i converted to duramax..i think

jordanjohngse

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hey guys well..i think i converted to the duramax world but still trying to decided if the move is right. i have driven/owned and worked on by bombing PSD'S 7.3 and 6.0 and idi's as well as 5.9 12v-24v and common rail, still havent touched the 6.7 cummins and the 6.6 duramax tell the other day. so heres my pickle. for gassers i have owned chevy 5.3 and 6.0 vortec while being in the navy (one more year tell retirement hoorah) and loved all of them both those gassers served me well and held up to my side jobs whle not being on the ship, towing up to 10k, backwoods work(hunting, tree removal, hauling crap ect and playing). as well as long drives and being abusive. but i can honestly say the only beef i have with chevys is becuase of my driving and i believe trucks should be treated like trucks and is that i have yet to meet a IFS front end that can handle my lifestyle. i actually keep spare tie rods and cv's in my back seat lol. but after digging around and test driving some buddys duramaxes im starting to fall in love the trucks and found even the first generation lb7 (if im correct) is even a reliable engine after injector issue taken care of is reliable. but im nervous and heres why. i got one more deployment left. when i get back next year im leaving VA, and what ever diesel i buy will be towing 15k to washington state then to idaho. in the meantime becauase of my cvilian job ill be getting. ill be needing to have 33-35'' tires for mud and snow for towing/hualing in the mountain and passes. my truck will be supporting big rigs and heavy equipment. so if a semi is down on a logging trail ill go to him, excavator down digging in a marsh ill go to him, pretty much everything you see operating in the mountians and woods ill be driving to them and being there tech rep, so i need a truck that can hual and tow and pull, and do all of it in extreme terrian conditions as well as cold winters and hot summers. so with that being said. will the duramax suite me right? if needed SAS for the front will happn thats a easy week turn around for me. so without front end IFS will the gmc/chevy duramax be the right buy for me?
 

79jasper

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You can upgrade all the front end components to where you'll never have to worry about it again.
Ifs has it's positives. Smother ride, still good off road, etc.
Even the next model newer is pretty good. Lly or lbz, iirc.
Probably should do some upgrades to the trans so it'll last.
I used my buddies 00 3/4 ton to pull my brother 93 f350 crew cab with a heavy flatbed, on a heavy all steel trailer. Pulled it pretty good.
Depending on your price limit, you should look at the 6.7 powerstroke also.
You can get pretty good deals on them for around $50k. Which is what I plan to get, eventually.

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jordanjohngse

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i dont have a budget, well i do but im financially secured to take out a loan for a new truck or used. but dont want a 50k truck looking like a 5k beater after a year of work in all honestly. but im still kinda leaning towards ford. unlike some people who smack talk, from actually being hands on and real world driving its honestly hard to beat a ford for a everyday do it all truck. i just think the first 2 two years of the 6.0 being rushed just made people so biased they couldnt come back to reality. like my sig my 90's ford did everything a truck could do and i made people owning newer trucks shake my hand. i think now and days in my eyes anyways alot of people own diesels as DD and dont work there truck to full potential and they based there arguments on witch is better. and anyone who works on diesel on atleast a monthly baises and operates them as they should know that a diesel being used as a DD and grocery getter actually kills the engine. the variable turbo doesnt operate fully and sticks and the engine doesnt fully pressureized and "clean it self" i personally love the cummins engine becuase of internals but know the rest of the truck wont last. and its says something that ford designed a better coiled front suspenion front end that last longer. and with deletes and some upgrades even the 6.0 seemed to get up there in mpgs and reliablity. and when i do head gaskets and studs or anything in that area i do the cab off procedure and that only takes 3-4 hours and bam walk around engine style instead of leaning over fenders. im just trying to figured out witch truck will be better out of the big 3 in the common rail era. with a budget and knowledge or a relaible shop any engine and transmission can be reliable. im just worry about the actual truck falling apart in all honestly. but what ever i do im defently going to buy a truck in texas, there cheaper lower miles and rust free :)
 

79jasper

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I would do a 6.0, probably even 6.4 also.
It's hard to beat a ford, but imo chevy is a pretty good runner up.

