Both trucks were around 6K purchases, and I knew they had led 'hard lives' in municipal plowing duty. I got ~180K miles out of the pair. However, I put at least as much back into both trucks over the ~3 years I owned them, in the form of 'non-wearable' repairs like an engine, transmission, and parts/mods listed in more detail below.
Once I found TheDieselPage.com, ALL of the answers were here. As a result, not much money was wasted at dealerships, mostly I had my local shop do the work I couldn't, with information gained here.
Both trucks developed stalling problems at least once, and got externally mounted PMDs and coolers. Both got cooling upgrades in the form of JK's fan clutch and HO water pumps, and one got a dual thermostat setup with the replacement '98 engine. Both got lift pumps and one needed fuel lines replaced due to pinhole leaks.
One had a waterpump literally explode at highway speed, taking out the fan and radiator with it. Alternators and starters didn't last very long - they got abused with LOTS of cold crank sessions. (My 2002 DMax has its stock alternator and starter at 245K, in comparison.)
Both were hard starters in cold weather, even after new glowplugs, glowplug relays, two sets of batteries, cables and connectors. They spent too much time on the other end of jumper cables, portable generators, and HAD to be plugged in below 20F to start at all.
My winter snowplow crew grew very frustrated with this - although they were patient because they knew the investment I had made in the trucks. After the first Duramax showed up, it was hard to get any of them to run the 6.5s!
One got a new transmission, maybe the fault of a reckless snowplow operator - who knows for sure. The rest of the brakes, u-joints, tires, etc etc were all normal wear parts. To their credit, neither needed new injectors, injector pumps or turbos in the time I owned them.
I actually still have a fond spot for the trucks because they taught me so much about diesels and introduced me to this community, but there is no way to rationalize them as cost effective for my business.
The Duramaxes have made up for it, however. They are nearly bulletproof and just keep taking the use and giving back good mileage and maintenance.
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