6.5 diesel upgrades!

[c20pickup]

hey new to the site today!! first post. I just purchased a 1992 2500 with a mechanical 6.5 in her. well its blown up right now, and will be getting a new motor with 130,000 miles hopefully this week. any upgrades I can make to this rig for first and foremost reliability, and then power? I was thinking along the lines of a fluidampr, marine injectors, and a larger turbo. what size turbo do you guys recommend and what vendors have them? anything that is a small improvement over stock is nice, I heard of a gm-8? what is that exactly? then I was thinking turning the power screw 1/8-1/4 of a turn then just running it. I will be putting gauges in, boost, pyro, and not sure about the third one, any suggestions? its got a 5 speed in it so im not worried about trans temp, and aslong as the oil pressure and water temp gauges work in the dash ill be happy, just need another gauge to fill up the a pillar pod. any tips or upgrade info would be great!!! by the way, this truck already has an upgraded new clutch, intake, and 4 inch exhaust, it doesn't have the crossover pipe tho, I saw one on heaths diesel site. worth the money?? thanks!

 

[tanman_2006]

Go to leroydiesel.com. Heath is overrated and overpriced IMO.

Walbro FRB 5 Lift pump, DIY OPS relay mod, Diamond eye exhaust (3" down pipe, cross over is always separate), crossover pipe, for a turbo I vote A Team Turbo.

thetruckstop.us will have good threads on how to do upgrades.

GM8 is the model of turbo on 97-00 6.5L trucks. Biggest STOCK turbo available, still a pos.

 

[towcat]

I built a 6.5 crammed into a '83 C20. everything stock except for the swapout of the factory oem turbo and put in a Banks WG turbo(model # TE06H) robbed off a 6.9/7.3 IH IDI. I can't keep a trans behind this motor and am working on upgrading from a THM700 to a 4L80E. No dyno numbers, but anybody who has taken on this thing will tell you it's scarey fast. the 6.2/6.5 has less rotating mass compared to a IH 6.9/7.3 but be warned, it is a hand grenade of a motor. When they run, they run like a scalded dog, but I have yet to recover a rebuild-able core from one of my own trucks. here's some pics with a heavy dose of "outside of the box" thinking. Bear in mind, I grew up with Big Block GM motors, I know what scarey fast is. this dman diesel is right up there.

 

[tanman_2006]

Those ford IDI turbo's work great on 6.5's. Better low end than the ATT but it chokes above ~3500. You can get near 300hp and 550ft# with a turbo like that, it will take evey bit of fuel a turned up DB2 4911 can muster though.

IMO, the ATT is easiest on the mains so they have less chance of cracking from too much cylinder pressure (caused by back pressure from the little stock turbos). The ATT fully lights at 1800 (sooner depending on timing and fuel) and can boost to 18psi on a truck w/ turbo spec precups and injection pump.