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snicklas

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I have to chime in on the 6.0 in the Ford. I have a 6.0 in an 03 Leaf Sprung Excursion 4x4. I love it. I am at ~133,000 miles. I am running the factory injectors, factory turbo, and factory head gaskets. I have done an EGR Delete at ~125,000 miles, not because of a failure or coolant leak into the intake, but I had the small hose that connects the cooler to the tubes in the valley, which leaked externally and into the valley. The "proper" way to replace that tube with its contained o-rings is to remove the EGR cooler, replace the line, and replace the cooler. I decided at that point if the EGR Cooler was coming off the engine, it was not going back on. I considered it more like preventative maintenance rather than an "upgrade". I have always done regular maintenance with quality oil, oil and fuel filters and at the "proper" 5k/10k intervals. I did change to full synthetic engine oil, for winter starting. It was a cold winter and I had to park outside. It did not like 15w-40 dino oil below about 20 degrees F. I would buy another 6.0 without hesitation, with some checks on the truck. But they all are not as bad as they were made out to be. In 7 years of ownership, my truck has left me stranded away from home 1 time. (I did have a couple of instances the cord was unplugged and I had not switched to synthetic oil, it wouldn't start from an overnight cold soak). Was because my kids (early, non-driving teenagers) were waiting in the truck, came inside the store to use the rest room, and wanted to listen to the radio when they got back, and turned the ignition to Run instead of ACC, for like 15-20 minutes and it drained the batteries to the point it would not start without a jump, as the 6.0 is a HUGE power hog to run everything. One big red flag for me on another one would be what/if any modifications were done if a tuner/programmer was used. NO MODS, NO PROGRAMERS!!!!!!!! I run a 100% stock tune on the stock engine and have had no issues with the truck. It is more than powerful enough to do everything I have asked it to do. I have gotten 21 mpg on a long interstate run and have not seen any reason to turn it up. One of the "issues" the 6.0 had early on, was the 7.3PSD was really turned down, even in the pickups from Ford. If I remember right, they were a max of 235 or 250 hp at the crank. Owners would put 50,75, 100hp chips/tuners which would just about max out what a 7.3PSD "should" handle and last (Your Mileage may vary) and give decent performance. In this case a 100hp tune on a 7.3 would still be under the 350hp mark. When Ford released the 6.0, they turned them up much more factory. (Very early were 350hp crank, and soon detuned to 325hp crank). This was just about max a stock 6.0 could handle. So then owners would put a 50, 75 or 100hp tune on them, which could take it to over 400hp crank. These trucks would blow the heads of the top of the block, not necessarily because they were junk, but because they were push past their maximum mechanical limits and broke..... Not saying there were not other issues with the 6.0, there was, and that was part to blame on Ford and IH (Not 100% IH like Ford would like everyone to believe). But part of the early failures were really because someone blew it up..... it didn't fall apart. A 6.0 truck is still a very capable truck, and you may find the 6.0 truck are less money, for the shear fact it is a 6.0.....
 

tbirdfiend281

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I will give you a quick rundown of me before I say what I say. 2007, I was a Ford diesel master tech, 2014 I am a navistar master tech (and now work for Freightliner, give you 1 guess why). I have been around a lot of powersports stuff, I have owned an LB7 duramax (along with a few ford diesels), I have a bunch of delusional buddies with hard ons for 6b cummins motors.

Alright then, I think the biggest issue you are going to have with whatever truck you choose to run as a service truck is that loading something up with tools and weight kind of takes a lot away from being capable to handle situations where you have to go fix a dozer or a logging truck thats dead somewhere. The logging truck wont be so bad because typically if a rig made it to the place, any light duty truck will make it to the place. I think you need 2 trucks, but that might not be in the cards. Truck 1 would be you DD non work truck. Truck 2 would preferably be something medium duty or bigger, maybe even 4wd, and would carry all your tools and get you out to locations to fix what ever. If you cant do this, go ford or dodge. The dodge chassis is not as junky as you think it is, having owned a few Chevy's, and Chevy having the weakest chassis I am confused as to where you think the new gen dodges are the number 3. I rank chassis quality as 1.Ford 2. Dodge 3. Chevy.

Lb7s had injector issues because of there poor low pressure fuel system.Simply adding a lift pump of any kind helps injector longevity. There is also aeration issues in the filter head. LBZ's take the cake IMO for durmax quality. You also gain the use of the factory 6speed auto in LBZ's. I think LLYs may have had them but who cares about that short run red headed step child of the dmax world. Go LBZ if you can.

