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Tow Vehicle-Looking at Duramax???

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buickboy

Active Member
Joined
May 24, 2001
Messages
1,151
I am still looking for a Diesel tow vehicle and have looked at Dodge and Ford and now need opinions on 2002 Duramax. I am considereing a 2002 with a Duramax diesel with 80K miles on it and loaded to the gills. Is this still a good choice. I can get it pretty cheap (under 20K)
Experience please
Mitch
 
Isuzu makes a hell of an engine for durability, so I wouldn't worry about the 80k miles on that.
 
I've got an 02 D MAX with 38K on it now. No problems and I love the truck. The only thing that seems to pop up on some trucks is the injector issue due to the fuel filter not catching small enough micron particles. The fuel pressure in the injector on the new quiet diesels is high (23,000 psi) so anything that gets through the filter basically sandblasts the inside of the injector. I plan on installing a secondary fuel filter kit when I figure out which one I want. But personally I don't know anyone first hand that has had any of these problems.
 
One of the new Chevy mags has a story about a new Duramax that, with a new t/c, exhaust and fuel pump and tweaking of the computer, runs 12's on slicks and puts out 800 + ft.lbs. of torque! All of this in a 3/4 ton truck without getting into the engine.!!!:eek:
 
If you are looking to spend around $20,000 on a used truck, You should jump right into a new one....:D

Your payments on a used vehicle will be more than a New truck with ZERO percent for financing...

THe durmax is Prob the best diesel out on the marked today.. Quiet, lots of power, good ride,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,......:)



happy hunting,


Matt:cool:
 
I have a 2003 Silverado 2500HD with the Duramax and it's been a great combination so far. I too have heard about the injector issue but at 12,000 miles haven't dealt with it yet. I read the 2004's have an upgraded injector system that only costs a few hundred bucks to change and can be done in short order. The 04 injectors just "snap" in and out. From what I hear the 03 and older injector change costs a few grand. The 2003 is rated at 300hp and 520 ft/lbs of torque, the 2004 is 310hp and 590 ft/lbs torque! :eek:

You can go to www.thedieselpage.com and read up on these issues and much more on their message board.

In short, I and many Duramax owners LOVE their trucks.
 
If you guys are thinking about the DMAX its a hell of a truck. I had the pleasure of borrowing Cal Hartlines 2500 2x4 Crew Dmax .Runs 100+ mph in the 1/4 with the TST box. That is one good looking, very comfy, docile truck with tons of power. My wife even liked it. If i could jump into one I would in a heartbeat, just cant swing the payments:(
 
Louie L.,

Can you tell me about that "TST Box" or any other power booster box for that matter?
 
So you'd buy a Dodge with a Cummings because the connecting rod is bigger/thicker?

I'm not sure what the difference is between GM's older diesel 6.2L and 6.5L engines compared to the new 6.6L duramax but take a look here.
 
No, of course, I wouldn't buy one over the other because the rod is larger. But the rod isn't just bigger....it's massive in comparison.

From the larger rod you can see that the crank's rod journal is larger, the piston pin is larger, main bearing journal figures to be larger, etc. Stands to reason to some degree as this is an inline 6 vs a V8.

Additionally, Cummins makes nothing but diesel engines for 75 years...and this 5.9L is just about their smallest engine. Heavy Duty mindset would flow from the engineering staff directly into the 5.9L engine design...it's the whole Company mindset.

Ford is having trouble with Navistar's diesel engine....so bad the rumor is that they have ended their agreement...anybody know for sure??

Who makes GM's Duramax?? Does GM make their own diesel??

Bob
 
GM doesn't make the Duramax. Isuzu makes it and they've been making diesels for decads too.

Your conclusions are of sound logic. I suppose metalurgy and/or stress tests of variuos componenets would be a good side by side comparison between the two. But since the Duramax has been on the market it's been a solid performer. I've read many testimonials from people beating the hell out of their D-Max to 200,000 miles and beyond and it still keeps on ticking. The only known issue has/had been the injectors due to dirty fuel being able to get to them.

There's no question the Cummings is an excellent engine. The only thing that comes to mind when I think of a Cummings is the darn awful noise they make. It reminds me of a double bottom gravel hauler with a bad exhaust system.
 
Agreed on the noise...on the older Cummins B engines. Some love it...not me. Don't know exactly which year that the injection system got the double pulse design. 2004 for sure, 2003 I think, and maybe 2002. First pulse injects a small amount of fuel to begin the burn without the noise...followed in about 15msec by the main pulse. Much quieter.

Interesting isn't it that none of the OEM's make their own engine.

Ref TST...I'm pretty sure their business was started by a Mopar motor head who was also a retired Cummins Engineer. ECM timing, fueling and boost changes plus hardware mods would certainly be their forte.

