Very thorough tear down, I'm amazed that you were able to film all of that without music or talking to yourself. I'd probably look like a crazy person when I was done lol
A sheer joy watching a professional work. No distracting nonsense happening in the background. Great camera work. No get a bigger hammer mentality. No forcing. Fantastic!
Thanks for the video. Good work and explanation. I just bought a 2002 GMC Sierra with an Lb7 from a small dealership in NH low and behold the radiator lines were plugged to conceal the bad headgaskets so I will be doing a complete rebuild as well
I have been watching you work on Ford trucks and really give you all the respect you deserve . You are a well-skilled mechanic . I am amazed by how well you do engine change replacements all by yourself with no assistance at your shop . I would have you work on any of my vehicles if I had mechanical or electrical problems . Some videos look like the shop you work in could use a complete remodeling .old in ground lift not much room for your kind of work . GREAT VIDEOS! Thanks, tom
Very interesting watching someone who’s not a fan of the duramax work on one. Whole different perspective. This will be one of my most referenced videos on YT and will be supplementing my repair manual. Thank you for a great video!
I was impressed with the care you took on disassembly. It seemed obvious that you were unsure at times if everything was disconnected, but careful to ensure that removal was possible. Good video. Damn, those head bolts were tight. LOL
i was a gm dealer auto tech/driveability tech for many years, but on gas only. never got into diesel engines. watching you remove the top end items turbo, ect, I was completely lost. once the heads came off, I was on more familiar territory
I did duramax repairs for 2 years. lots of fun and at times a huge headache. I've always done repairs while the motor was in truck, I wish I could have had an engine stand like the one he's using.
Appreciate you taking the time out to video the teardown process, I was wondering how difficult. I know I could take it apart but putting it back together is another story. LOL
I know this is an older video, but wanted to add a bit of insight. I started wrenching as a turbine engine mechanic while in the Army some 30yrs ago, on M1 Abrahms tanks, with that, we worked on everything “smaller” as well, CUCCV’s, Hummers, HMMTS (Oshkosh 8 wheel drives), engines, drivetrains, suspensions, electronics, everything. I’ve been around the block a couple of times. I have saved myself thousands of dollars working on my own equipment and my family’s equipment. I have owned many brands of vehicles over the years and have driven many others as company trucks. Currently, as my personal vehicle, I have 2008 Chevy 3500 4x4 DRW. I am the second owner. I bought the truck with 116K on it...stock engine, with a Banks 6-gun (60hp add max) Banks intercooler and ram air, and a 4/2” leveling kit. After driving it for a couple of months “intact”, the failure of the DPF to regen and the 6-gun causing it to go into limp mode constantly, was driving me nuts. I pulled the 6-gun out of it and ran it stock. It was fine for awhile and had calmed down a bit, until...Unfortunately, I fell victim to the dreaded P0302...#2 cylinder misfire, and a plethora of other codes along with it. Ended up being a cracked piston. Made the decision to have my block punched and rebuilt versus an unkown reman long block...it cost a vulgar amount of money. However, I threw quality internals at it. Went with LB7 coated and delipped pistons, fatter cam, studs, new (not reman) aftermarket injectors, full delete, EFI Live w/DSP 5 (125hp max gain, the injectors are rated for 200hp, not sure of the pressure variances). The truck woke up for sure. More power, better mileage (19-21 solid on the highway). But here I am 2yrs later with a P0306...#6 piston took a shit. Here is the meat of this post; I have researched this engine for countless hours, more than I care to reveal. I didn’t buy this truck to be a “pavement princess” or to sit in my driveway to pull a fifth wheel twice a year. I work the shit out of it. I drive the damn thing. I perform regular maintenance and use the highest quality products I can get. Yet, still end up with a piston failure. Through my research, I have found the same scenario over and over and over...whether completely stock or highly (properly) modified, the Duramax’s number one failure seems to be the pistons. I’m not sure if it’s a casting issue, a material issue, tolerance issue, or just shit luck, but these engines are notorious for cracked pistons, whether you “baby” them or not. It seems to be the luck of the draw. I know a guy that his truck was assembled 17 days before mine...same plant...he has 425K on his truck and has been driving it around for the past 90K with only 6-12psi of oil pressure at 75-80mph. GO FIGURE! All I know, is I’m serious considering getting out of the diesel “business”....I sincerely am regretting letting go of my 2000 Chevy Crew-cab with the fuel injected 454...got shit mileage, but never let me down, but hell, I guess if I wanted good mileage...I should just get a Prius.
For a "heavily tuned" dmax he evidently was not pushing boost much. He was running the factory 2 piece y bridge. Those things pop apart all the time with more boost. This engine was definitely not taken care of. LOL tie wrapped wires on the injector. This is the first of your videos I have come across. Nice work on the shots and editing. I'll definitely be watching more of your videos. Thanks!
Exactly.. and do your homework before you throw a random tune at it. As a wise man once said “they’re all good when they’re good. They all suck when they suck.”
