High Mileage Duramax motors?

I have a Diesel Truck sales and service outfit in town that refuses to sell GM trucks because they say the Duramax motor is a "light-duty" type motor not designed to turn serious miles like the Cummins and Powerstrokes. I'm not trying to get anybody fired up here, but for those of you who have time, please take a look at this link http://www.freedom-diesels.com/unequal.php and read the tedious text. If we could, I'd like to see those photos of the Duramax odometers with high miles. Mine (2001 LB7) has a mere 152,000 and I am doing head gaskets on it as we speak, but I know there are plenty out there that have had no failures with anything except injectors and have high miles. Let's keep this friendly....of course:)

Those guys are just shooting themselves in the foot by not selling Dmax's... They should probably also get thier info correct first too... I have a friend that met a fellow who hauls campers with his Dmax. It has nearly 500K on it with no problems. There are several people out there with near or over 200K. The bigest problem seems to be the LB7 injector issue. Aside from that there just aren't alot of problems with the Dmax in stock form.

If a person was choosing a diesel motor to not sell the logical choice would be older IDI's like the 6.2/6.5 and 6.9/7.3. They just don't cut it when compared to the newer stuff.

I have a 2002 with ~210K on the odometer. Always pulling trailers. Got injectors at 170K.

Give me a year to eighteen months and I'll show you a DMax with 300K on the odometer that is still working daily, and averaging 13-14mpg with 6-8K average loads behind it, all day, every day.

i agree i haul 6 to 8 thousand every day average 13mpg and by this time next year it will have 230k its 188000k now:

Ok............ Mental note :::take camera to work and take pics of high mile DMAX:::

No problem. I just wish that the "hot shot hauler" guy still had his truck. When I saw it last it had over 300,000 miles on it. Then I heard it was repossesed! :p

I personally talked to a guy on the phone that sold his 02 Crewcab duramax on ebay. He delivered trailers for a living. It had 469,000 miles on the original engine,transmission.He had replaced injectors 5 times,rear main seal once.Those were the most major things he had done. He said it still ran good oil pressure and didn't use any. He had used a synthetic blend oil. He said "those fuel filters are expensive" when I asked how often he replaced them.:) I got the link from the forums here, so I saw the truck on ebay and it sold for 12,999 and the buyer was a happy camper. This company has not done enough research:(

it seems awfully funny to me that they will not sell dmax's because it is a light duty engine but they will sell dodge's that come with toy trannys,or better yet 6.0 fords which are a recall nightmare. o well their loss

I got one today!!! 2006 CC Longbox LLY/ Allison. 260,474 miles. The customer took delivery 9-30-2005. He hauls cars across country. I guess he crosses the rocky mountains all the time. It is in the shop for low power and overheat. I found that the coolers are full of dirt and gunk. So now I am in the middle of blowing and washing out all the coolers cores!!! YEAH!!! :D

I will post pictures later. :D :D :D

Phil, they are mistaken and sadly they have a nice website that promotes fallacy. My truck is a low mile 05 LLY, so not much help. I occasionally pull a21000# enclosed trailer and have had no problems even in Colorado mountains. Glad to see your a "GM" owner. If I remember correctly you were a "national technician of the year" a few years back?? bob.................

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Originally Posted by carco

Phil, they are mistaken and sadly they have a nice website that promotes fallacy. My truck is a low mile 05 LLY, so not much help. I occasionally pull a21000# enclosed trailer and have had no problems even in Colorado mountains. Glad to see your a "GM" owner. If I remember correctly you were a "national technician of the year" a few years back?? bob.................

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Good memory, Bob! That was 1997!

Yes, I agree. The website is nice looking, though all the text is a bit tedious to read. They certainly should have given more credit to the Allison transmission, if nothing else, as it is miles ahead of anything offered by Ford or Dodge for durability and performance. After having pulled my heads off and replaced the head gaskets, I am doubly impressed with the quality of the Duramax engine. It is a solidly built motor. With 152,000 on mine, there is no cylinder ridge and all cylinders have the original cross-hatch hone marks showing like it was brand new. Though the head gaskets were leaking, there was no warpage at all on the aluminum heads and no visible wear on any of the valve components. Doing that head job was not exactly a thrill a minute and it took me 30 hours but I am still convinced I made a good choice in my purchase of a vehicle to haul my fifth wheel trailer and give me good durability. I really like this truck.

Well, my 02 just turned over 150,000 miles with absolutely no major issues. The two problems I've had were with a crank position sensor and the fuel pressure regulator. So hopefully by next summer I'll be approaching 200,000.








David

They state on their website that the duramax is a 22:1 compression engine, which is a total crock. This guy really ought to get his facts straight, he is obviously biased. The Duramax is a 16.8:1 compression engine and is installed on a varity of commecial vehicles including vans and Medium duty Top Kick trucks, There is even a marine version of this engine. All of this info can be found on GM's website. Its kinda funny that he brings up the Iron block with aluminum heads subject, obviously hes never seen a top fuel dragster. They put out over 7500hp on iron blocks and aluminum heads running methanol and have a much higher compression than a diesel. I think he just has TRUCK ENVY. GM comes up with an awsome engine and Dodge a Ford are scrabling to copy it.
Steve

Did I miss something? :confused: :confused: :confused:

First poster in this thread listed a website, thats what I was referring to.

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Originally Posted by bones1075

They state on their website that the duramax is a 22:1 compression engine, which is a total crock. This guy really ought to get his facts straight, he is obviously biased. The Duramax is a 16.8:1 compression engine and is installed on a varity of commecial vehicles including vans and Medium duty Top Kick trucks, There is even a marine version of this engine. All of this info can be found on GM's website. Its kinda funny that he brings up the Iron block with aluminum heads subject, obviously hes never seen a top fuel dragster. They put out over 7500hp on iron blocks and aluminum heads running methanol and have a much higher compression than a diesel. I think he just has TRUCK ENVY. GM comes up with an awsome engine and Dodge a Ford are scrabling to copy it.
Steve

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Well, I don't know what his hidden reasons might be, but you are right on a number of points. First, I checked the GM website, and indeed, the LLY and LBZ are 16.8 to 1 compression engines. I think I read somewhere that the LB7 is 17.8 to 1, someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I was quite sure that 22 to 1 was incorrect. You are also correct that the Duramax is used in a variety of heavy trucks. The box truck that brings me coolant is a Duramax and so is the Matco tools full size box truck that comes every week.

I just finished doing the head gaskets on my LB7. The aluminum heads were in perfect condition, not even .001" of warp in spite of 152,000 miles and hauling a 10,000 lbs trailer WITH the leaking head gaskets. With the new injectors installed, boy it runs sweet! No more idle smoke, great power....I do love this truck.

Funny thing. A 7.3l Ford Diesel runs at 21.5:1 compression.... I think he got his trucks switched...

I think he has the old 6.5 confused with the Duramax.

2008 Chevrolet Express Van 6.6 Duramax. Gross weight 12600 lbs thats Van, Me and tools. Nothing but oil filters and tires. Oh 1 set of brakes.

how about a million mile duramax.... most of it pulling

http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-mi...erado_pas.html

Big Green