Loyal to the Brand !! Why? Considering another..

[DieselDaze]

As long as can remember I've been a Chevy guy, my first car being a souped up Chevy Nova... And the list grows..

I've been looking to buy a diesel for years now, had even considered ford as to be honest I like the outside of the truck more then chevy, just couldn't bring myself to buy one, although I woulda saved money as they're cheaper used.

My loyalty bought me an '05 Duramax which I love, but the more I'm reading about diesels and this duramax in general the more I'm getting discouraged.. I know about the cummins but I've never owned a dodge and always heard of them (the trucks) literally falling apart. but i find myself leaning more towards the dodge as they apparently have little to no motor issues.. I read alot about duramax problems and really cant afford a big ticket fix if an injector melts my motor..

My question to you is more up for encouragement on the duramax and comments about your personal experience. (good or bad) and mileage etc. I want a truck that will last and not base it on loyalty. I spent alot of money on my truck and paid for it cash and cant afford to have an issue, after reading nightmare posts here and there I kinda wished I'd bought a dodge..

 

[slowlmm]

05 and newer dura max trucks dont have the injector issues. and on the newer trucks lmm the fit and finish is the best yet. dodge and ford are haveing huge issues with there new emission systems on there turcks. the dmax is by far the esaiest to tune imo and can make great power with just a few clicks of the key board. Every brand out there will have there good points and there draw backs.

 

[bighawg]

Rob, much like you I bought a 05' Duramax. I have a 95 Ford Powerstroke, which has been a great truck. It has some age and many hard miles, so I began looking for another diesel truck. I was looking for an 2003 Ford with low miles and the 7.3 l Powerstroke, wanted no part of the 6.0 engine which has been a nightmare for Ford. During my search I ran across this 05 Duramax. The price was right so I bought it. Best thing I have ever done. This engine is so versatile, do as little or as much with it as you want. You can put a smaller tuner on it or go balls to the wall EFI live.

The thing I love the most is that you can make it a genuine badass and still drive it everyday and work the hell out of it. I put a Banks 6 gun on mine and loved it. Loved it until I found this website. Now I want to pull it off and go with EFI tuning. And of course now I want to do the exhaust, trans, lift pump , shim mod, pvc reroute, turbo, egr plate blocker, etc. etc. etc. My wife wants to pull my internet connection says these guys and girls (Kat) are a bad influence:rofl:.

I can promise you that you did not make a mistake when you put your money on the DMax. Good Luck.

 

[McRat]

As long as can remember I've been a Chevy guy, my first car being a souped up Chevy Nova... And the list grows..

I've been looking to buy a diesel for years now, had even considered ford as to be honest I like the outside of the truck more then chevy, just couldn't bring myself to buy one, although I woulda saved money as they're cheaper used.

My loyalty bought me an '05 Duramax which I love, but the more I'm reading about diesels and this duramax in general the more I'm getting discouraged.. I know about the cummins but I've never owned a dodge and always heard of them (the trucks) literally falling apart. but i find myself leaning more towards the dodge as they apparently have little to no motor issues.. I read alot about duramax problems and really cant afford a big ticket fix if an injector melts my motor..

My question to you is more up for encouragement on the duramax and comments about your personal experience. (good or bad) and mileage etc. I want a truck that will last and not base it on loyalty. I spent alot of money on my truck and paid for it cash and cant afford to have an issue, after reading nightmare posts here and there I kinda wished I'd bought a dodge..

Well, our 04 LLY has 85,000miles mostly towing heavy, and dragstrip/dyno/pulling usage. It has been "tuned up" shortly after purchase, and most the miles have been running at least 450rwhp tuning.

It has had a water pump, 2 injectors, wheel bearings, and a speedo cluster. Cost out of pocket in repairs has been about $500.

This board is mostly racers. You are going to see failures, just like you see failures on Dodge and Ford race sites. Even if they don't post their failures, when you see a thread about them building up an engine, they aren't doing it because they are bored.

 

[turbo-max]

soon, i will have the best of both wolds (chevy and cummins)..well old worlds anyhow as i am swaping in a cummins from a 92 dode into a 1989 chevy truck.

 

[turbo-max]

This board is mostly racers. You are going to see failures, just like you see failures on Dodge and Ford race sites. Even if they don't post their failures, when you see a thread about them building up an engine, they aren't doing it because they are bored.

really? shit, and all this time i thought they where just bored with there current lack of power!

 

[McRat]

really? shit, and all this time i thought they where just bored with there current lack of power!

Basically, to make a Dodge or Ford run with our "tuned" trucks, you need:

Charger, trans, injectors, pump work, head studs. People stress because we need to freshen up the Allison to run fast, but it costs less to get into the 12's with a Dmax, and is generally more streetable at that level of power. Whether the Dodge or Ford is as reliable at 500HP is debatable. We don't tend to bend rods or blow headgaskets constantly, but there are some piston cracking issues. But the Dodges and Fords can crack pistons too at that power level, but I don't know which is more common.

 

[turbo-max]

well, i will never have any issues with my dodge as it will remain near stock with the VE pump and the ONLY thing might do is slightly larger squirters to the tune of 50~75 hp increase MAX.

 

[Skyhigh4by]

What has got you freaked out about the duramax not being reliable or quality machinery??? If it is from what your reading on performance sites then you cant really rely on that. Take a look at ford or dodge racing sites and you will find the same things. If you plan on keeping the truck stock or mildly modded then I think that the duramax is probably just as reliable as the cummins or maybe even better and the dmax is wrapped in a much nicer GM body. Once a truck starts to get heavily modified then basically just decide if you like ford dodge or gm, they will all have problems if you use them for other than what they were originally meant to be.

