When full-size pickup trucks were first equipped with diesel engines in the late 1970s, it wasn’t part of an effort to post huge performance numbers. Instead, General Motors’ much-maligned 350-cubic-inch diesel V8 was tuned primarily to sip fuel and spun out a paltry 120 horsepower. Dodge’s Mitsubishi-built diesel six-cylinder was even less powerful with around 100 horses on tap.
The diesel truck landscape did improve relatively quickly, with GM’s 6.2-liter and 6.5-liter joined by Ford’s 6.9-liter and 7.3-liter V8s, all with indirect injection. Power levels — and particularly the crucial torque figure — rose dramatically as turbochargers were added, followed closely by direct injection and ultra-high-pressure fuel pumps.
Still, the initial goal of adding diesels to pickup trucks was for efficiency, and it wasn’t really until the early 2000s that diesel-powered pickups drastically overtook their gasoline-fueled siblings as the torque-rich tow rigs of choice for Americans seemingly obsessed with camping, boating, and even smoke-spewing drag racing with F-Series, Silverado, Sierra and Ram-badged pickups with four doors and seating for the entire family.
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