It actually almost looks like an Olds V8 with a air gap intake, driver's exhaust manifold is very similar. The 6.5 is pretty much forgotten these days. I know the old 6.2 was fairly gutless but super reliable. Supposedly the early blocks were super beefy too.Not much progress the past couple days, waiting to go out to a buddy's house to use his shop press for the control arms. However test fit the manifolds and sat the turbo on the engine to see how everything looksView attachment 124319View attachment 124320
Other than the valley mounted electronic's, which failed all the time, the 6.5 turbo was a good motor. But between the electronic's and lift pump failures and the lousy 4L60E in the half tons, 4L80E should have been across the board, they had issues. They got ridiculed by 7.3 Ford guys which were pretty good for reliability but were 3/4 ton and up. Little did the Ford know their turn was coming with the 6L and 6.4L junk a few years later. You can fix all GM'S mistakes except the 700R4/4L60E, no really long term fix under power. Upgrade to later 5 pinion planet's, sun shell and as many clutches and steels as possible in the 3/4 pack, it might live. Just a neat idea, not many turbo diesel V8 G bodies, definitely something different, I like it.Yeah the similarities between the olds engines and this one are pretty clear. I think its because after the 5.7 olds diesel flopped they came up with the 6.2 liter with Detroit diesel and from that diesel came the 6.5 turbo. As the engine evolved you can still see the hints of olds left behind like the exhaust manifold placement which on an olds is below the spark plugs on the 6.5 its below the injectors and glow plugs and the engine has the fill tube like an olds, even the valve covers look a little similar so it shouldn't be too difficult to make someone look twice. It'll be interesting to hear the first person to ask if there is a turbo on an olds engine. The engine has been forgotten in favor of the duramax but its a much simpler install than trying to get and wire up a duramax
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