Converting 72 Suburban to a Duramax

[mattman11174]

Can any one give me some sites or info on converting to a duramax

[Angelo]

Hey mattman11174 you want to put a diesel motor in your suburban just like me, but i think its easier and cheapper to go with a 6.5 Turbo diesel. I want to put the diesel motor in my 72 suburban so i can get better gas milage. If anyone has a build thread can you post it, and the amount of money spent for the motor swap.Thank You

[Frizzle Fry]

saw diesel at over 4$/gal today...

[sweet70beast]

I have thot alot about puting a duramax in my sub too, but, it makes me wonder if the money spent on the conversion and the higher fuel prices(80cents a gallon )are actually worth the savings. In other words how long would it take to recoup the cost of the conversion and the higher fuel to actually start seeing money savings.

[salvageit]

If the gas mileage would not be worth it the power would be. Have any of you drove a duramax with an edge chip? WOW! I really want to do this to my 72 as well. I would not go with the 6.5 just for the fact that the duramax is capable of so much more and the 6.5 does not have all the after market options like the duramax does. If you were able to find a complete motor, tranny, harness and ECU, I dont think the swap would be that bad. I have done a lot of searching and have found nothing so far on this swap.

[race-rodz]

5.9 cummins, should be plenty of power for a burban, and in stock trim... 20+ MPG. goin rate in my area is around $1300 for the engine, another grand will get you a OD dodge trans, or the adaptor to run a chevy trans.

and the idea with building an oil burner, isnt to pay $4/gal for pump diesel, but to have the option of running "green" fuel... which even if you buy brand new stuff...works out to about $2/gal of coarse the green fuel is for off-road use only if you fallow the rules.

[turbohacker]

Ive been very interested in putting either a duramax (to keep true to the chevy name) or a 12v cummins in my 67 lwb. I am very interested in where you can find a 5.9 cummins for only $1300. This would greatly benifiet me as I run biodeisel. (about 80 cents a gallon for me to produce it myself) I bilive that at that price for a motor it would pay for itself rather quickly.

Thanks -Nick

[DINS 1]

I am in the middle of putting a burb on top of a 2004 durmax 4x4 chassis. you need a crew cab short box or a ext cab long box chassis to have enough frame for the tail of the burb. then move the rear axle forward to get the wheel base. next build all of the body mounts to fit the wider frame. I am just getting to the fitting of the body on the frame. nothing about this project is easy, but the durmax will be fun when finished

[Chevy454]

DINS: got any pictures?

[Bowtie7ty]

I think a cummins swap would be the best wasy to go,a five speed would go good with it sinse a surbabans are pretty chunky and cummins automatics are known for goin out. My buddys have built 5.9s that still get about 18-22 miles a gallon . You can pick them up for decent prices too , i found a couple out of 1st genertions with manual pumps with 160000 miles and less for around $1800.