Living with the duramax vs the 6.0L?

[bennylava]

Hi all, I was hoping someone here has a lot of experience with both, preferably with working on both and driving them. I'm trying to make up my mind as to which one I should buy. A duramax 3/4 ton truck, or a gas powered one.

From what I can tell, diesel guys don't have much love for the Duramax in general. The seem to like Cummins and Ford, and Duramax comes in in 3rd place. Does this mean that I should avoid buying an 06 chevy with a diesel engine in it?

Next question, might be dumb, but how is the ride quality on the various 3/4 ton GMT 800 trucks? I talked to one guy who said he only buys Duramax instead of Ford or Dodge, simply because the ride quality is better. In a 3/4 ton diesel truck, is it really that much better?

Thanks!

[EVRLET]

Go diesel. I own 3 duramax. Two are LBZ (2007) and one a LLY (2005).

When it comes to diesels of this year range, here is the best way to break it down:

Diesel performance: Duramax
Max towing: Cummins or Powerstroke

You need to ask yourself what do you want the truck for. They all have their “issues” but all are good with proper maintenance. Yes, diesels require more maintenance but that’s how you get to 500k miles no problem. Cummins and Powerstroke always exceeds Duramax for overall tow rating. But for power ratings, can’t beat the Duramax.

I can tow what I want with my trucks, so when I say performance, don’t think you lose towing in favor of performance.

For my pictures:

1. Yes, that’s a 2007 2500hd classic single cab duramax with a 5’8” bed. Yes, I did the 6 lug conversion for better wheel options. Yes, it’s an LBZ with 120k miles.

2. Yes, that’s a 1 of 1 2007 2500hd classic crew cab quadrasteer duramax. Yes, the quadrasteer works. No, GM never made a quadrasteer with a diesel option, but I did. Yes, that’s another 6 lug swap. Yes, I tow with it with zero issues. Yes, it has 340k miles and does not leak any oil at all.

Ride quality is awesome. No straight axles up front and the torsion bars are awesome
And yes, both have sunroofs

[95 S_Trucker]

Ford And Dodge/Ram both use solid axles on their 4wd models. The GM IFS rides a lot better.

As far a gas or dieses, It depends on what your intension are with the truck. If you tow a lot of weight frequently, I would go for the diesel.

I have a 6.0 truck, and I tow 8000-10,000 pounds once a month. The truck will do it, but its under powered on steep hills.

The duramax trucks in this era are all 17+ years old. Don't be surprised when injectors/pump/turbocharger need to be replaced. Its big money if you have a shop do it.

[bennylava]

Originally Posted by 95 S_Trucker

Ford And Dodge/Ram both use solid axles on their 4wd models. The GM IFS rides a lot better.

As far a gas or dieses, It depends on what your intension are with the truck. If you tow a lot of weight frequently, I would go for the diesel.

I have a 6.0 truck, and I tow 8000-10,000 pounds once a month. The truck will do it, but its under powered on steep hills.

The duramax trucks in this era are all 17+ years old. Don't be surprised when injectors/pump/turbocharger need to be replaced. Its big money if you have a shop do it.

Could the 6.0 be upgraded so that it was no longer under powered on steep hills, and still be a reliable engine (and transmission)?

Next question!

Is it difficult for a DIY'er to replace injectors, turbo, and pump on the duramax?

Last question,

Which duramax engine is the one to have? I've heard some of them are hated, and others are pretty good. Not sure which ones though.

[EVRLET]

Read all about which duramax here:

https://prosourcediesel.com/blog/che...blems-by-year/

The best duramax is the LBZ and the much newer L5P. You will pay a premium for an LBZ, but you won’t regret it. Just don’t pay stupid prices.

Are you looking for a single cab, extended cab, crew cab? 2wd, 4wd?

When buying a duramax you need to find someone with a Tech 2 or a scanner that can read injector balance rates. This is one of the most important tests when buying a used diesel because injectors are not cheap.

As for changing turbos, I seriously doubt you will need to change one. But if you did, you can remove the turbo without lifting the cab off the frame.

The CP3 injection pump is amazing. The garbage CP4 pumps in the newer diesels is the problem. You can change a pump if you need to, not difficult.

Everything on the 2000-2010 duramax is diy friendly. Just have to understand how diesels work.


First purchase for a Duramax is a lift pump. I have an air dog and they’re good. Other option is the fass lift pump. You need a lift pump because the CP3 has to really work to suck the gas from the tank all the way to the engine. The CP3 is mounted in the engine valley so that’s why it has to work. The lift pump is mounted by the tank and pushes the fluid at higher rates to the CP3 and this helps tremendously. Do you have to get a lift pump, no. But if you want to keep your diesel running forever and not have a CP3 failure, then it’s a must.

Next upgrade is a better trans cooler. I have a mishimoto and pulling 10k uphill, my trans temp hovers around 160-175. The Allison 6 speed that came with the LBZ is an awesome transmission. The 5 speed Allison in the LB7 and LLY is okay but the 6 speed is the one you want.


Sorry for the book

[57taskforce]

I’ve had a few duramax’s thru the years. LB7, LBZ and L5P. They L5P is simply bad ass. The other two were bad asses too but that L5P is a work of art, I’ve had both 6 speed and 10 speed Allison’s behind it and both were great, I liked the 10 speed the most though. I like the ability to work on the LB7 and LBZ quite a bit more though. All three were really good to me. I’m not sure where you are getting the constant hate on the duramax from, they are very good engines. If You want to see how good some of the power strokes are, start looking at the 6.0 and 6.4’s lol. The Cummins is a really good engine in all of its variants thru the years. As a rule of thumb the earlier the engine the less power it will have but the ability to work on it will be easier.

