someotherguy
+1y
OK so here we go trying again. The 6.5 from 1993 is said by some to be the "best" of the 6.5 early engines because it has mechanical injection, no problems from that electronic injector setup. They also say it has a strong block. Idunno. I see a LOT of 6.5's with cracked heads, cracked blocks around the main bearing area, starter bolt hole threads pulled out, starter pads cracked...these engines have a bad reputation and for the most part they deserve it if you ask me. That's just in case you needed any more ammo to convince yourself to dump the original engine.
As far as conversions, the 12 valve Cummins is the "easy" one to do since it doesn't take any fancy electronics to make it run. I think there's a company out there offering some adapters and stuff but I have no idea what their name is. Every now and then a converted truck comes up on eBay and the seller claims they bought it that way and have no idea who did the swap...probably just to save themselves answering a ton of questions.
Think about what transmission you're going to run. If that '93 has an automatic, it'll be a 4L80E, and the ECM in that '93 will be for the transmission ONLY - this is the hot ticket for an engine swap if you're going to retain the 4L80E.
If you find that adapter/swap company ask a lot of questions. It seems like when I see the converted trucks, someone always stops before it's 100% usually around the speedometer/cruise or possibly A/C.
For $2K that truck better be damn clean, consider the engine to be junk and worthless so you're buying a truck without an engine for $2K - think about that. It's hard to sell even a good running 6.5 truck because of their reputation. I see them on CL all the time, posted over and over and over...
Richard