About 4K on the I-5

Thats very possible. Also from what I know of new engines they come basicly broke in. so you wont find much difference after a few thousand miles. If your getting 17mpg pulling a boat 1/3 of the time with a I-5 thats pretty good in my opinion. because your probally getting 23+ without the boat attached, which is even better. How does your truck pull the boat, I was thinking of looking at one within the year or 2 and like to borrow my buddy's boat to go fishing.

I guess it depends on the weight of the boat. This one only weigh about

The I-5 pulls my little boat just fine. I run 65-70 without excessive shifting on slight grades. When I passed a line of boats a while back I stepped on it and just held the pedal down as I zoomed by. It down shifted and off I went accelerating steadily. Just as I got to the end of the line I hit the rev limiter right at 100MPH. Oops. It doesn't slam you into the seat like the 6.0 on my Silverado, but it pulls very steadily.

I am sure you could pull a much larger boat occassionaly with no real problems. You might have to go a little slower, but I'm sure it would handle it.

Bob La Londe

a 3.5 liter inline 5 Diesel would be nice to have in that truck! Don't really need a lot of pulling power (as in 6.6 liter Duramax) but would like the fuel economy of a smaller diesel in a smaller truck.

Why not the 4cyl turbo diesel Chevy and Isuzu use in the tilt masters?

Whitelightning

That would work too. As long as its Diesel, 200+ HP, and 230-300 TQ. It should do ok on the SoCal freeways.... put an Alison trans in there too! :-)

if it is a diesel and 200HP.... you're going to have lots more than

-Bret

That brings up another question. The duramax is an Isuzu/GM engine, Both the 4 cylinder in the small tilt master and the six cylinder in the larger tilt masters have exhaust brakes, since diesels have no back pressure, they offer no engine braking on steep down grades,(the reason big rigs have Jake brakes, unless the outfit you work for is cheap, ask me about Cabbage Patch Pass, light rain, 79,700 gross in a rig with no Jake sometime). Does the V-8 Duramax come with an engine brake? Whitelightning

The problem I found when driving a diesel (a Cummins) for 6 years, is that when they break, nobody (even sometimes the dealer) will fix them, if you have a buddy thats a truck and bus mechanic, good for you, but the average guy can't get it fixed reliably. The engines themselves run fine but the pumps and other attached parts give up. Cold Winters are a big problem too, as diesels age they get grumpier every winter, with longer and longer plug in times, and they never quite seem to warm up unless you hit 60Mph+ for 15 or more minutes straight. In the 'burbs fill ups have to be planned in advance (some towns have only one Station with a diesel pump and it looks like its never used - very bad) your town may be different. Fuel economy is great though, and if everything goes to plan, maintainance is cheap. Except for more tire wear (because of the weight), more front end parts wear (the weight).

Yes, finding fuel could be a problem, I only know of about 15 Diesel stations within a ten mile radius of my house. The interstate 5 is a truck route I believe, so there are a LOT of big rigs on it, and there are a LOT of Diesel stations along the freeway here. As for weather. This is SoCal. Most folks here "bundle up" when its in the

they don't have a "Jake" brake, no LD diesel has one, beit a Cummins, Powerstroke, or a Duramax. a Jake brake works by actuating the intake valves on one or two cylinders to dump off the air charge just before TDC back through the intake. what this does is absorb energy during the compression stroke but not allow any energy to make it back into the crank on the power (though the injector is shut off) stroke. you can buy an exhaust brake for all of the big 3 LD diesels which basically is a butterfly valve in the exhaust. this gives you as much engine braking as a gas engine of the same size.

-Bret

ya all went from talking about an inline 5 to diesel engines, these chat rooms are fun though, I could sit here for hours at a time reading all these posts.

I just don't have the time to do that. I have to select a few and follow them for a little while, then move on.

Once they get to mud slinging or the usual "F$%# you!" "no, F$%^ you!!" then I stop following, but yes, very fun, and very informative.