Welcome. Crazy find that low of miles, I miss my suburbans.
Warning, I am the guy that writes books- but some of the info is good. Also I am the guy that will help you spend your money- so pick the critical advice first, and beware I have you buying gold plated valve stems later. But figure hit you with critical stuff now since you are new to this platform, and I am killing a little time right now.
Spend time reading the stickies here- it will save you thousands and many hours of headaches.
Keep in mind when you here things recommended replaced at 100,000 mile intervals like hoses, belt, harmonic balancer- the rubber components can fail from simply time- so inspect carefully before just pushing off another 25000 miles.
The hose they are referring to is the port on top of the filter, where you loosen it to bleed out the air- to catch the fuel spill into a container (less than a shot glass). Most of us don’t, we just let it go then when everything is done (because there will be some accidental mess occurring anyways) just a quick blast of brake cleaner to wash everything off.
But I will say there are things to do soon as you can afford with he truck new to you.
On the fuel system- from fuelline.com they sell a clear fuel line- you need 6” (sold by rhe foot so save the other half) of 1/4” line. This is to replace the original return line that comes out the front of the injector in an upside down “U”. This is diagnostic- you can see the fuel flowing through when running and mainly watch for bubbles an an indication sucking air in the system at a glance under the hood. Many of us for years have just bought a piece at local hardware store, but it. NOT being rated for fuel, it lasts about 5 years and needs to be replaced about $5 there and a super easy task.
Then you should add a metal T fitting at the ip inlet, and attach fuel sending unit there, mounting fuel pressure gauge in the dash to see while driving. Your recommended fuel pressure from Stanandyne (ip mfr for gm) is 8-14 psi. The factory pump will not produce it very long if at all. Having under 8 will keep the truck driving, but the danger is when you get to 0 psi or below. The ip will suck fuel from the tank when the LP is bad, and it will keep driving. But this is extremely hard on the ip, wearing it out quickly. The ip is expensive and a pain to replace. There is probably only 10 trustworthy shops in the USA for diagnosis and repair anymore on this engine- hence why this forum is so strong- many people have need to learn this for diy and end up here. This is the most common reason the 6.5 has negative reports since the ds4 ip came out.
When you fuel up, you need to add LUBRICANT every time, never diesel 911 or similar.
Stanandyne makes their own additive, many people use 2 stroke oil. Mine is an older type of non electronic pump that can run of anything, so I use atf in much larger ratio than you can- so I can’t recall the ratio- someone please let him know the details for ds4 oil.
Long term imo, you should replace the factory lift pump and filter with a better system, I lean towards FASS. You can get the desired pressure, it has the perfect filters - they have the absolute best water separator filter. You could just add the water separator filter on a block style housing and keep the current filter housing (referred to as FFM- Fuel Filter Manager) it has the filter, water drain, and fuel heater. This upgrade isn’t a critical one, so long as you do the pressure gauge- that is critical, and should have been factory if GM wasn’t being cheap.
Two critical, engine killing things to check/ replace asap when the warnings show up:
Oil cooler hoses- the connection points can fail, they start to seep and the hoses themselves start seeping oil not long before they burst. First theing your oil pump does is suck oil from bottom of pan and push it out these hoses to the cooler in front of the radiator and back to the bearings inside the engine. When these fail, you loose 100% of your oil in a couple seconds, and by time you see the oil pressure drop you just bought an engine. No one can react fast enough. Some people are happy to replace these hoses every 100,000 miles. Other people replace the unique fittings and use a steel braided oil hose - site vendor Leroy Diesel sells these as kits. Before he did that most of us simply took the hoses and fittings out and down to a hydraulic hose shop and had them make hydraulic hoses like would be used in a piece of heavy equipment. That is what is factory for hmmwvs/ Hummers (same engine & transmission) and those owners never heard of an oil hose failure- people with 1980’s hmmwvs have never replaced an oil hose. Military mechanics never heard of replacing them, they just last so many decades being built for thousands of psi but never hitting 100 psi so it is a forever part.
The last part that kills your engine- harmonic balancer. The disk just infront of the oil pan, behind the lower belt drive pulley. The rubber in it goes bad, the outside ring losses position throwing balance off and breaks crankshaft, causes block to crack the main webs. When replacing the balancer, you have to remove and should replace the drive pulley at same time. It is a huge chunk of rubber and although it doesn’t help the engine balance, when it fails it will throw off the balance.
There are many aftermarket balancers and pulleys. Avoid almost all of them- before buying any parts- ask. We have all learned what to avoid. Every 100,000 miles is the safe replacement time for these two. AC Delco is the trusted brand that lasts the time. NEVER get the cheaper ones, many fail in 30,000 miles or less. If you don’t mind spending more $, the best choice is Fluidampr (not a misspelling) balancer. It has no rubber to fail, and has dynamic fluid inside that helps smooth the engine far better than factory- everyone that installs one instantly feels the difference so long as they have driven 10,000 miles in to be truck to be used to it.
You can also replace the drive pulley with a billet one made by Leroy Diesel- then it is a forever part. There is a little controversy if this is a mistake- some people believe the rubber in the factory pulley is best to remain for vibration. Personally I don’t, but you should learn both sides of argument and decide your self. There is No performance or lifespan advantage to the billet pulley unless you are building a hot rod. The advantage is buy one time and it lasts forever. Otherwise buy an AC Delco and replace every 100,000 miles or roughly 20 years for rubber degradation. While replacing the balncer, the front main seal takes an additional 30 minutes to change if doing your first time, those if us thats done it before it takes 5 minutes. Cost is $10 for a good one, so recommended at that time.
To inspect if you dont want to replace the balancer right away- clean and examine the rubber ring both front and back of the balancer. Take/ post pics and we can point out if it is going bad. Grab the outside metal ring of the balancer and try ripping it off the inside ring like you are fighting over $10,000 with someone pulling it from your hands- because you are. If you can move the outside ring, it is about to come free and destroy your engine and cost you ten grand. Now, if you are a UDFA lineman trying to get on the practice squad for the Lions- maybe only use 90% strength, but if a kicker go ahead and use it all.- haha.
Overheating. This is the #1 killer of this engine. There are parts to buy, things to upgrade- but the key is the link between your eye and foot. When it’s hot back out and ignore the horns of people behind you. They don’t pay for the new engine, you do.
I recommend later modifications to have the normal engine temps at 180, that is a massive thread on its own. Stock is 195, and fine. When driving glance at the temp gauge once every other minute until you know the truck like you did when you first started learning to drive. Here is the critical part:
At 200 it’s fine
At 210 watch the gauge more than the road
At 220 immediately pull over and let it idle back down to 195 & do not shut it off unless it is boiling out coolant, then shut off as fast as possible.
Here is where the parts money comes in- get a good aftermarket temp gauge kit installed asap. Relocating the sensor elsewhere that currently is inthe right rear head of the engine or in the block off port on top of the head behind the intake manifold. I often recommend AC Delco parts for many things- not here, their sensors and gauges SUCK. I mean worse than the Lions did since 2019 - 2022 ish if memory serves. But being a Lions fan- you found an appropriate engine. Rare fans, and when it is the right choice it works out- usually because you know where there are others you can cry with! Haha.
Yeah, you put it in the name, I have to hassle you. But I give you props for standing up for your team. If ya wanna make it to the superbowl - it’s in Vegas this year, buy a ticket, maybe you can get a seat next to some of your players- Haha.
Like owning this engine- I am a glutton for self punishment, and it is reflected by my team:
RAAIIDDEERRRSSSS!!! And since all books should have at least one picture:
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