Bob
 
As Louie stated, I have a 03 Duramax with 3900 miles on it and a TST box. I made 837 ft/lbs on a Mustang Dyno with the stock exhaust, air filter, etc.. I runs low 14's (traction limted) at nearly 103 in the 1/4. I absolutely love the truck and plan on getting a 2004 (with a rebate) or a 2005 this fall. The 80,000 mile truck your looking to buy should still be under warrantee (100,000)
 
I just bought a Edge/Juice box from a freind who traded his DMAX in for a 8.1. It's set on the 90hp setting and it's a totally different truck. I can't wait to run it at the track to see how it does. From a dead stop you can build a little boost and when you let off the brake it will go through 3 gears smoking the tires before it ever moves. I had to change air filters and modify the air filter box due to the stock filter being sucked closed after I installed the box. Probably because of 38k miles on the stock filter though.


TT/A 1233

The newer boxes like the TTS and the Edge Juice change pulse width, timing and boost. The older boxes fool a fuel pressure sensor to up the fuel pressure and it gets too high. Some had problems with the early boxes cracking a fuel block on the side of the engine.

The motor can make way more power than the Allison can handle. The newer boxes cut the power at the gear changes to keep the trans from slipping. You can modify the allison to handle the power and run low 13's with just a box and filter upgrade at 7000# A guy was in Reynolds with a crew cab short wheelbase at our Buick race with these mods + a 4" exhaust system and was running 13.10's. I spoke with him for a while and he was running a Quad 225 box with the allison upgraded. He has stacked a juice box on top of the Quad box and run high 12's.
 
Bob-
the 2002 dodge cummins are still the loud ones and they come in the old body style dodge truck, sounds odd but the 2002 1500 dodges are the new body style, and the 2500 and 3500 are the stayed with the old body-

then in 2003 the quiet cummins motor came out and they changed the body style to the new one-
the 2003 cummis is whisper quiet, the only thing that is heard is the lift pump ticking-


Isuzu makes a real good diesel motor, i see them in all of our linkbelt excavators,multiquip generators,and various other heavy machinery that we rent at work-

other than normal maintenance, weve never experienced any major issues with the Isuzu motor in any of our equipment other than turbo replacements-

the cummins that comes in our forklifts,air compressors, generators, ect are bullet proof and have lasted over 12,000 HOURS with no major issues either-

as for the Isuzu in the chevys, i personally would not buy a used one because someone else could have beat the crap out of it before you, and the $7500.00 to replace 8 injectors is damn rediculous.

i bought a cummins motor that came in a dodge wrapper because if it ever breaks down, it will be simple to fix and relatively less expensive than a powerstroke or Isuzu parts would be.

i can work on it since it has 30% less rotating assembly being a inline 6, same design for the past 30+ years except for the 24v head is new design-

just open the hood and you will see that there is plenty of room to work on the new ISB engines if needed.

as for the 2004 Isuzu engines, they are still getting everything working better for them. i like the idea of the "pop" in and out of place injectors. if they are cheaper even better!!!

too bad chevy doesnt make a 5500 series or else there would be one in my driveway 45days from now, work is buying me a truck and i would prefer the chevy over the POS, oh i mean the powerstroke
BW
 
From what I have been reading, duramax's have been experiencing real bad problems with blowing head gaskets... much as I hate to say it, Ford's power stroke seems to be the best. Dont go with a newer model though, because they are doing a massive recall because of the injectors being crap. My brother has a 99 with 70k on it and it is very nice. F-350 Lariat package 4dr dually long bed 4x4.
 
Never heard anything about a HG problem. Did this info come from the internet??

I know the new 6.0 powerstroke made by navistar has some issues with the fuel system. The engine plant is 30 minutes from here.
 
There was a undisclosed settlement between ford and navistar. Ford is currently looking for a new supplier. I have heard of head gasket and fuel problems on the d mx, along with the allison not being what it was cracked up to be. Realistically though many of the owners have no idea what they are doing. Many have zero experience with deisels, egt's, towing etc....and they just retired and are out there on the road, undoubtably doing some pretty dumb things.

Dodge will have the highest stock rating in 2004, 04 1/2 actually the dodge will be the dodge 600, for 600 lft lbs. I think the ho rating is going to be 340.

They all have there own problems, and they all do light work great. If the work load goes up, then ussually the dodge comes out on top but many people will never use there truck like that even once. (light work is 10000 lbs)

If you want the best engine the cummins is the one, but most people don t need it, and base there decisions on other things too, like color, sale price, interior room , and ultimately the one there wife will let them buy.

BTW, I drive a 98 12v dodge, just over 900ft lbs so my views may be biased. The milage that is involved (80000 -130000) miles is sorta funny to me, dodge guys ussually don t even consider the truck broke in till 150K.....many have 300k to 1 million miles, so maybe they just play on a different field.
 
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