Winter Projects Anyone?

Bryce Frazier · Jan 5, 2019

Seems like everyone always has a winter project going on, lets see!!

Just today dad and I drug "Bennji" out of the big barn, and got him into our work shop. We are preparing to replace the frame.

Bennji is a 2006 K2500 GMC with a 6.6 LBZ Duramax, and 6 spd Allison trans, CrewCab/ShortBed, fully loaded, even has a sun roof! Also has a suspension drop lift of 6". 151,000 miles, he was totaled and confiscated due to a DUI and fatality crash (the real Bennji is in prison because of this), we bought the truck from Washington State Poilce at an auction.

EVERYTHING is going to be removed from the frame, and then completely reinstalled back onto a replacement frame I got from a wrecking yard in Pasco WA. Going to be a heck of a project! But can't wait to have it done.

Stock they have about 350 horse and 550 ftlbs torque, dad and I are aiming for 600 horse and 1000 lbs when done.

Philip d · Jan 5, 2019

That will make some nice truck! It?s no fault of the truck what happened,hope you got it dirt cheap and will have a great truck for many years to come.

NYOlivers · Jan 5, 2019

This is a pic of my LBZ. I ordered it new and doesn't get driven in the snow/salt. It has been oiled/undercoated from day one. I do have a plow for it and it only plows my drive way!!! I have done some upgrades to it all emission/egr items removed, pcv reroute, k&n air filter, exhaust, heavy tow tune, rear air bags, billisten shocks, all synethic fluids, power steering and trans cooler lines upgraded to hyd. Style hoses, and more I cannot remember. It has just under 50k on it, it's main job is to tow the 5th wheel camper and gooseneck hauling tractors. It has been one awesome truck and no plans of it going anywhere. It has been to Alabama twice, Illinois, Indiana and pretty much up and down east coast and up into Can. all while towing something.
Anyway the truck is not my winter project. Among many is the 1800 resto, 1850 needs some work before spring ground work, one of the moldboard plows needs some new points and other parts, have to re-bearing the disc, and we bought a new to us forklift that needs TLC before we can sell the old one. Going to be busy next few months.

rustred · Jan 5, 2019

nice truck! for a while I thought whats my truck doing there! lol. I have a red Duramax like that but I have 400,000 k on it now. I also have a red 2010 dodge challenger with 3800 k on it as clean as I drove it out of showroom.

Bryce Frazier · Jan 5, 2019

That is a truly gorgeous truck! I'm jelous!!

If you treat it that well, it will last you a life time. Buddys dad bought an LBZ dually brand new, and it just rolled 500,000 miles a couple months ago. Well maintained, and well used, but still going strong!

Bryce Frazier · Jan 5, 2019

I paid $4500 for the truck as it sits, which at the time was a pill to spend, but the engine and trans alone are worth more than that.

I feel like I should be able to have it completely rebuilt and on the road for about $10,000 total, and the market value of the truck around here is about $25,000.

I feel like I won't be finding out the sale price of the truck for a long time though!

Philip d · Jan 5, 2019

You?ll have a very nice ride for the money and time spent!

Philip d · Jan 5, 2019

Challengers are by far my favourite modern day muscle cars. Is yours an SRT?

NYOlivers · Jan 5, 2019

Thank you. Good luck with your project. What are you plans for the engine? It shouldn't be to hard to get it the HP and torque you want. I went with the Duramax tuner and the trans program for it. What a difference it makes with the shifting when pulling loads. The nice thing about the Dmax tuner is it uses all original GM pcm.

Royse · Jan 5, 2019

So, I have an honest question and not brand specific.
If the trucks are as great as claimed, why do they need "tuners"
and modifications from original? It reminds me of those cast "balls"
that people hang from under their trailer hitch. Didn't the truck
come with any to begin with?

I've built race engines and pulling tractor engines, so I get the
concept of adding more power to see what I can do to best an
opponent in a certain competition, but when I buy a truck to tow
what I need it to tow, I normally just buy a truck that will get the
job done without modification and still be under full warranty.

NYOlivers · Jan 5, 2019

Honestly the two main reasons I bought a tuner for my truck are: 1st is to help lower EGT's while towing heavy loads. One common problem with Duramax's is they make really high exhaust temps when pulling hard. There were also head gasket failures in earlier models, I wanted to try and lower the temps to prevent damage to heads and pistons. The 2nd is to take advantage of the exhaust brake function that the tuner provides for the truck. The turbo is capable of doing this from the factory but the engineers did not incorporate it in the stock programming until later models. Tuners and delete kits can honestly make a good truck a great truck, with all the emission and epa regulations it makes it hard to take full advantage of what one of these trucks can really do. That goes for all of the big three GM Ford and Dodge. On the other hand you can get really crazy with these aftermarket programmers and other parts and now pickup truck manufactures are really cracking down on any altering of these engines during the warranty period. Its just like anything there are people out there that take it to the extreme and have a lot of money to spend to blow black smoke and melt aluminum parts.

Royse · Jan 5, 2019

Thank you for the explanation NYOlivers.
As I said, not trying to be brand specific. As in any endeavor,
all brands have there good points and bad points. New and old.

