Buying a used 6.5L to replace my 6.2L. A lot of ??'s

[Mikey von]

I am talking with a guy from craigslist that has a 1994 6.5L TD he is willing to part with for $400 (I have offered $300, he was asking $500). He is including all accessories and exhaust.

It has a bad head gasket. This is what he said about it "It didn't overheat, but it started getting exhaust in the coolant (no coolant in the oil, or oil in the coolant). They decided to park it until they could get it fixed. I bought it for the transmission."

I am looking at around $200 for the head gaskets and head studs correct?

Anything else I would have to worry about with this?

Would a turbo'd 6.5L be a upgrade over a turbo'd 6.2?

Would the exhaust work on my suburban? His truck is a 1994 regular cab long bed. Would it take a lot to make it work?

My 6.2 needs a head gasket, possible heads (it overheated), flexplate, starter, and hopefully nothing more. I have a banks kit (missing crossover) in my garage, but would also need to have my exhaust done.

I have a serious time and $$$ crunch. I have some money but not a whole lot. I need to have a running truck by April, as I am having ankle surgery and that will make it hard to walk the 3 mile round trip I walk to work. We only have one car right now and that will be hard with both my wife and I working and 2 kids going to daycare and school.

Any thoughts?

 

[Russell]

How many miles on the 6.5L?

I'd personally take the 6.5L block, put in the head studs with new head gaskets and run the 6.2L mechanical IP on it. The 6.5L's stock turbo will not play very nicely with your Suburban. The downpipe exits directly above your frame rail, I had to have mine run outside of the frame due to clearance issues. The other manifold will need to be changed over to a 6.2L unit as well, or it'll also dump into the frame. The 88+ NBS trucks have much wider frames up front than our trucks do.


You'd also need to install a resistor for the 6.5L's alternator to work with your old electrical system.

You could also put the 6.5L's parts on the 6.2L to have it back up and running with the Banks turbo setup.

 

[kennyw]

The 6.5L exhaust is not going to work as is on your 'burb. The 6.5L turbo will also not work with stock AC in the 73-91 body style. The price is decent on the 6.5L though for just the turbo setup, not counting the motor parts.

If you decide not to get the 6.5L post up the contact info as someone else here probably will want it.