Not brand bashing, just letting everyone know how my day's going.

Hey guys. All morning I have been tearing apart a 17K mile 2005 Duramax truck. Why?, you ask. Well, I'll tell you.

Crank no start is the concern.

Has fuel (to injectors), has compression, cranks good.
Has a code.....for crankshaft position sensor performance.

Go looking for electrical gremlins or a bad sensor: all checks out good.

Turns out the reluctor wheel on the front of the crankshaft spins freely on the crankshaft. Isuzu didn't loctite the bolts that hold the reluctor wheel onto the main drive gear. I guess the engineers figured that diesel engines don't vibrate.

Here's a list of what has to come off to change this small part and install new loctited bolts:

Transfer case
Transmission
Flexplate
Front differential
Oil pan
Harmonic balancer
Front cover
All ancilliary stuff that goes with the front cover

3.8 Hours into it and all that's in the frame is the rear differential and an engine without an oil pan and balancer. I still have the front cover to take off...... UGH!!! I hate warranty stuff (It only pays about 1/2 of the time it'sll actually take you to do it).

Then when I'm in there I'm supposed to change the cam drive gear and the oil pump drive gear as well as the crank gear.

Watch out for the LLY!!!

Cody

 

Almost makes you wonder if the new motors are to sophisticated for their own good....

 

I'm taking my camera to work today so that I can show you what failed and how much stuff actually HAS to come out just to change it.

Then I'm going to take one special picture with all the stuff around me and "BIRDIE" and I'm going to e-mail it to "Uncle General".

It's stupid....really it is. I think it was designed by fourth-generation inbred howler monkeys on barbituates!!!


Cody

 

Is this repair the exception or the rule?

Around here the engine is known as the "Durasux" for the other issues associated with the motor. That being said, about 75% of the trucks going down the line have D-max badges on the doors, so the public doesn't seem to care.

 

Hey, stupid question..but I haven't been keeping up with the GM stuff lately. What is the LLY engine? Differences from previous DuraMax? Is it mechanically different?

 

dmp437,
This IS the repair. Evidently this has happened before on a few other LLY Duramaxes. The oil pan has to come off to extract the bolts that fall out of the reluctor and also to get the front cover off. Unfortunately, the transmission and flexplate have to come off too because there are two bolts that come into the oil pan from behind through the bellhousing adapter.

WXboy,
The LB7 was the first designation of the "Duramax". There was nothing wrong with them except the injector issues they had. Basically the only differences between the 01-04.5 LB7 (VIN 1) and the 04.5-present LLY (VIN 2) are the heads (for different injectors), turbocharger (went to a variable vane style like the 6.0 Ford), and a few electronics changes.

A lot of people who owned the first-gen D-maxes and went to the new ones complain of worse mileage.....up the power and that's what happens. They do run well and I'm surprised to see that since the introduction of the Isuzu diesel, we at our dealership have yet to replace an engine.

Cody

 

It's easier to change the injectors of the LLY. With that said - even though they bumped power over time they added egr and some other things that have robbed the motor of some power. Just my obsevations

 

WXboy,

Last time I heard from you. you had just purchased a Dodge 1/2? Now that you have time in the thing. What are your impressions - good, bad or indiffeant?

 

You have memory like a steel trap....

 

cody
sounds as bad as a vw suv. they have a water cooled alternator! to change it you have to put the suv on a lift and remove the engine and trans/transfer from under it along with the sub frames on this big dolly, roll it all out from under then spend 4 hours more r and i'ing the alternator , the last one took me 3 days . warrenty time 6 hours . for get the twin turbo v10 tdi it's worse to work on. who writes these books and thinks we can do it in that time .

 

Man o Man Cody maybe next time they will locktite the bolts. I hope not every 2005 is like that youll be a busy man for a long time an not making much money to boot. Any pics yet of this. Sounds like a commom complaint about the 6.0. Less fuel mileage then the old 7.3. More power equals less mileage.

 

My impression was the 6.0 was doing better on fuel than the 7.3. The only complaint I kept hearing was lack of low end grunt compared to the 7.3.

 

Charlie, you shouldn't ask those kind of incriminating questions

 

My 6liter gets better on the highway, and worse in town, and i feel that is due to the lack of lowend, i am in the pedal more when taking off. I am comparing this to my moms superduty, and my 7.3L is far from stock, the 6liter has a exhaust and a tuner, 7.3L is stock

 

G.m. has a technical service bulletin on this concern for reluctor bolts coming loose (I am a Tech at a g.m./chrysler dealer).