School me on 87 Chevy 6.2 diesel

[Deleted member 995608]

My fire station is looking at buying an existing 4x4 6.2 Chevy diesel patrol (50k miles) that's at another station. We will use it solely for storing our technical rope and water rescue gear which means it will only be used 4-5 times a year.

It's a great buy for 3K. Already painted, lights, sirens and existing radio equipment that will work with current system. All I have to do is remove the pump and water tank as it's not needed and re badge to our station #.

One of our crew suggested that we do a 350 gas swap with an auto transmission but I can't help to think our great deal will turn into an expensive conversion.

 

[jgillott]

Is it an original Military M1008 or was it a standard K20/30? One of our stations currently has an '87 K20 that is used as a Brush unit. It replaced a '78 K20 that we had for years. They both were/are 350 gas units and have held up very well under limited but very hard use.

I would not shy away from it at the price with a 6.2L as long as it runs well, doesn't leak/burn too much oil etc. They are extremely underpowered but the 4.56 military gears help a lot.

 

[CBari]

I have had several 6.5s and have friends that had 6.2 farm trucks. They are really easy to work on just treat it like any other truck that sets up keep the battery charged!

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Jgillot- it's a regular Chevy 1ton 4x4

 

[Wayne M.]

I know the 6.2's can have glow plug and cold start issues. I knew of one that kicked back on a crank and broke the corner of the block off where the starter bolts up.
If a swap s considered down the road, the only choice for me would be a 4B! You can score one already with a Chevy bell. Now that would be a nice unit!

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Here's the said patrol. Super clean!

 

[jgillott]

Wow, super clean and a great deal for your department! You don't know how lucky you west coast guys are with your equipment. You would never find one in that condition around here.

I'm not sure if CA and PA standards for emergency equipment is the same, but there is a real advantage in buying from another department around here. If you purchase a currently in-service unit from another company, it can go in service with your company unchanged. There are some exceptions obviously, but if you would go out and and purchase a non-certified truck and try to put it in service, it would have to meet 2014 standards for lighting, safety equipment, etc. You would easily have the majority of that $3K asking price in lighting, radios, etc. alone.

 

[Wayne M.]

Wow that's sweet! Yes that would be a rust bucket here. Prolly has D60 front ax and 205 case. Trans? T400?

 

[jgillott]

Yes, it would be a TH400. There's a lot of life left in that truck. 25 years ago, we didn't have many trucks that size in any of our departments. Now, I think that almost every one of our stations have a mini-pumper or attack truck in that size. Very, very useful unit size and much more cost effective than running a traditional pumper out the door on everything like we used to.

 

[mwilson]

Wow that's sweet! Yes that would be a rust bucket here. Prolly has D60 front ax and 205 case. Trans? T400?

AND THAT TRUCK'S Dana 60 would have the tapered roller bearing and cone set up for the lower ball joint along with the upper nylon bushing, pin and spring LIKE DODGE SHOULD HAVE DONE!!!!!

Tough, cheap and easy to repair......

Mike.

 

[Wayne M.]

AND THAT TRUCK'S Dana 60 would have the tapered roller bearing and cone set up for the lower ball joint along with the upper nylon bushing, pin and spring LIKE DODGE SHOULD HAVE DONE!!!!!

Tough, cheap and easy to repair......

Mike.

I know th 1gen had the upper bushing, not sure about the lower. I think Ford had the same. At that time all 3 were serious trucks chassis wise!

 

[mwilson]

I know th 1gen had the upper bushing, not sure about the lower. I think Ford had the same. At that time all 3 were serious trucks chassis wise!

I meant that Dodge should have used that design on the second and third gen trucks. I really liked that setup.

Mike.

 

[Wayne M.]

I meant that Dodge should have used that design on the second and third gen trucks. I really liked that setup.

Mike.

I agree. So called improvements.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

I'm really excited. We first tried to buy a cargo trailer but the county told us no. And then we found some really nice diesel 4x4 ambu's but got shot down on that as well. Essentially, any vehicle my company buys has to be donated to the county. I get it.

Anyway, we've been trying to put together a rescue rig for over a year and it looks like we finally got one. It will be nice to house our gear onto a rig and free up some space in our POV's.

 

[BDaugherty]

As long as there are no major problems with the 6.2, leave it be.
Make sure there are no fuel leaks, test the glow plugs and controller...the glow ug controllers worked off a temp switch and can be tempermental. I prefer to stay with OEM glow plugs and convert to manual glow control, but you probably need to leave it factory so the uninformed can drive it.
Later 6.2's had a brace on the starter to take stress off the mount bolts. I very strongly suggest installing the brace if yours does not already have it. You can by it from GM, a salvage yard, or build one. Also, a powermaster starter will be the best $500 ever spent on that truck (they spin the engine WAY faster during cranking).
Also inspect the frame around the steering box and make sure the steering box bolts are tight. I run steering box braces from OffRoad Design on all my old GMs, but yours with stock push-pull steering and small tires doesn't really need it.

IF you drop in a 350, it's super easy. Trans and torque converter will bolt right up. You will need acessory brackets for the gas engine, but PS pump and alt can be reused. You can used the wire going to the fuel solenoid on the injection pump to run the distributor.

 

[surfbeetle]

You'll want to head over the http://thedieselpage.com/ for the Chevy stuff. I had a 6.5 diesel suburban and their forums were a huge help, much like the TDR has been for my Dodge.

 

[gtobey]

Our salesman had an '87 K10 which ran everyday, and in 4 years of traveling he had over 290K miles on it. Only one fuel injection pump, one lift pump, and one set of injectors put in at 175K miles. Agree with everyone it wasn't the powerhouse that our Cummins engine are, by the time '85 came around, they had pretty much worked all the bad bugs out of things if you took any kind of care of the engine at all. Great truck!

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Thanks for the replies gentleman. Although we haven't taken physical possession yet, I'll have to post up some pics after we get it modified for service.