New Cummins V8

[luvrbus]

I saw a Nissan pickup Wed with a 5.0 V8 Cummins with dual overhead cams they were showing at a dealer (not for sale yet) when did this happen ? is the inline Cummins Dodge uses going away or it is just to piss off Dodge

good luck

[bevans6]

As I understand it they built it intended for Dodge but Dodge is now using Fiat diesels instead, so Cummins shopped it to Nissan.  Looks like a nice small engine.  It looks like Dodge is going to use a 3 litre 6 cylinder diesel built by VM Motori (Fiat owned) in the Ram 1500.  The Cummins is about 25% more power and torque than the Fiat, so the light pickup market looks to be setting up for a fight.  What would you buy - a USA built/Italian owned truck with an Italian engine, or a USA built/Japanese owned truck with an American engine?  These are all small engines for the 1500 size pickups.

Brian

[luvrbus]

Thanks I did read where the Dodge diesels are built by VM of Italy but I thought VM was part our Government Motor (GM) I would go for the Cummins I have owned a few VM engines   

[bobofthenorth]

I don't really care who builds it - I just think its about bloody time we had light diesels generally available in North America.  I was in Finland about a month ago and every 2nd vehicle over there was a diesel.  Its ridiculous that we don't have them available here. 

Mind you, I still wouldn't drive a Dodge or a Datsun pickup, even if it did have a diesel.

[Jeremy]

Land Rover used VM diesels for a short time in the 1980s, but they got a very poor reputation. I remember that that they were ugly, complicated looking things because each cylinder had a separate cylinder head.

Practically no pickups sold here of any type of course, but sales of diesel-powered cars overtook sales of petrol-powered cars as long ago as 2009

Jeremy

[Oonrahnjay]

... I would go for the Cummins I have owned a few VM engines    

   You have my deepest sympathy on that.  When I was working for Land Rover, we had some Range Rovers (built for the UK/Europe market -- thank goodness we didn't try to sell them in the US, the "Class Action" suits would have bankrupted us) with VM 4-cylinder turbo-diesel engines.  When somebody who spent more than 20 years working for British vehicle companies says "That Italian engine was the biggest piece of junk that ever set eyes on" you can DW KNOW that it wasn't even good as a boat anchor.  You can't write a list long enough to describe all the problems ... poor design (gasket surfaces so thin that it made the British designers faint, labyrinthine oil systems giving almost no oil pressure to some bearings, etc.), manufacturing defects (EVERY piece of aluminum had at least one casting flaw, dirt in oil and radiator coolant, etc.), supplier issues (head gaskets that were a different thickness on one end than the other, two boxes with the same part number on them with different parts inside), assembly problems (three pistons of one type and one of another in the same engine, engines arriving to us with no impeller in the water pump, etc.).  ABSOLUTELY THE WORST engines ....

(Yeah, what Jeremy said above ... "very poor reputation" -- ya just gotta love British understatement!)

[CrabbyMilton]

Yes NISSAN is going to use that engine in the FRONTIER and I wouldn't be surprised if they offer it in there NV full size vans at some point. CUMMINS says that this engine will be offered in school buses at some point and reading between the lines, in some FORD products since they said it was designed to fit where a V8 or V10 gasoline engine fits now. But nothing is ever official until it's official. It looks like the CUMMINS ISB is moving up to higher HP so this new ISV is coming is fill be a step up from gasoline.

[belfert]

Diesel engines in new vehicles don't make sense to me in cars or small pickups these days.  Between the high engine cost, high fuel cost, and neutered mileage due to EPA it costs as much or more to run a diesel as gas.  Maybe it makes sense if you want to run your vehicle for 300,000 miles.

Diesels certainly make sense in large vehicles.  I still love diesel engines and used to have an all diesel fleet of vehicles.  It just doesn't seem to make economic sense for me to buy a new diesel vehicle in today's market.

[bevans6]

In the early 2000's  Penske owned 100% of VM Motori, he sold 50% to GM, then sold 50% to Fiat, then Fiat bought the remaining 50% from GM this year.  I don't like modern diesels much.  I see them as so controlled to make the emission restrictions work that they are running on a computer controlled knife edge, and can become highly expensive in a heartbeat.  I honestly don't think I would own a modern diesel engine past it's warranty expire date.  I read so much about the failed Bosche high pressure fuel pumps causing $15K repair bills, and I know that there is nothing anyone can do to prevent that but hope it happens to the next guy in line, not me...

Brian

[chessie4905]

And another one...

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/11/20/2015-chevrolet-colorado-revealed-diesel-la/

[Oonrahnjay]

...   I honestly don't think I would own a modern diesel engine past it's warranty expire date. ...

 

    The last of the good ones - VW 2003 Jetta (wagon); 300K miles as of Labor day weekend, average fuel consumption, 55MPG - best tank 62 MPG (trip Washington DC area to Knoxville TN).  No engine troubles, lots of little "trim" things.  I wouldn't buy a new EPA strangled one, either.

[luvrbus]

I read where the new ISV5.0 Cummins has 4 timing chains that is enough for me I won't be looking

[technomadia]

We used to have a rare diesel Jeep Liberty back when we lived in a trailer and not a bus.  It was awesome.

Our former gas Liberty used to get around 12mpg towing, the diesel got 18+ mpg towing, and in the upper 20's when driving around town.

It had some drawbacks (cabin noise), but overall we loved our little diesel. The engine had so much torque it felt like we could go just about anywhere.

I sure wish there were more small diesel options on the road.

  - Chris

[luvrbus]

Yea that was the VM diesel I remember the recall in 2004 because of engine fires but never knew what caused the fires

[CrabbyMilton]

I goofed before. It's the NISSAN TITAN pickup not FRONTIER.I also find it interesting that NAVISTAR is now going to offer CUMMINS engines in their skoolies so I wonder if they are planning to exit the engine business? When FORD began to build their own diesel for the SUPERDUTY, that hurt NAVISTAR since they supplied FORD for many years but since they stunk, who can blame FORD for saying the heck with it we'll do it ourself.