When I bought my new truck last year, I opted for a gasser.
The additional upfront cost of the diesel, plus the $150 oil changes,
the DEF system changes/problems, turbo cool down requirements
etc. etc. etc. Plus the price of diesel for an added 3-4 MPG empty
just didn't seem worth it to me. If I towed for a living I could see
it, but for a guy who tows his tractors around occasionally and
maybe a camper in the near future, it didn't pencil out.

Whiskey Bent · Jan 5, 2019

Looks like a fun project! I’ve replaced prolly 10 frames on them, not a bad job.

SVcummins · Jan 5, 2019

A tuner will get you better mpg and more power who
Wouldn?t want better mpg on a truck that is 15 or
20 years old warranty is up so who cares . Our 98
one ton dually weighs 9500 pounds and gets 16
mpg With the tuner and 12 without it . A 98 also
didn?t come from the factory with a transmission
temperature gauge or fuel pressure gauge or egt
but they are nice to have on work truck anyway I
guess if you just use a truck as an expensive toy to
haul around other toys none of that matters

Royse · Jan 5, 2019

"I guess if you just use a truck as an expensive toy to haul around other toys none of that matters"

It seems you read a lot into my post that wasn't really there.
I asked NYOlivers a question and he answered my question.

I can understand wanting to get more fuel economy too. 4 MPG?
At the price of diesel here, you would save that by switching
to a gasser unless you tow with your truck almost constantly.

Traditional Farmer · Jan 6, 2019

I agree when I bought my F550 new with the diesel and 6 speed I bought what I needed.After I bought it I got a ton of ads from companies selling selling all sorts of things to increase HP,mileage etc.I left it just like it came figured the drive line was built for the way it came from the factory.It has been a great truck and I've spent very little on it in the way of repairs figure leaving it stock was one reason its given good service.People do the same thing with tractors add way more weight than it was designed for and turn up the HP and then declare it to be a piece of junk when they tear out transmissions and rears.What did they expect?

Bryce Frazier · Jan 6, 2019

I love them personally!

The truck in the background is a 2001 CrewDually, LB7 Duramax. I rebuilt that motor, and had the truck painted in town.

Currently it has a Sinister intake, 3"downpipe/5"exhaust/7"tip, and billet turbo compressor wheel.

Also has 5 EFI Live, on demand tunes. Step one is economy, of which I can easily hit 18 to the gallon on highway, all the way up to 5 being 225 addition horse power, which puts me at about 550 horses going to the ground.

In the 125 tune it will roast the rear duals like no tomorrow, not that that's good, but it will....

This is the truck with about 5500lbs of fertilizer in the bed this past spring.

Bryce Frazier · Jan 6, 2019

We are going to do ARP main and rod bolts, along with ARP head studs and high performance gaskets. I am also going with an aftermark Y Bridge intake, and doing an EGR delete with a high flow pipe in its place. The injectors will be removed and I'll put %30 over tips on them. After all of that, I have a set of RidgeRunner max effort EFI Live tunes, so i'll have 5 tunes to choose from, all on demand. She should lay down the power pretty good, unfortunately, the Allison won't be loving it.....

SVcummins · Jan 6, 2019

You said you don?t use your truck to haul regularly not me and you guys who say save money with a gas engine Is that new math they teach now ? And where do you get a 150$ oil changes I do the work myself using shell synthetic oil I run 15000 mile oil change intervals and it costs less than 90$ I went with the 15000 mile oil change based on results from caterpillar oil analysis I could easily go 30,000 . Work has an f350 gas with 8 speed automatic it gets 9 mpg and weighs 8500 pounds so how much less would it get carrying another 1200 pounds and a 2 more doors ?

SVcummins · Jan 6, 2019

400,000 miles at 16 mpg cost 81,250$ At 3.29
400,000 miles at 9 mpg 128,444$ At 2.89$
Where?s that savings again ?

SVcummins · Jan 6, 2019

I wouldn?t want to own anything with a story like behind it no matter what it was

Royse · Jan 6, 2019

It's not new math, it's simple math. I can have the dealer change
my synthetic oil, filter, run a free diagnostic check on the entire
system, check all the lights, tires, brakes, TEST and top off all
fluids. $35. At the dealership. Not a private business.
My time invested is setting in the driver's seat watching the
"mechanics" do the work on camera so I can see what they do.
$90 at home plus my time without all the extras?

I talked to a gentleman this morning at brunch. He has basically
the same truck I do but with the diesel. He commutes out of state
continuously for his job and hauls a 40 foot camper to live in.
Many of the places he travels to requires traveling over mountains.

I think he makes a good case for paying the extra for the diesel
engine and it's maintenance. He did mention that the DEF changes
could be quite an issue if you didn't plan accordingly.

Diesel here is about 50 cents per gallon more than gas.
His truck gets, on average, 3 MPG more than my gasser.
Not 9 compared to 16.
And, as of yet, we haven't even figured in the cost of the tuner
and all the other modifications to get a truck to that point.

I have no beef against the diesel truck, or the guys that own
them, other than those idiots with the 12 inch stacks "rolling
coal" just to prove how much money they spent on an already
too expensive truck that they never use at all.

SVcummins · Jan 7, 2019

I can?t stamf the big stack guys either and I try to to
keep my truck as quiet as possible all that noise
gets real old when you?re working a truck all day
that?s for sure . Diesel doesn?t make sense for
everyone but if your going to run it awhile and pull
and haul heavy regularly I sure like em that and I
can fix a diesel don?t know much about fixing a gas

Winter Projects Anyone?

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