New to me Dura

[POWDR]

I just went out and traded in my 08 F150 SCREW with 6'6" bed. I loved it. Brand new dodge half ton hooked up to a lighter load than me tongue and overall and that thing SAGGED and was gutless. My buddies chev, same year half ton- same thing. My F150 was great at towing for a gas half. Blew away the other two. No Tundra comparison. I loved that truck. However, I felt the tranny and T-case were about to go.

I traded in for a 05 duramax crew with same length bed. 45000 more miles and three years older leather F was cloth. Monthly payment stayed the same and I feel I got a deal.

Has a 4 inch lift and nothing else I can see. Maybe had a gauge pod (there is a nipple on the pillar) so maybe a programmer also. No intake or exhaust mods.

I came around full circle as my first truck as a kiddo was an old Izuzu diesel 2 wheel pickup. I loved that engine and couldn't kill it.

So it's on! Snow isn't great so I think it is now time to mod my dura.

I know a bunch of the regular mods and what I am thinking, but let me hear what you would do first?

Cheapest mod?

Most expensive?

Safest mods?

Most rediculous, useless mod?

Best performance mod?

Others?

Sned it!

 

[Vern]

there are a few must haves for the 05 lly dmax if they haven't been done like upgrading to the lbz turbo mouthpeice or equivelent aftermarket mouthpiece like afe bladerunner, etc.. lbz version is cheaper but requires slight modifications to the intake tubing from the airbox. the stock turbo mouthpiece(inlet) is a bit restrictive. reroute the pcv hose so it doesn't go into the turbo, stock it allows the turbo to suck oil out of the pcv hose and into the turbo, boost tubes, and intercooler. and a $10 egr blocker plate to keep the nasty soot from recerculating back into the motor.

those are the first recomendations for an lly, some things you may want to know is the 04.5-05 lly have a reputation for overheating when towing heavy and also blowing headgaskets. these two things are kind of a hit and miss deal with some having the issues and some not, but thought i'd bring it up. if it turns out to be a cronic overheater there are auxilary radiater kits that fix that issue right up.

after getting the basics done it all depends on the wallet for performance upgrades, built tranny, tuning, turbos etc. the wallets the limit. as far as tuning goes efi live is the number one choice for the dmax, there are a few tranny builders out there that know how to make the allison hold up real nice, turbos go from small single turbo upgrades to EPR triple turbo setups which i'd like to have.

a good place for dmax info is dieselplace.com, lots of top notch dmax guys there. i have an 05 dmax and have got lots of help/info from there.

 

[cjfox]

EFI live hands down don't waste your time with other tunners they custom build to what you want and can do it safe and reliable, edge cts is in my eyes the best bang for your buck gauge wise you can have endless combos of viewing I think I paid around 4 for mine, at the time it was way cheaper and easier than the pillar setup, tranny just depends on how crazy you get with the tunes. Can get a co pilot from ats to boost line pressure and help the stock and then if you ever decide to go aftermarket you can swap it right over. Fuel system is a must with any tuner if you want clean smooth shift with out de fueling. This is all just from my past experience and .02 but efi hands down!!! And go pro mount to record all those dodges and fords you blow off the road!! And can't forget about about those ecoboost I was told my neighbor could out pull my dmax even tho I got a couple extra hundered HP and a hella lot more torque!

 

[carlc]

I have an egr block off plate and the simulator to keep the check engine light off. Pm me if you want it. It will be cheap


Sent from my iPhone via magic!

 

[POWDR]

Thanks fellas. Hey Vern. You are fairly close to me. Any chance you would want to help me wrench amd upgrade?

 

[Burn Down]

I agree with Vern pretty much except for the Head gasket issues and the Diesel Place. Headgaskets were a problem on the 01' engines (LB7), gm had the gaskets fixed long before 05' and Duramax Diesels has more tech and performance info then Dp... http://www.duramaxdiesels.com/? Over heating is hit or miss. My 04.5 LLY has never overheated even when I had it in Nevada & Idaho...

