Comparing a tbi Chevy or a 300 straight 6 Ford to a diesel? I let my cousin borrow my idi to tow a 3000lb boat about 60 miles. He wound up doing 80mph because he was not used to the torque a diesel generates at highway speeds. This was a bone stock natural IDI. The Ford 300 may take you off the line but it runs out of juice at 45mph, and what a pos for fuel economy!!!! Any kind of work load will net you single digit mpg's. My only brand new truck was a 1994 f150 2wd, 300-6, 5 speed. Empty: 17mpg's. Ladder racks and 1000lbs of tools: 9mpg
As for the Chevy, yeah, a tbi 350 is peppy and has a very good reputation. A local heavy highway contractor had a mechanic that was a Chevy guy. They had over 75 3/4 and 1 ton trucks of which four were Fords, the rest bowties. Not a single Chevy smallblock could make a hundred thousand miles without puking its guts out. Cranks just letting go at 85k miles was very common. All of these trucks were loaded to their max gvw every day. They had a matching set of three f250 IDI utility bodys. The lowest odometer reading? 475,000 miles up to 650,000 miles. They started to go 50,000 miles between oil changes to try and blow up the IDI's cuz they made the Chevys look so bad.
Comparing an idi or a Cummins to these gassers is like comparing a canoe to a barge. Many people run their trucks around empty with no more than their butts in the drivers seat. The straight six or tbi motors may be fine for this. I am unwaivering in my beleif that they will fail miserably when compared to a diesel in a heavy work environment. Zero to sixty is not a good measuring stick in this situation