Props. First time seeing a Chevy tear down. It makes me appreciate my 2012 Ram w/ Cummins even more though. Deleting these newer diesels is a must, but tunes can also be your worst nightmare with reliability.
I had a ton of problems trying to get this vid up. My computer just wasn't cooperating and it took almost 3 days of constant uploading and deleting and uploading and deleting and .......you get the picture. lol
Now I know what my #2 piston looked like when it cracked at 400k! I just swapped the whole motor out though. This will come in handy for the headgasket job that’s looming over me now 🤣
This is at Pitt Community College in Winterville NC a beautiful facility. I am very proud to be a part of this organization. On a side note this truck is still there and I worked on it tonight and after programming the new injectors into the PCM And GPCM, started for the first time since the engine rebuild.
@@flmmaz amazing work not sure how you keep up with where everything goes! Seriously have to hand it to you guys that do this work I would get anxiety pulling this thing apart.
I'm not a ford fan ..leave them stock and change the oil more often and update your oil filter system and they will last a whole lot longer..DPF is one of the main engine killers these days.
Beautiful engine and very good design. I can see they put a lot of thought into it. But the only problem is that the stroke should be 20% longer than the piston diameter. That would produce better efficiency and torque. For example the Passat 2.0 TDI engine is a long stroke engine that produces 140 Hp. and 240 lbf-ft. And gets ~50 MPG.
thanks for sharing. I wouldn't say I'm a duramax fan but I am a gm fan. I love the new gmc trucks. this looks like some kind of tech school? those tools are all snap on and they look brand new!
It takes a shit ton of abuse to do this to any Duramax-mine just rolled 400k miles & runs better nowadays than ever before & it’s been deleted w/a ppe 120hp tune for 13yrs.Very well made Diesel engine for a V8.Lets not forget that Gm trucks are the only diesel platforms that haven’t changed in 20 yrs.With Fords having 4 different Diesel engines & Dodge with 2-there’s a reason 👍🏼
what would you diagnose at the piston break? I am a fan of most all engines. I even keep a 31 year old subaru engine for the full wet sleeve and solid deck. I suppose I let out a hint what is wrong with this duramax in my own opinion. Hopefully it was just lack of care, like checking coolant level...temps like EGT. Great video, thanks.
Thanks for this nice video! My truck has some undercarriage damages and there is some damage on the bottom left of the engine near the oilcooler and the plate near the flywheel. Any advise if I can replace those parts or better to replace the whole engine. Thanks a lot!
It is mostly about where you put every bolt you take off. You can go as far as labeling a bin or ziplock bag for each group of bolts. Also, for some of them you can put a bolt back in its place as soon as you take the part off.
@flmmaz, Thank you for the information, great video. I'd like to suggest that you take it easy on your wrists and not slap the wrench or use your hand like a hammer. I've seen mechanics have to find other jobs because their wrists are shot.
even pulled out the truck, it looks like a real bitch to work on. I thought my 351w stroker was bad. it's piece of cake. had three cummins diesels and turned them up quiet a bit and never had any problems. I maxed out the pyro many times pulling , no failures. Had the entire exhaust manifold glowing cherry red at 1200 + degrees. But i would never compare a cummins to a dura-max. When looking for long engine life, just compare the engine bearing surface area. there is your longevity.
As a 2007 Classic 3500 SRW Duramax owner I gave you a like as it was very interesting to watch the teardown of that Duramax. And as a Snap-On tool owner, I cringed watching you use chrome Snap-On sockets on a impact.
now your in my backyard, haha i can spot more then one thing on this engine that is not correctly routed as u took it down, from when they studded it, i work at a gm dealer as a diesel tech, see ford's from time to time, these are a nightmare to work on till you know them. but samething as a PSD you tune the truck and push it, shit will break, lbz's crack pistons from high egt's and the hot ambient temps there and big tunes its just a matter of time.
hahaha thanks buddy, i've bin here many of times, this is the exact reason i watch my egt's but i am not stupid i know if i crack a piston in my truck my right foot did it. i hope your new years and christmas was good dude
What's your opinion of the Cummins 5.9/6.7? Do you feel like the powerstroke 6.7 is proven now? Ford claims a b10 life of 500k miles on the 330hp version. I think they are reliable, but that seems pretty high to me when the Cummins 6.7 has a b10 of 250k miles (albeit in the higher power pickup truck models). Thoughts?
ehh not a fan of these motors either Brad, worked on enough of them lol i enjoy the powerstrokes for sure. Great video sir, taken apart the motor and getting a shave all at the same time huh? lol haha
lol. Yeah, I started the video on Friday and finished it on Saturday (Christmas Eve) and in-between those two days the wife finally got a hold of the beard.
The LBZ duramax that came out in '06-'07 is a very good engine. Unfortunately the factory replaced the forged Mahle pistons that came in previous years with a cast piston, and this can happen even on a completely stock engine, although it's not common. It's got nothing to do with it being a 6 or 8 cylinder as to why the piston cracked.
