The direction this topic has taken is why there needs to be a separate section for "bubba your truck".
Look, for all you FNG's who maybe just in the last couple months decided to get a hmmwv, a lot of us old timers have been here doing Military vehicles for many years. To Us, our job is to restore these vehicles back to original, so they are for the most part period correct. You will find this on ANY Genre specific forum....I'm sure if you went to the Shelby forum and asked to install a 6.2 diesel you might get a few negative responses from some purests.
For me, I can care less what someone does to there truck, what I don't understand are the folks that spend endless amounts of time, energy and money trying to make something that already exsists, in this case, trying to get a few extra HP from this motor. There are so many cheap "IMO" motors on the market, it's a no brainer. What so many seem to totally forget is the short coming is not so much the motor, it's the 3 speed trans. I get a call a day asking how to get more speed out this truck...simple! Add another gear, I don't I care what motor you have....as long as this trans stays in the truck, your stuck in the slow lane.
As far as power goes....I have right now 9 trucks in my yard/shop, the motors are 6.2,6.5,6.5TD's, the turbo diesel is in a class by itself, but the 6.2 and 6.5's are all over map, I have 6.2's that run like raped apes, a 6.5 GEP thats a dog, another 6.5 that runs like a raped ape, so whatever you have, if it's s dog? You motor is tired...time to rebuild it or replace it.
And I don't see what being from calif has to do with anything....