Let me start of with I absolutely love my 6.4. It is by far the best truck I have ever had and I have had all of the powerstrokes starting with the IDI. With that said I continually find myself wondering why the folks that engineered and designed the 6.4 did some of the things they did. I believe I have my facts straight but if I do not please do not hesitate to correct me. My questions are as follows:
#1. Why the designed the exhaust manifolds the way they did. New developments, primarily Steeds manifolds have proven that the stock one's do not flow very well. Hell going back a generation to the 6.0's is a upgrade. Anyone that looks down the stock ones will automatically think "well that's not right".
#2. Why wouldn't they spend more time making a better flowing head. This is where I want someone to either confirm or correct me. If I recall correctly a stock 6.4 head does not flow nearly as well as a cummins. You can port and polish a 6.4 head to flow just a little bit better than a STOCK Cummins. Then of course you can PP a Cumins which would blow the 6.4 PP out of the water. I would have to assume with all the R&D that go into these motors head flow would be something that they measured. When they got these results you would think they would have said "oh, a DMAX does more than that and HOLY COW a Cummins does what?, we better rethink this one". It has been my experience in engine building, I will admit I have only built NA gas motors, but if you are going to spend a bunch of time and money on something it should be in the heads no questions asked.
#3. I know they made the head bolts bigger in a 6.4 but since it was such a disaster in the 6.0's why wouldn't you add more? Is there physically just no room? Is the block the same as the 6.0 so they kind of had to make what they had work?
#4. Why wouldn't they have used a more tried and true HPFP? From what I understand the CP3 pump that they have been using on the Dmax's just about set the standard and are far better than our K16 pump. Is it a cost issue? Is it one of those deals where the GM guys are going to say we copied you?
Like I said before, I love my truck and I wouldn't change it for the world. I truly believe that this is the best diesel truck that you can buy. What else can you get and sink 2k into it and have a 550 Hp and 1000 ftlb all the while not having to worry about blowing up your transmission in the first 1000 miles?
If these four issues were taken care of from the factory there would be absolutely no question about what the best diesel truck out there is. #1 and #2 are absolute no brainers. ANYONE that knows ANYTHING about ANY engine that is out there knows that you need to flow air to make power. Heads are the most important piece in flow. You can only make the stock design so much better and IMO International set us up with a pretty good uphill climb. I know turbo's help negate the bad flow but at the end of the day flow is still flow. The exhaust manifolds are just crazy........ I don't know how they could design and walk away from that mangled piece of iron. #3 just blow my mind. I really hope there is a good excuse as to why we didn't get more bolts especially if they had to redesign the block for the 6.4's. #4 I can understand as our pump probably is completely fine for a stock application but you can always wonder.
It is frustrating to know that they go so much right with this motor but they just made some mistakes (#1, #2 and #3) that are just items that you would think these guys would have seen and said "hold up..... let's think about this a little more". I try not to dwell on the negatives in life but I cant help but think at the end of the day we paid an additional 8k for this motor. Figure in financing over 5 years it comes pretty close to 10k which is over a years worth of payments for most of us.
Just wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts or answers. Sorry for being long winded, this is just something that has been brewing in my head for quite sometime.
#1. Why the designed the exhaust manifolds the way they did. New developments, primarily Steeds manifolds have proven that the stock one's do not flow very well. Hell going back a generation to the 6.0's is a upgrade. Anyone that looks down the stock ones will automatically think "well that's not right".
#2. Why wouldn't they spend more time making a better flowing head. This is where I want someone to either confirm or correct me. If I recall correctly a stock 6.4 head does not flow nearly as well as a cummins. You can port and polish a 6.4 head to flow just a little bit better than a STOCK Cummins. Then of course you can PP a Cumins which would blow the 6.4 PP out of the water. I would have to assume with all the R&D that go into these motors head flow would be something that they measured. When they got these results you would think they would have said "oh, a DMAX does more than that and HOLY COW a Cummins does what?, we better rethink this one". It has been my experience in engine building, I will admit I have only built NA gas motors, but if you are going to spend a bunch of time and money on something it should be in the heads no questions asked.
#3. I know they made the head bolts bigger in a 6.4 but since it was such a disaster in the 6.0's why wouldn't you add more? Is there physically just no room? Is the block the same as the 6.0 so they kind of had to make what they had work?
#4. Why wouldn't they have used a more tried and true HPFP? From what I understand the CP3 pump that they have been using on the Dmax's just about set the standard and are far better than our K16 pump. Is it a cost issue? Is it one of those deals where the GM guys are going to say we copied you?
Like I said before, I love my truck and I wouldn't change it for the world. I truly believe that this is the best diesel truck that you can buy. What else can you get and sink 2k into it and have a 550 Hp and 1000 ftlb all the while not having to worry about blowing up your transmission in the first 1000 miles?
If these four issues were taken care of from the factory there would be absolutely no question about what the best diesel truck out there is. #1 and #2 are absolute no brainers. ANYONE that knows ANYTHING about ANY engine that is out there knows that you need to flow air to make power. Heads are the most important piece in flow. You can only make the stock design so much better and IMO International set us up with a pretty good uphill climb. I know turbo's help negate the bad flow but at the end of the day flow is still flow. The exhaust manifolds are just crazy........ I don't know how they could design and walk away from that mangled piece of iron. #3 just blow my mind. I really hope there is a good excuse as to why we didn't get more bolts especially if they had to redesign the block for the 6.4's. #4 I can understand as our pump probably is completely fine for a stock application but you can always wonder.
It is frustrating to know that they go so much right with this motor but they just made some mistakes (#1, #2 and #3) that are just items that you would think these guys would have seen and said "hold up..... let's think about this a little more". I try not to dwell on the negatives in life but I cant help but think at the end of the day we paid an additional 8k for this motor. Figure in financing over 5 years it comes pretty close to 10k which is over a years worth of payments for most of us.
Just wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts or answers. Sorry for being long winded, this is just something that has been brewing in my head for quite sometime.