 

[Turbo Buick 6]

Ok, theres no need to talk about problems with Powerstrokes because everyone knows they break all the time, yes 7.3 and 6.0.

Yes there are a few issues with the D-max but let me tell ya, I have a lot of friends with cummins and they have far more problems than duramaxes. My friends o6 has been in the shop 5 times, and it doesn't even have a tuner, cummins power for ya:rofl:

Point of fact every car or truck out there has problems, but some have more than others.....the Duramax is not one of the ones with more problems

 

[LarryJewell]

My 04 LLY just turned 100,000, no major failures other than transmission failures and the motor has been turned up since at least the 13000 mile mark, dont know what the previous owner did. As far as the motor, nothing major, 2 water pumps, 1 injector, fuse block, 2 U joints, ECM and normal maintenance costs.

 

[03 D-max]

my 03 has 140,000 miles on it and i have replaced the cluster, ecm and normal ware parts. but other than that it hasn't broken at all and im not someone that babys it ether i run it like a truck should be as for the powerstrokes so many of my friends bought them because you could buy them cheap and what a mistake there frontends and trannys have fallen apart over and over again. A dodge wouldn't be that bad of a truck other than the fact that they are not even close to as comfortable and have there share of prolems too. On this site when you see piston failures and tranny failures and that sort of that stuff its because they have been pushed to there limits(most of the time) and when u push your trucks HP up things are going to break regardless of the brand

 

[sweetdiesel]

A freind of mine has a 04 lly with just over 200 000 miles and it has had a Hypertech 80HP tune since about 10k miles it is lifted 6" and has had quite a few front end probloms ( I blame his crappy lift ) But really other than that it has been a reliable truck still stock water pump and all injectors

 

[Mike L.]

As long as can remember I've been a Chevy guy, my first car being a souped up Chevy Nova... And the list grows..

I've been looking to buy a diesel for years now, had even considered ford as to be honest I like the outside of the truck more then chevy, just couldn't bring myself to buy one, although I woulda saved money as they're cheaper used.

My loyalty bought me an '05 Duramax which I love, but the more I'm reading about diesels and this duramax in general the more I'm getting discouraged.. I know about the cummins but I've never owned a dodge and always heard of them (the trucks) literally falling apart. but i find myself leaning more towards the dodge as they apparently have little to no motor issues.. I read alot about duramax problems and really cant afford a big ticket fix if an injector melts my motor..

My question to you is more up for encouragement on the duramax and comments about your personal experience. (good or bad) and mileage etc. I want a truck that will last and not base it on loyalty. I spent alot of money on my truck and paid for it cash and cant afford to have an issue, after reading nightmare posts here and there I kinda wished I'd bought a dodge..

Go buy a Dodge and get back to us after a year.

 

[turbo-max]

^^ lol

 

[JMDuramaxLB7]

go buy a dodge and get back to us after a year.

lololol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DieselDaze]

can you tell in performance or sound if an injector is bad? if it doesn't show up any codes? example: guy with 73k with massive load barreling up a hill, injector sticks open puts a hole in piston, scores cylinder.. GM won't stand behind warranty.. in this situation many jump on the band wagon and go on and on about how they too had similar problems and had to rebuild their motor etc.

I only brought this up on this site because I've come to the conclusion this is the most straight shooting site I've been to. I only brought up the old school 1st generation cummins as I've heard them go upwards of 750k to 1 million miles on their motors.. anyone ever heard of a mild or stock Dmax go near that?

 

[JMDuramaxLB7]

I have read about some with 500k on them but have never seen one with my own eyes. I have seen one with 290k that ran like a top still.

 

[McRat]

can you tell in performance or sound if an injector is bad? if it doesn't show up any codes? example: guy with 73k with massive load barreling up a hill, injector sticks open puts a hole in piston, scores cylinder.. GM won't stand behind warranty.. in this situation many jump on the band wagon and go on and on about how they too had similar problems and had to rebuild their motor etc.

I only brought this up on this site because I've come to the conclusion this is the most straight shooting site I've been to. I only brought up the old school 1st generation cummins as I've heard them go upwards of 750k to 1 million miles on their motors.. anyone ever heard of a mild or stock Dmax go near that?

You've heard of a 300+ HP rated 5.9 Cummins going 750k without a glitch? I haven't.

Yeah, I can believe a 180hp one going that far.

If you want 180HP life, you can buy something called a Duramimizer that de-rates the Dmax to 250hp or so.

And you say that GM apparently never warrantees their engines? Guess you've never owned any other brands. Nissan is the worst IMO, Ford sucks too, GM has been average. There are plenty of horror stories coming out of Dodge dealerships concerning them scamming customers on warrantees.

The highest mileage Dmax I'm personally aware of was 500,000 something. It was on Ebay with a clean history and the mileage matched the service record.

 

[Kat]

can you tell in performance or sound if an injector is bad? if it doesn't show up any codes? example: guy with 73k with massive load barreling up a hill, injector sticks open puts a hole in piston, scores cylinder.. GM won't stand behind warranty.. in this situation many jump on the band wagon and go on and on about how they too had similar problems and had to rebuild their motor etc.

Just remember you can't believe everything you read on the internet Sometimes there is more going on then it appears.