I have had people tell me this many times and they are just wrong, this next statement is not an opinion, it is fact, you never, and I mean never have to pull a body to do head studs and/or head gaskets on a 6.0. It never gets the job done quicker to pull a body off. With the body on a head gasket job is a 10-12 hour job with correct application of effort. Having actually had to make warranty time on 6.0 head gasket jobs, this is the way to do it. Though, pulling the body is always an option, it is NEVER required.

6b cummins bottom ends are no stronger then the next diesel. I have seen them fail just like 6.0s just like dmax. I actually even lean towards the 6.0 being a stronger base motor. They did some cutting corner dumb stuff in the top end such as plastic rocker keepers, but the bottom end is pure gold.

6.4s arent to bad, they are horrible in the IH trucks as max 7s, but for some reason in the Fords they arent as failure prone. I have seen many massive bottom end failures of the maxxforce 7.

You can change the coolant line between the oil cooler and EGR cooler with the turbo on in 6.0s, the procedure according to the manual has you remove the EGR cooler, but thats just hogwash. Worst case scenario a quick turbo pull and your good to go.

Highest stock hp 7.3 was 275 witch was available in 7.3s with 6speeds, I believe.

Ford never blamed IH for all the diesel motor failures, they wanted IH to partake in helping to paying for warranty parts. I dont think the amount Ford wished IH would pay ever even got paid. Hence the bad blood between the 2, and the ending of the long relationship. I think that navistar is out of there minds for letting that happen, and Ford is better off without them.
 

jordanjohngse

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been awhile navy life prevents me doing home work with yall and i love it and i am very thankful for all yall inputs when i know you could proubly spend your time giving inputs to somone wanting to buy a truck now instead of next year like myself, im just doing a long extensive research before i make my buy becuase im not perfect or know everything, i know enough and how to do it to keep diesels going and mod them, but by no means a expert on them last i check im a certified allison turbine engine technician not a diesel tech haha. but since being on i been talking with my future boss getting more detials about the job. he literally said duramaxes dont survive the northwest heavy equipment world. if the work doesnt kill them mother nature will. i been doing some digging on fords and dodges more and i agree with you tbirdfriend281 dodge trucks themselfs airnt as bad as people make them to be when i refered to them falling apart i was mainly refering to the 2001 and earlier models. and i know the off the cab method for anything isnt needed but its what i seened and been taught but wouldnt do it on my dd what so ever in all honestly. but back to earlier, the best way i can desrcibe my "work package" is a aux tank/tool box combo, fifth wheel hitch/goosneck, class 3 or 4 hitch, and air ride suspension in the rear and stuff here and there in the bed and rear seats(yes 4 door) will be air compressor for tools, cutting torch smal portable welder and tools and misc. equipment. he qoute "i buy it all, you stuff it all how you want, you drive there and fix/request outside tech assist and i pay for your fuel". he said normally with upgrade air bags and/or helper springs in the rear he said the trucks dont sag but a minimum and there still towing 10-15k behind them when extracting or bringing in new equipment and supplies. but i pretty much narrow it down the dodge and ford. being northwest washington state native i am ford all the way, but always loved the inline 6 engines. and i agree 100% with everyone here its hard to beat ford, there body/chassis are destructable and there engines after the 7.3 that everyone worries about aint bad at all, a couple of service members i work with have high mileage (250-300k) 6.0 they got from long haulers, same goes for the 5.9 common rail, i wont be bombing my truck. i dont plan on racing or hot rodding it so it be stock with exception of deletes and upgrades for cooling and monitoring that is it. so with that and actually getting a chance to haul 12k with my wife dog and a my baby daughter this weekend both in a common rial 5.9 and 6.0 (friend owns both thanks to a rich family must be nice) i got to say with the room,riding quality and general power performance i fell in love with the 6.0 and it got better mpgs then the dodge both trucks had 33's leveling kit, various delete mods but no tuner or anything to add power. im still looking into the newer fords but right now if i could find a 06 6.0 and do the delete mods and towing upgrades i would be very happy with it in my opinion.
 

tbirdfiend281

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If your future potential boss is telling you the things he is actually telling you, those kind of statements are red flags. First of all, if hes going to buy this and that for you, why doesn't he have company work trucks? Second thing, and I have seen this first hand, if a class 3-5 truck is asked to tow 10-15k daily, they die. They dont hold up, the need to switch out to a medium duty chassis is almost always required. I have seen fleets have major issues with f450 and f550 trucks then switch out to like Kodiaks or 4300 IH, and not have nearly as many issues. I would tread lightly with this guy, just doesn't seem like the correct way to do business, but maybe its just different on that other coast.

