Thought I'd report on how the Diesel swap has been behaving for the last 14 months. Let me preference this by explaining that I've been a diesel fan
for a LOT of years and knew going into the project that the funds spent on this endeavor would never pencil out. It''s just something I enjoy doing as
I'm sure more than a few of you can relate to with your working on the old girls. As you will see, the fuel savings will probably never re coop the
outlay.
So, that being said we've accumulated 8257 miles over lots of varying terrain and weather conditions. Of the total distance a little over 2500 miles
were towing our 2010 VW TDI wagon. Towing seems to make a little over a mile to the gallon hit on fuel economy. Over the total distance we used
611.671 gallons of fuel and averaged 13.499 mpg. We just returned from a 883 mile trip to the Grand Canyon and averaged 15.23mpg running solo. It's
taken a while to tune the DRAC module to let the PCM know the true road speed but I finally got it right and the motor seems to like the adjustment.
It seems to run better and the economy looks to have improved. Contrary to rumers about the diesels massive torque and grade pulling prowess, the 6.5
td is no Duramax, Cummins or Powerstroke. It will out pull a stock 455 or 403 that came in our GMC's as best I can tell, but don't expect 800 ft lb's
of torque out of the 6.5td. I'm guessing at 480 or a smidgen more in ours with inter cooling,14 lbs of boost and a straight through 3.5" exhaust-about
a 50 ft lb increase from the stock 430 in this 6.5. No plans for a tune or to increase the fueling as economy is where I want to go. I did change the
final gear ratio from the 3.73 (3.077 effective in od) to a 3.42 (2.82 effective) which seems a better fit for the engines torque range. Can't really
tell a difference in hill climbing but the sound level inside really improved. I'd favorably compare the noise from the 403 with 3.55's for sound
level if not better.
Anyway, we're very happy with the results to date and hope to have many more enjoyable miles with the coach and meet lots of great folks in the
comunity,Lord willing.
Hal
--
1977 Royale 101348,
1977 Royale 101586, Diesel powered,
1974 Eagle Bus 45',w/slideout
for a LOT of years and knew going into the project that the funds spent on this endeavor would never pencil out. It''s just something I enjoy doing as
I'm sure more than a few of you can relate to with your working on the old girls. As you will see, the fuel savings will probably never re coop the
outlay.
So, that being said we've accumulated 8257 miles over lots of varying terrain and weather conditions. Of the total distance a little over 2500 miles
were towing our 2010 VW TDI wagon. Towing seems to make a little over a mile to the gallon hit on fuel economy. Over the total distance we used
611.671 gallons of fuel and averaged 13.499 mpg. We just returned from a 883 mile trip to the Grand Canyon and averaged 15.23mpg running solo. It's
taken a while to tune the DRAC module to let the PCM know the true road speed but I finally got it right and the motor seems to like the adjustment.
It seems to run better and the economy looks to have improved. Contrary to rumers about the diesels massive torque and grade pulling prowess, the 6.5
td is no Duramax, Cummins or Powerstroke. It will out pull a stock 455 or 403 that came in our GMC's as best I can tell, but don't expect 800 ft lb's
of torque out of the 6.5td. I'm guessing at 480 or a smidgen more in ours with inter cooling,14 lbs of boost and a straight through 3.5" exhaust-about
a 50 ft lb increase from the stock 430 in this 6.5. No plans for a tune or to increase the fueling as economy is where I want to go. I did change the
final gear ratio from the 3.73 (3.077 effective in od) to a 3.42 (2.82 effective) which seems a better fit for the engines torque range. Can't really
tell a difference in hill climbing but the sound level inside really improved. I'd favorably compare the noise from the 403 with 3.55's for sound
level if not better.
Anyway, we're very happy with the results to date and hope to have many more enjoyable miles with the coach and meet lots of great folks in the
comunity,Lord willing.
Hal
--
1977 Royale 101348,
1977 Royale 101586, Diesel powered,
1974 Eagle Bus 45',w/slideout
