton or heavier truck anyways..

Maybe a C-10 with 3:08's can get over 20 mpg,but I would not expect anything over 15 mpg in a dually...the old 6.2 will be struggling to pull it around empty,and it probably has low gearing to make up for the lack of HP..a modern LS engine can probably do better on gas mileage than a 6.2...remember diesel usually costs more than gasoline too..

 

[Ned Kelly]

Good points. This one has 4.11 according to the seller.
I'd want to go to at least a 35" tire if do pick this thing up.

 

[obijuank5]

I have that same truck. It is nutless. It is heavy. It is a 55mph only truck. It is a blast to drive. It does not do anything else.

It needs 35s or 37s pretty bad. That will make it a more versatile truck. I have never seen a diesel 4.11 k30 truck but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Typically 6.2l one tons got 4.56.

As for how you offroad your truck, I have no suggestion there. It's hot and dry af here.

 

[campfire]

It will be gutless in general. IMO, The worst part will be the splits in the SM465. You will run out of gears long before you reach highway speed (so it will howl on the road). 37s would help if it's a 4.10 truck.

20MPG is easy for the right half ton, but I would expect 15 from the combo you describe.

In mud it will be as good as any gutless engine. It has no distributor or electronics to short out, so it won't strand you in a puddle as quickly as a gasser will.

With the idle governor it is awesome for crawling. It pulls itself right up obstacles with no throttle input required. This can be handy.

 

[454Sub]

This is exactly why I want one of these, turboed.

37 military tires and a small lift perfect to pull the less roadworthy truck. Best part is they can be tuned up a bit, and knock down decent gas mileage.

 

[Ned Kelly]

Well looks like it got sold 5min before I arrived.
Oh well, not so bad just having a BBC K30,....maybe it's good I didn't acquire another truck to spend funds on.
Thanks for all the input!

 

[Cruz89K5]

Ex air force truck. 6.2 with 4.10s. 6.2 is long gone. Not a bad driver on 37s. Thirsty though.

I have that same truck. It is nutless. It is heavy. It is a 55mph only truck. It is a blast to drive. It does not do anything else.

It needs 35s or 37s pretty bad. That will make it a more versatile truck. I have never seen a diesel 4.11 k30 truck but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Typically 6.2l one tons got 4.56.

As for how you offroad your truck, I have no suggestion there. It's hot and dry af here.

 

[6.2Blazer]

I bought my '90 6.2 K5 way back in 1994 with under 50k on the clock. It was completely stock except for 32" mud tires and had a 700r4 and 3.73 gears. With a teenager behind the wheel (i.e. full throttle always) and mostly city and rural stop and go driving it averaged 18 mpg. I'm sure if I drove that vehicle today and spent some time on the freeway it could get 20 mpg easy. The 6.2 really likes overdrive transmissions or manuals with more gears.

The K5 has been a dedicated trail rig for years now and 90% of the time I'm perfectly happy with the 6.2 (now just some minor pump tweaks, better intake and exhaust). As mentioned above it is great for crawling and technical trails, and is dirt simple with hardly anything that will cause it to stop running. There have only been a few times I really wanted more power and that was on greasy hill climbs that required a lot of wheel speed. Buddy ran a F-250 with a moderately built big block and there were a few times I simply couldn't follow him because of this. We did some calculations based on gearing and engine rpm and he could easily get twice the wheel speed I could.

 

[Ned Kelly]

I probably would have bought it if I got there in time. I was thinking I could compensate for low wheel speed by running chains!
Oh well, I'm stuck with the BBC K30...all is not lost!