“…feel like they made a wrong turn by going away from the 5.9″

Should’ve listened to your grandfather. The ONLY reason they went away from it was to meet emissions compliance for 2007. They needed to extra displacement to make the same power with all the emissions gear. Wow… Just stop while your ahead

The engine will be built by VM Motari, the Italian supplier owned by Chrysler’s parent company Fiat. They will also produce the same engine slated for the ’14 Grand Cherokee. No, it’s not Cummins (alas), but I understand they are a good outfit.

Doc 40, do you have pics???  I also own a Cummins on my 2006 Mega Cab 4×4 and wouldn’t change it for any other….

 I apologize for assuming that you didn’t have any knowledge in regard to your reference of the Duramax being tied to Mitsubishi. I assumed that a person who didn’t know that the Duramax was built by Isuzu was just spouting without really knowing what they were spouting about. I have worked on the diesels of all three American truck brands as well some of the medium duty Izuzu trucks with the inline 4 cyl Isuzu turbo diesel. I do agree with you, that the Cummins is the top dog for being a complete package…durability, dependability, and performance. I would say the runner-up would be the Powerstroke engines, with  the previous 7.3 litre being the most robust design of  Powerstroke offerings over the last 15 years. The fuel injection systems of the recent Powerstroke and Duramax offerings have been extremely problematic. When they are running good, they make great power, have good fuel economy, but they don’t stay that way. Inevitably something will go wrong with the high pressure oil pump system or the injectors fail and start pumping fuel into the crankcase. The injectors of the earlier Duramax (2001 thru 2004) went through 8 revisions, post production, before they finally came up with something that would hold up for any length of time. In the meantime, they had hundreds of thousands of trucks out there running much of the time with fuel being pumped into the crankcase. My buddy had one…big pain in the butt.

Cummins in my opinion is the beat Diesel engine around. They should have put the cummins in the 1500′s as well. Sadly they won’t. I also have to agree with the 6.7 being a atep backwards. I got a 2005 3500 SRW Laramie and I don’t get as great fuel mileage but I got a 6 inch lift and mudders. Also performance upgrades. But then again you buy a diesel you can’t expect great mileage. You want a vehicle that goes forever on a tank get a Prius in u opinion. But good for dodge for making diesel half tons.

Real trucks have zero spark plugs, zero torque converters, 6 cylinders and 6 tires. 

Funny, my Tacoma has over 130,000 miles on it and I have replaced axle seals, timing belt and a carrier bearing.  Pretty simple… change oil, tires and put gas in it.  Much better than any Dodge I am familiar with.

I can shoot my mouth off sometimes before I think,I do have a good friend who owns a diesel shop in town here,he is a die hard duramax fan,he does not get many duramaxes in for serious work,so there is something to say about that.I use to love the old power strokes,7.3s,but after working more and more on cummins I hated having to do any work on the 7.3s .So I left them behind,now I sell cummins parts and we do conversions,we put 1st gen engins into 03 and up dodges,we are now working on VE pumping 24 valves.I understand why cummins has dodne what they have done over the past several years,but by not sticking to there tried and true cummins engine and using a V6 is a kick in the nuts to old schoolers,what can we exspect 5-10 years from now,mabe  the V6 is a way of paving the way to cut ties with cummins,you never know these days.

I have a 2000 Dodge 2500, 4×4 Cummins auto. I am running 355 gear, cold air intake, 4″ exhaust 1001k miles. I get13-14 everyday and maybe 19-20 hwy. Any suggestions on how to improve this? Thanks for any comments.

Just saw the post by Spence. He knows a lot more about the first Dodge diesel than I do, but I do remeber it and the fact that power was low but got really good fuel mileage. Thanks for the post Spence.

I knew about the GMC, I believe the heads was the main problem with those.

if i hooked to a toyota, i’d rip it in half

yay they fixed it.. but get your fax right!! people will think you are full of shit and they wont listen to you anymore…. especially because you are auto guild people look up to you… get your shit right!!!

6 cyl Mitsubishi. With an auto trans the power was non-existent. With a 4 spd, it was fair

Um, GM had diesels in a 1/2 ton 20 years ago so this heading is incorrect. Not saying I rave about those engines, just wish media would not mislead

80 percent of the vehicles in Europe are all diesels even the Ford Rangers got diesel engines. I think part of the reason we don’t see alot of diesel vehicles here is because of our corrupt greedy government and the big money hungry oil companies. They don’t want us driving fuel efficient vehicles. That’s just my speculation. And the fact that most people have the wrong view on diesel motors as they are noisy and stink and hard to start. I was getting 28 MPG with my 12valve Cummins in my 1995 Dodge 1 ton truck. That’s dam good for a 1 ton. You can’t beat that with a gas 1 ton.

Sweet! I am looking forward to the new 1500 Diesel Ram.  I know it’s not the 1st half ton or smaller pickup truck to be offered with a diesel motor in the United States too.  There was actually a Ford Ranger mated with a diesel motor in the 80′s and there was always the VW car/truck. Let’s see what Dodge decides to put for a sticker price though.  I hope they price it reasonable, so it’s not like only a couple of thousand dollar difference in getting the 3/4 ton or 1 ton truck, if they do this, then I do not think they will sell well.  If they make the truck in stripped down versions, i.e. Tradesman and maybe an SLT between 25k and 35k then I think they will not be able to keep them on the lot.  I hope to see at least 25 city and 30-35 highway out of a V6 diesel, 4×4 Crew with the right gear ratio.  I say this because the old 6bt 12 valve cummins in the old dodge 3/4 ton and 1 ton’s in the late 80′s and up to 98′ got pretty descent fuel mileage in the 20′s combined.  So that technology pushing nearly 20 years ago, I think they should be able to give us fuel mileage in the 30′s.  I think they know how, I believe it to get political that is why it hasn’t happened.  I have been debating on doing a diesel swap in one of my old ford pickups for years, but with a young new family it is not possible, so if Dodge saves me the time and I can pay it off in 4 to 5 years it will be money well spent due to the time of not having to perform the swap myself.

DODGE HAD A DIESEL IN THE 150 HALF TON IN 1978 & 1979

Finally! Whoot!

And going Italian??? Absolutely enraging…

 actually, its the EPA, several of the European diesels wont pass the exhaust sniffer unfortunatley…..  

no it don’t

If they keep the cost under 27K and put in a five speed manual, I believe they’ve got a winner. Also, Toyota sold diesel powered half-ton pickups in the early 80′s. I bought one, and it is a helluva good truck, but a little underpowered. It appears as if the upcoming Dodge will have a more powerful engine.