If a 5.9 common rail or 6.0 is deleted, the truck requires tuning of some kind to keep the check engine light off. Maybe they are tuned and you just dont know of it, you can run stock tunes and turn off EGR and such, its not to big of a deal.
 

jordanjohngse

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well first and foremost i greatly and admirely (i cant spell 2 years of summerschool to pass highschool is killing me) appreciate all of yalls input and taking yalls time to waste and cant get back for helping me haha, but tbirdfriend281 nailed it. i finally talked to the "actual" boss, turned to worst but for better. who i was talking to was one of his relatives son, cousins i have no idea but i too was thinking...why i buy a truck for a dd thats going to get beat like a horse for something im not doing personaly? now if i buy truck for my own buisness/pleasure then sure thats kinda the main purpose we buy these trucks correct? so talked to the main man did visual interview he walked with his ipad or w/e and did a walk through interview and lord behold they used company trucks for everything. and they give you gas cards just cant use them for personal use like every other major company out there. where his relative got his...world of wonders at i and the actual boss still have no idea but the mystery is solved so now instead of "so your telling me i need to buy a truck and abuse it for your company and possibly gernade it as well as drive it daily for me and my family personal use and pay for my own repairs and maintnance? with only exeption being diesel and equipment?" i can actually buy my own personal diesel for own personal use and be happy, hot dog haha. so now thats covered. i can finally set back and take my time and buy what i want.
 

tbirdfiend281

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well since you dont have to work the truck except for your move, buy a duramax. Any modern pickup can handle any homeowners spec job you can throw at them. Now the pro stuff, the trucks will start to show there weakness and strengths.
 

jordanjohngse

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im still thinking of the duramaxes. i love fords and cummins but on the ford side of the house i dont really like how they keep changing engine platfroms its proubly not a big deal but in the past working on tugboats and other heay equipment thats usually tends to be flag, but thats just my personal opinion. and over all from first gen dmax tell now the entire 15 year the 6.6 been in production on the family side of the house (i always forget i have a wife dog and a daughter in a car seat and we love offroading our jeep buggy and hunting) the chevy 4 doors and interior just seem bigger and have the working man but i support a family type vibe, just something i always sense owning gasser 5.3 and 6.0 for the last ten years. and i finally got a chance to borrow my buddys 05 dmax (the ******* year) 4 door short bed with 160k on it stock and loved everyhour of the 7 days with it. i borrowed stock and modded 7.3s and 6.0s various cummins but the ride and throttle response and the room just seemed to offer the entire package, plus a stock v8 diesel getting 17-18 mpg in the city isnt bad what so ever and diesel is only 10 cents more then gas and highway i did both the computer and hand calculated driving 55-60 due to to many speeding tickets and norfolk virginia cops show no mercy i saw and calcutated +/- 2 mgs in the the 22-24 mpg range and was really happy with that. i had many people that call BS but honestly who drives there diesels anymore like the law post?lol. the only thing thats bugging me and i havent verififed it, but the newer years 07-up i believe? have cracking cylinder issue? i know all the years for overheating, injectors failing, coolent leaks and fuel surges but just recently heard of piston cracking and didnt know if thats a making huge horsepower issue or a design flaw all together. i dont plan on doing anything huge except effilive and deletes and free flwoing exuast so i can have fun and taste what competitors get but still be reliable and good mpgs like the duramaxes offer. but dont think the newer model will effect me becuase the newest im going is the last year of the classic style body either gmc or chevy. im not into the newer plastic/metal trucks yet haha
 

dieseldoug

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There are a couple of websites, powerstrokehelp.com and youtube podcast "Diesel Performance Podcast Episode 7" that have lots of information on considerations when buying a truck for all kinds of applications. Powerstrokehelp.com also has a number of youtube clips.

Good Luck
 

Muleman

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Ive had a 97 powerstroke, chevy lly duramax and the 2011. Then i decided to go old school and have three ford idis. i trully believe you would be happiest with the duramax. I used mine on farm/ranches hauling trailers to 17k. I had the least problems and most comfort with the Duramax.
 

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