Old school IDI fan.

[Dirtleg]

Well today while fueling up I met an ex IDI owner. Said he bought it new in 92' and drove it till it had 275k on it. In 96' Then he gave it to an employee of his who drove it another 200k. Once he was done with it he gave it back to the guy. He told me at this point it was leaking fuel from everywhere and he parked it beside his garage. He was approached by a guy who wanted it to use as a hotshot truck. He told the guy it had too many miles but the guy insisted. So they fixed the fuel leaks put an IP on it and the guy started using it to pull loads. Said it was still on service as far as he knew.

He was driving an 08 Cummins dually. He said he really wished it were a Ford but that he didn't trust the 6.0 and 6.4 motors. But he raved about the IDI. I think he's the first guy I've met in person who's been so hyped up about the mechanical diesel.

The sad thing is that he told me his new truck was only getting 15 mpg. He expected 20. And 20 is the low number I've been hearing for the Cummins trucks.

Anyhow his enthusiasm towards the old Navistar motors was kind of infectious. I'm feeling more excited about my wheels after our conversation.

 

[FordGuy100]

Well today while fueling up I met an ex IDI owner. Said he bought it new in 92' and drove it till it had 275k on it. In 96' Then he gave it to an employee of his who drove it another 200k. Once he was done with it he gave it back to the guy. He told me at this point it was leaking fuel from everywhere and he parked it beside his garage. He was approached by a guy who wanted it to use as a hotshot truck. He told the guy it had too many miles but the guy insisted. So they fixed the fuel leaks put an IP on it and the guy started using it to pull loads. Said it was still on service as far as he knew.

He was driving an 08 Cummins dually. He said he really wished it were a Ford but that he didn't trust the 6.0 and 6.4 motors. But he raved about the IDI. I think he's the first guy I've met in person who's been so hyped up about the mechanical diesel.

The sad thing is that he told me his new truck was only getting 15 mpg. He expected 20. And 20 is the low number I've been hearing for the Cummins trucks.

Anyhow his enthusiasm towards the old Navistar motors was kind of infectious. I'm feeling more excited about my wheels after our conversation.

Yeah, the whole emmisions thing has dropped the fuel economy for all the new diesel rigs these days. It seems that dodge owners have the widest variance, I've heard some getting 12mpg, and some claiming lower 20mpg.

 

[6.9poweredscout]

i hate the emission ****'s! the first thing i do to ALL my vehicles is plug every emission line i find, punch out the cats, and remove or block any EGR valve, usually adds a noticeable amout of power and increases fuel economy alot! on my friend's '79 Scout II once we removed the cat and added dual flowmasters the fuel milage doubled and the power increased.

 

[RLDSL]

I've always wondered what the logic was behind making a vehicle consume more fuel to supposedly pollute less .
I remember about 30 years ago out in California I used to make a fortune while waiting in line to get my cars checked in the state inspection stations when they started that noise. I'd charge folks $10 each to make their cars pass the inspection . All I'd do is turn the carb mixture screws way rich til they were starting to smoke, retard the timing till it would start to studder and send it through, and they'd pass every time, then I'd fix em on the other side

 

[Diesel JD]

That's government logic for you. I remember Birken Vogt from over at TDS saying that his instructor in mechanics school had a Toyota Prius and said that the reason why it only gets low 50s MPG is that its tuned for emissions, if it was tuned for optimal power and economy it could get 80, so he said. Birken thought it was a false economy... I'm not sure, but using moire fuel for less pollution, not sure that it really passes the smell test.

 

[Dirtleg]

The "supposed claim" is that even though there is more fuel being burned the "harmful emissions" are reduced overall.

I have been claiming BS on that logic.

6.9 scout I have had the same experiences with emissions stuff. My 78 f250 has a 460 in it. It was getting around 8-9 mpg average. I pulled the stock exhaust off and put headers and 2 1/2" duals on it. And yes I put 2 1/2" cats on it as I still had to pass emissions testing at that time. Well with the air pump connected I was now getting 10-11 mpg. Once it passed the sniffer test I disconnected the air pump and have seen as high as 14 mpg. I was welding doing shut down work with it and had a 140 mile roundtrip at that time. Yes fuel was much cheaper then ($1.30 roughly in 2003-4) but it saved me some money for sure.

