Duramax reliability

[cumminstogetya]

I rode in a 2005 Duramax today with the Edge monitor and box, and I have to say that I was very impressed. That truck ran awesome. I know that there have been a few Cummins go over a million mostly trouble free miles, and I know a guy with 325,000 on his 94 that has been pulled for many years (I'm sure some of you know Keith). I was wondering what problems they have with the Dmaxes, and if anyone has put some serious miles on one yet? I wonder how long one would hold up in the long run if it is turned up?





John

 

[supeerman4422]

my dads friend had one that cracked the heads at 60,000 miles... injectors went at 30,000... the truck was an 01 though... not sure how the new ones are holdin up

 

[Rescue Ram]

They have been known for injector/fuel system problems and electronics bugs. The older ones seem to be more problematic. We are replacing our light duty rescues with Chevy 5500's with the D/A setup. We won't buy another 6. 0. Both of ours have been very problematic. If you like it, go for it.

 

[AfterBurner]

We have a 550 brush truck with the 6. 0, and it's great. We haven't put many miles on it yet, so I can't testify to the reliability of it, but it runs great. We have some pretty steep grades to pull, and that 550 loaded with water, is no light load. I was very impressed on our first run throught he mountains. It also has good ground clearance (very important, since it goes off-road in some rough places), which is part of the reason we didn't go with the Chevy's.

 

[Rescue Ram]

I am glad to hear that they are not all so troublesome. Our first 6. 0 is an early build '03 F-350. It lost all 8 of the c94's with in 3 months, and came very close to hydrolocking the engine 3 separate times. It has the romps, excessive smoke, no power, perpetual bell housing leak, etc. We just took delivery of an '05 F-350 Ambulance. It is suffering form many of the same problems (minus injectors... the c95's combined with the elimination of pilot injection seem to endure better). It blew the intercooler hose off the day we took delivery. Minor but annoying.



For us, these things have far too much in common with the GM 6. 5's that we used to have. Non-stop headaches from the word go. Gilpin County has a couple of D/A ambulances with which they have been exceedingly happy. We're going to give this a try, since the 6. 0 does not hold a candle to our expectations based on the service we have received from the 7. 3's.



I bet you can't guess why I never post on the Ford boards... I would immediately be accused of being a troll. Those boys sure do get touchy about their 6. 0's... :-laf :-laf :-laf Truly, I do find the level of refinement with the current ford driveline intolerable for our application.

 

[cumminstogetya]

I'm not thinking about buying one. I couldn't even afford it, being a full time student paying for my own college. Its just that I have been a life long Chevy fan and was wondering how they were doing with their own diesel.



John

 

[HoleshotHolset]

I'm not impressed with the 6. 6L Duramax's reliability/longevity... when compared to what I currently own - which is an unfair comparison, IMHO.

I saw one on the floor at a shop with only 350,000 on it... it was just plain wore out. Isolated case? Maybe... maybe not.



Would I own one? Heck yeah! Why? Because all of the minor issues they have can be solved and they run very well for the most part and get great mileage when you keep your foot off the soot pedal.



My '94 Cummins has ~199,700 on it and runs better than the day it rolled off the assembly line. The sheer number of 600,000+ mile Cummins 6BT's is astonishing. Granted, they've been out since the late 70's... but, that's more of a testiment to the completely overbuilt I6 design we're working with...



I've been a Chevy guy my whole life too... but, like folks have been saying for quite some time - I didn't buy my Dodges... I bought two Cummins 6BT's and the trucks came with 'em.



Matt

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Considering how Got Juice? has flogged his '01 GMC by stacking boxes, blowing up multiple turbos and going insane (2000F+) with EGTs, I would say the DMax has proven itself quite well. As far as I know the head gaskets are still virgin.



Vaughn

 

[cumminstogetya]

I feel the same way sometimes about buying a Cummins and getting a Dodge, but there are things that I like about Dodges.



I never would have thought that a diesel truck with aluminum heads would have survived too much, but then again, after hearing about Got Juice? on another thread, there is proof.

 

[Pmaloney]

Hey Matt you said you bought two Cummins 6bt's, why didnt you just throw them in 2 Chevy's ? :-laf But in all honesty now that Dodge has the somewhat 4 door I probably would have bought one if it wouldnt have cost my son then my arm and my leg, the leg was what got me, I couldnt shift good without it

 

[LDPetersen]

I drove my friends 04' DMAX 600 miles last weekend pulling my 38ft gooseneck horse trailer. Over the same roads I pull with my 95'ctd. I have to admit it is a nice rig. My old 95' with 160k miles is noisey and does not ride as nice, but I wonder if his will still be on the road in 10 yrs. with same miles. His only has 14k miles now and has had injector problems already. He got worse milage than mine on this same trip. But it is an impressive truck. I do like th allison transmission. I hope this truck does last my friend 10 yrs or more. For that much $ it better. Like I said it is a NICE RIG. Larry.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

... you bought two Cummins 6bt's, why didnt you just throw them in 2 Chevy's ? :-laf

I'm not a super huge fan of the IFS...

Until recently, I haven't had a garage that I could tie up for more than a day or two.



I'll do a Cummins swap sometime in the future... .



Matt