[bennylava]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

I’ve had a few duramax’s thru the years. LB7, LBZ and L5P. They L5P is simply bad ass. The other two were bad asses too but that L5P is a work of art, I’ve had both 6 speed and 10 speed Allison’s behind it and both were great, I liked the 10 speed the most though. I like the ability to work on the LB7 and LBZ quite a bit more though. All three were really good to me. I’m not sure where you are getting the constant hate on the duramax from, they are very good engines. If You want to see how good some of the power strokes are, start looking at the 6.0 and 6.4’s lol. The Cummins is a really good engine in all of its variants thru the years. As a rule of thumb the earlier the engine the less power it will have but the ability to work on it will be easier.

Well it seems that the LBZ and the L5P are the ones to have. The others had a lot of fuel system problems, some that would destroy the fuel system. Sure there were work arounds, but as always people want their stuff to "just work" without having to spend a lot of money doing a conversion to fix a factory flaw. Given how much we pay for these trucks, who can blame them.

Because of this, all the others besides those two engines are basically problems waiting to happen, unless someone has already retrofitted them. That's most likely where the hate is coming from. The one right before the LBZ seems pretty nice, as long as you don't mind biting off $1,200 or $1,500 to fix the flaw right after you buy it. The power levels and reliability seems to be the same after that's done. This is just from my research. After what I've read, I would only buy trucks that had one of those two engines.

[57taskforce]

The LB7 is a good simple (relatively speaking) design with the least amount of emissions BS. The injectors are the only real problem they have but at this point I’d think it’s safe to say that 90% or more of them left on the road have had the injectors done- that was a not if but when they fail problem. I’ve done them personally on a few LB7’s now and generally if you put good injectors back in them you won’t have any more issues for a long, long time. Bosch has upgraded and refined these injectors a few times and they are a lot better than they were 15+ years ago. At least that is my experience. The big downside to the L5P is all the expensive, trouble prone, emissions junk on it, it can be deleted but that is a whole other topic depending on where you live, emissions testing etc.

[bennylava]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

The big downside to the L5P is all the expensive, trouble prone, emissions junk on it, it can be deleted but that is a whole other topic depending on where you live, emissions testing etc.

Could the emissions be "capped off" until it was time for the test? Then once you get your sticker, you simply undo the emissions connections again. Would it be easy enough to do this on the L5P?

And if you did, would you need to make any extra arrangements to protect certain things, since all the soot will now just flow into the exhaust system?

[EVRLET]

For L5P deletes, sure, I guess you can do and undo every year for emissions but that’s crazy talk. Nothing is cutout for deletes, but rather removed, so it’s doable. I would be concerned with your mental health if you did this

I will just say that I have “placed” but not hooked up emissions equipment to give the appearance everything is good to go. But when 2007+ duramaxes rolled out, “placing” things in its place becomes more difficult because of the amount of equipment you’re removing.

There are ways of doing deletes and dealing with emissions, but for obvious reasons, I won’t elaborate on them in a public forum.

[Greg58]

I sold my LBZ, and bought an L5P 23 Silverado 4x4 3500 SRW. Probably more truck than I needed, but it is what I wanted!
Do pull a heavy 20' tilt trailer with my Skid Steer on it. This thing just pulls. Hardly ever downshifts, just grunts and goes. I am getting 14-18 mpg. Love the 10 speed, really no complaints, other than Onstar is always bugging me!

Greg

[bennylava]

I wanna buy an LBZ because I love that bodystyle.

[EVRLET]

What body are you wanting? Crew, extended cab, single cab?

[bennylava]

Originally Posted by EVRLET

What body are you wanting? Crew, extended cab, single cab?

Either crew or extended, I don't think a single cab has enough room for the stuff I wanna haul around.

But I'm not sure about the bed situation. I could be wrong, but it looks like there was 3 different beds on the GMT-800 trucks. Long, medium, and short. 4 door trucks usually had the short bed, correct?

[EVRLET]

The 2500 - 3500 platform all had the 6.5 bed or the 8 bed.

Only the 1500 came with the 3 bed choices.

So if you get a duramax, the shortest bed you can get is 6.5.

[bennylava]

Originally Posted by EVRLET

The 2500 - 3500 platform all had the 6.5 bed or the 8 bed.

Only the 1500 came with the 3 bed choices.

So if you get a duramax, the shortest bed you can get is 6.5.

What were the best looking 8 lug wheels, in your opinion? I'm hoping there's some really nice ones out there for the 3/4 ton GMT-800's. I like them to look somewhat close to factory though, all those weird flowery and spidery aftermarket wheels look the same to me.

[EVRLET]

And this is exactly why I did the 6 lug conversion. 8 lug wheel options are out there, but like you said, the styles are all the same. Plus, I am a lowered truck, so most of the negative offset 8 lug wheels won’t work.

Also, 2003-2010, GM used an 8x165 bolt pattern. 2011, they switched to 8x180.

People are afraid of wheel adapters, but billet wheel adapters are just fine. I have a 1998 K1500 on 20” 8x180 wheel adapters and 35” tires, 9” lift. No issues going on 10 years now with driving it off-roading and the dunes.

Personally, I like the 16” factory polished wheel that came on the 99-06 2500s. I also like the factory 20” star wheel that came with the 8x180 pattern. Some of the 2022-2024 wheels are nice too.

[71blksuper4x4]

I have old Mickey Thompson Challenger forged wheels on mine. Great looking wheel IMO.