And about the Pious only getting 50 mpg it should be able to get much better mileage. Although if you hooked a 10,000 lb trailer to it, it would probably only get 10 like most trucks do.

As a society we seem to forget very, very quickly. In 1992 Honda released a Civic that was capable of 70+ mpg. It didn't look any worse than a regular civic either. A magazine drove on from LA to San Francisco and back to see if they could do it on 10 gallons of gas. They almost made it, something like 70 miles short when they ran out of fuel. I think it went off the market for emissions reasons or maybe just poor sales. But why do we need a hybrid if it's not more efficient?

No we have not made any progress with fuel economy. It takes x amount of energy to move x amount of weight. Until they can get more energy from the fuel, mileage will not go up significantly. And if you have to tune it rich to pass emissions then that's not helping either.

I have been toying with the idea of a newer truck only because I've been hit with alot of repairs lately. And I see more on the horizon soon. But I think I'll just keep maintaining this one. The new trucks don't get any better economy anyway.

 

[Diesel JD]

You refer to the Honda Insight, space age looking but a real **** unless your just dying to "make a difference for the planet" Not very useful car IMO, but it had its niche. I do not believe in intentionally overpolluting but I think we are kidding ourselves on some of this stuff. The air is very clean these days except in some big cities where smog is a problem and I'm really not sure whether to believe CO2 emissions are a problem or not but we've already solved the first 75+% of the air pollution problem, when you go to solving that last bit of a problem there comes a point of diminishing returns, and we're close if not past it.

 

[Dirtleg]

I was not referring to the insight. It was a regular civic, cx model I think. It was the same body as the standard civic 2 door hatch available in 92-95. It had a VTEC engine (2 cam profiles) that instead of being tuned for power was tuned for economy. That's what I mean about us forgetting so easily. The insight got all the publicity because it was so ugly. The car that IMO was a better deal all around was not promoted properly.

My whole point was that we aren't crossing any bridges that haven't been crossed earlier. Until we do nothing will get better. The positive steps I see are people finding alternative fuel sources. This is why diesels are so great to me. Especially old mechanical ones.

The newer trucks getting such poor mileage is supposed to do what? I feel like our energy crises can only be corrected by allowing the emissions standard to tune all vehicled for the power/economu. I believe more complete combustion will give you better power and economy. Emissions would be helped as a side beneft of burning less fuel.

 

[Agnem]

All their efforts to cut emissions are only making things worse. How much clean air will we have when folks are burning their furniture to heat their homes with fuel prices getting the way they are?

 

[flatlander]

All their efforts to cut emissions are only making things worse. How much clean air will we have when folks are burning their furniture to heat their homes with fuel prices getting the way they are?

That's the objective. You can't have 1 nation and its people living at a much higher standard than the rest of the world. You can't bring up the rest of the world, you must bring down the anamoly.

It's sad that we don't seem to see it coming.

 

[BigRigTech]

The new rig's today are getting 4-5mpg, most truckers are telling me they are getting .5mpg less than there old rigs that didn't have a DPF on it....Cleaner exhaust, but just more of it....Real rocket scientist's aren't they. Us IDIer's are their worst nightmare, black smoke and just about anything that will burn going in the fuel tanks.....Hell, I'd burn a block of butter if it would fit in the filler neck....

 

[cgraham]

Anyone who claims their new diesel truck gets 20+ miles to the gallon is probably not too good at math.

 

[Optikalillushun]

The new rig's today are getting 4-5mpg, most truckers are telling me they are getting .5mpg less than there old rigs that didn't have a DPF on it....Cleaner exhaust, but just more of it....Real rocket scientist's aren't they. Us IDIer's are their worst nightmare, black smoke and just about anything that will burn going in the fuel tanks.....Hell, I'd burn a block of butter if it would fit in the filler neck....

i like ur attitude...if ur WMO set up is within my mechanical ability ill be burning whatever i can get my paws on as well.

speaking of ol IDI'ers, a local garage (dont know exactly what to call it...they buy and sell used tires, do retreads, minor rig and auto work, etc...) that mounted my new tires have an old mid 80s F-350 2wd dually with a 6.9. he said he loved that dam truck and only had to replace the rocker arms, pump, injectors and GPs since he had it and he had it for a LOONG time. he also said it'll pull just fine, not the fastest, but it'll go and he can still work on it with simple hand tools.