Which year D-max is the best for moding

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DieselMec

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I was talking to a buddy of mine and he was telling me that an 01' is the best for moding, an 02' has injector problems and 03' and up are alright. As i am still in tech college and will have student loans to pay back, would a high miles duramax be a good idea or just headaches? the only things i've read about to what out for on a 01' or any d-max is for white smoke indicating bad injectors and to take a radiator pressure tester and check too see if the pressure is too high meaning it has blown head gaskets. Any suggestions ive found a few for 5-6k which isn't too bad i guess but the had some miles on them. I saw a few people say that they've had d-maxs come into there shop with 600k- 700k for milage but when these trucks start getting up there with the miles whats likely to fail? :charger:
 
The '01 I will be building up in Diesel World mag. has 353,000+ miles on it and it had blown head gaskets, some body rust and a worked over interior, but I only paid $3,200 for it. The team at Fleece Performance Engineering pulled the heads and had them resurfaced and the deck of the block was flat and the cylinder bores still had the factory crosshatching and leapard spots so we put head studs and new gaskets then reinstalled the machined heads and it is running GREAT!!!!

Especially if you can pull the engine and heads yourself dont let blown headgaskets or high miles scare you away from an older DMax if you can pick it up for a good price... Just be sure to work them over for the right price! Look at the November Diesel World for the intro to the project and to see some good tips and advice for buying a used high-mileage truck...

Hope this helps!
 
All 01-04.5 lb7 engine duramax have had and will have injector problems.
It is common problem, and injectors can go bad in any time, so looking at miles dont tell if injectors are good or not.
Head gaskets are also common issue with lb7 engines, mostly in 01-02. Probably all high miled early duramaxes have new gaskets.
 
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I would say the 04.5 - 05 LLY Less injector problems and easier to get to if you do. better pistons than newer trucks. don't shy away from a $32oo LB7 though !
 
@ Chris; so if i would get a d-max reading every article after the first one on the lbz for 3200 would be the best route for what to do for performance/repair; what do you plan on doing with the truck in the future. If you could hook me up with that guys number i just might buy one from him right away ;) or shortly there after.
 
The question is hard to answer without knowing how crazy you want to build it
 
Well i was thinking the first thing that i ought to do when i get a high miles d-max is to pull the engine out and rework it, replace the bearings and such, put arp head studs in it; pretty much get a solid motor again. as for what other mods i would like to do.....aftermarket intercooler, reworked or aftermarket trans, mabe a dual turbo setup, i kinda want to make this a tow vehical/weekend stock sled pull class =)
 
You may as well put rods and pistons in it if your inside. You're going to need them......trust me. Horsepower is an addiction. :rockwoot: My truck started as kind of a weekend warrior and now it's over 1000hp and runs high tens :evil

P.S. It's an LB7
 
Thats what i was thinking about go through the same main parts on the lbz diesel engine like i would on a gasser engine
 
The LBZ's are still getting a pretty good price even for high mileage ones... The project truck I'm working on/building is an '01 LB7 NOT an LBZ... We knew it had bad head gaskets going in, so the motor was pulled and the heads were resurfaced and reinstalled with new ARP head studs. At this point we don't plan to go too crazy with it so we didn't even pull the pan. The cylinder bores looked good and so was the measured protrusion and deck surface... Fleece put a 500 or so horsepower EFI Live tune in it and we are driving it as it sits while we do the suspension, trans, interion and body work... it is all a process and it is likely that at some point we will do injectors, turbo and several other things with the engine but right now the engine is staying pretty simple...

Hope this helps, and basically it doesn't really matter which truck you get... Just find one in your price range and build it to whatever level you can afford then have fun with it and keep building as you can afford to and/or need to!!!
 
Ya i relized that i was calling it an lbz instead of a lb7 my bad. And that was one of the bigger questions i had about the motor, because the real reason i want a d-max is for towing then mabe for a stock class sled puller i dont know though, thats rough a truck
 
Ive been looking for d-maxs like the one that chris picked up, ive looked on autotrader,ebay,craiglist and auto and rv the only other sorce i can think of is a repo yard but most of the time these are private and they do not always publicly announce that they are selling trucks like the one im trying to find. do any of you guys have connections to any repo yards or know of some good places to call or internet sites.
Thank You.
 
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