G'day 6x6 and welcome, what brand of V8 diesel are you looking at. If it's a Chev I would forget about it. I have seen a couple of conversions with the 6.5 motor and neither was a success. Not much extra power and overheating problems. I have thought long and hard over this subject and have decided if I was going to look for more HP I would go for an Isuzu 6BD1T (5.8L) with an Isuzu 5 or 6 speed box mated to the LT95 transfer case that's already in there. You have to keep this transfer case for the 3rd axle drive. This is a much better motor than the Chev V8's. That way you wouldn't have to modify any driveshafts. A fair bit of modification required to do it but at least it is a known reliable drivetrain and an excellent motor in fact the same motor that's already in there with 2 extra pots. That way you could run 3.5 ratio diffs and not be overrevving the motor at 100k. The 6x6 chassis already has extra holes in the chassis brackets for moving the gearbox if need be. I am still running the standard 4BD1T motor but have upped the fuel a little and added a 3" exhaust and it runs much better but still wouldn't run 3.5 diffs efficiently. I just did a trip from Qld to WA and back with a fair load and pulling a loaded PT2 Haulmark trailer one way and it handled it ok. I have seen a couple that have done turbo upgrades and intercoolers etc and will then handle the 3.5 diffs but both have had turbo failures and I wouldn't go that way.
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