What causes the cracked piston is cold fuel leaking passed a bad injector not at the time of combustion. More specifically it’s cause by excessive idling with a bad injector. If the injector is bad, fix it ASAP
Love watching your teardown videos. Always interesting to see the guts of various different vehicles, and what goes wrong. So having done so much work on 6.0's and 6.4's, what's your take on Duramax's?
The Dmax is a solid engine but I despise working on them. They have all these stupid brackets in the way of anything you are trying to access. And the Dmax is the only option in the light duty van market i.e. maxed out ambulance chassis. I would pick up soda cans in the street before working on a Duramax in a van.
Step 1 shave beard? It was looking good. How do you feel about guys deleting egr and dpf on the big three if they keep the power mods low? Do theses mods make it impossible or more difficult to use the laptop to diagnose?
Oh man, I got sick and that thing was out of control so my wife 86'ed it. lol. I'm ok with deletes, the engine will definitely benefit from it without having all the exhaust gasses being pumped into the intake system and the wasted fuel being dumped down the exhaust pipe. The tuners can wreak havoc on diag. Some of the nicer ones don't really affect it but those can cost upwards of $800. The cheap units really make it difficult to diag some times. Depends on what is wrong with the truck.
The only company who has been making diesel engines longer than Isuzu is Peugot. G.M. has built amazing diesels for many decades. Detroit Diesel Allison IS General Motors. I like to support Japan, they buy 60% of our perishable farm and ranch produce which is exported on container ships. The actual original Duramax in a pick up truck was from 1981 to 1987 Isuzu Diesel Pup and Chevy Luv, in-line four cylinder engines.
Deleting and tuning doesn't kill an engine. In most cases it makes them much better. What kills the engine is the driver now driving it like a racecar.
After seeing this I think I'm going to just leave mine stock and just do routine maintenance it's not worth it it has enough power as it is stock I mean I'm satisfied with it I have a 2008
I know the feeling been serious on planning the EGR delete grab the CTS 2 Insight tuner but after a round of videos today me either. I did all the mods for longevity main thing fass fuel pump. OIL changes on time fuel filter changes on time. I would like to own a million mile truck one day.
I deleted my lmm with a mild tow tune. One thing I didn’t like was the new exhaust that was installed. Up here in Ontario we don’t have a smog test but we do have environmental police that will pull you over and do a visual inspection. What I ended up doing was hollowing out my dpf, and putting the doc back on. That way it still looks visually stock. Also with the doc back on I noticed a huge difference with the diesel smell. I Also have an egr blocker plate installed (hopefully it doesn’t fail me) along with the fass lift pump and the banks idash to monitor back pressure that the doc could potentially be causing. I also wrapped my doc in header wrap to keep it hot so it can work more effectively. Sounds extreme but Its been working really well no problems after 70k.
Maybe silly question,, how do you keep all the parts and bolts organized and remember what's what when you re-assemble something? Do you list it all, or just your experience. I'd get lost without labeling everything.
You do get a feel for where everything goes with doing a job repeatedly. This job was torn down for quite some time so all the bolts were put in plastic zip-loc bags. Sometimes when I take a part off, I will put the bolt right back in the hole it came out of. Little things like that go a long way. As far as hard parts go, you really can't mix those up or get them in the wrong spot for the most part. I do label all parts that can be interchanged, such as injectors or rocker arms, ect.
This engine was the end result of a combination of events. The engine was tuned to the gills and no aftermarket pyro gage was installed. Exhaust temps ran unchecked, a fuel injector shit the bed and ran unchecked, the operator has a bit of a lead foot and ran unchecked. Next thing you know, a piston checked out. lol
What are the chances that this damage was done hydraulically, with far too much fuel (broken injector)? Or was it indeed heat, in it's final moments? Did you get enough 'true' details from the owner? I am imagining a bad injector flooded the cylinder, after a shut-off possibly? Then upon re-starting (owners "it's mis-firing" report) and they tried the 'drive' the miss out of it?
Steve Kluver He did say it was heavily tuned. It could of been hydrolock issue. I think more toward to much timing and heat in the cylinder/piston. we may never know for sure
reweydewy He did say it was tuned heavily. Maybe in the next video, we'll get a look at that injector. That will tell us a bunch. I'm going to stick with hydraulic breakage for now. I don't see any signs of over heating.
Wow!!!! Reconsidering the dpf/egr delete. I get the environmental aspects of smog control, but it seems as though (through the reading/research I've been doing), like two steps forward, one step back. Without raising a debate, it would appear that more fuel is wasted (burned) for the regen, the engine works harder to produce the needed power; which in turn burns more fuel causing more exhaust, and so on... Another good video, thanks Brad.
I gave the guy many options, this poor engine was over fueling hard and had a quarter of a million miles on it, so he opted to go completely through it with new injectors and turbo.
Crazy a Ford tech working on a Chevy. I bet you got enough powerstrokes on your plate. And they got you messing with an d-max. Also how much yall charge to go through a motor like that?