Good choice for a truck though. Enjoy!

 

[POWDR]

I have yet to research so I am just throwing this one out there. Is there an easy way for me to tell if and EGR block has been done? Anyone have pics. I really don't even know where to look for the EGR so I couldn't even say for sure if a delete has happened. This is the first thing I want to take care of.

 

[Vern]

headgaskets were blown on my 05 when i bought it with 120k on the clock and it was bone stock. may not be a common issue, but i have heard of quite a few instances for gaskets going on the lly. some say it has to do with the overheating issues with some of the llys. not trying to scare anyone, or saying these are bad engines cuz i love my truck just sayin it may be something to keep an eye on. and if it does happen a set of headstuds with new gaskets will stop it from happening again. ive never checked out duramaxdiesels or whatever you said, but I've had good luck and learned quite a bit from dp.

powdr-where u located? I'm no dmax expert by any means, just a bit of a backyard mechanic. me and 3 friends all ended up with dmaxs, so I've done a bit of interweb research to get somewhat up to speed.

 

[Vern]

the egr valve sits right above the passenger valve cover right under where the boost tube connects to the engine. from that there is a metal tube about 2"ish diameter that runs back towards the firewall this is the egr cooler. at the very back of that is where the exhaust tube from the up pipe connects to the cooler. the blocker plates are just a metal plate that sandwich between the exhaust tube and egr cooler. most blocker plates have a little tab for a handle that sticks out from between the connection so i guess u could look for that.

 

[revrider07]

Head gaskets are very common in my area after 120000 miles its going to happen if your pulling any loads. I know of at least 10 of them needing head gaskets. Most of these trucks were stock and worked everyday. Great truck though I like gm but own a new ford now.

 

[ndC7M8]

EGR delete & EFI Live would be a good mod for economy and some fun. Maybe a 4" exhaust and cold air intake after that if you wanted.

 

[POWDR]

Thanks for the info guys. I am not too excited about possible head gasket issues. However, I did purchase from a dealer and got their 2 year 40000 mile warrantee. Covers engine and drivetrain. They have been pretty nice so far.

They are going to let me buy new rubber at cost when the time comes and same for wheels and i asked if I could get a bambi bumper at cost also and they agreed.

I actuall think a u-joint or wheel bearing might be going/gone and they are going to cover. I feel like I did pretty good

As far as piping goes. I was thinking 4 or 5 inch turbo back srtaight (no emmissions here in Heber)

Is EFI Live going to work for someone with no tuning experience. I remeber checking out a while ago and will again, but is it something I program myself or can I get maps from an expert?

 

[POWDR]

How about an H&S tuner? I have heard good things about them?


EDIT:never mind no H$S for lly

 

[machinest660]

EFI live with tunes from idaho rob, 5" exhaust and a edge cts for gauges and just drive the hell outa it, Dont waste your time with other chips or programers. Good luck and enjoy your new truck.

 

[POWDR]

Ok first thing is going to be the AFE turbo mouth piece.

Looks like it has an ATS exhaust of some kind. Seems to be a 4 inch but has a cat and ATS muffler with a 5 inch magnaflow tip.

I guess I will keep that for now, but maybe try and find a cat and muffler delete pipe.

Next will be EFI Live. What do you think about an intake? Is it going to gain me anything more than noise? I like what I have read about the AFE CAI. Toughts?

Oh yeah, and an ATS tranny controller. Thoughts on this?

 

[Vern]

the cat and muffler delete should help with egts and maybe mpgs a bit. I'm running a 4" turbo back and it does just fine but if you delete the cat/muffler hope you like turbo noise, the lly has lotsa turbo noise when strait piped i don't mind but some do.

there's some good tuners out there that can help with efi tunes. epr(extreme prejudice racing) is in the salt lake area somewheres and they got a good reputation with dmax work.

the stock intake is supposedly good for 500-550 HP so unless your goin big or just want the noise it may not be worth it. i just run an s&b filter and sealed the stock box to the fender and intake air temps are within a couple degrees of ambient.

 

[POWDR]

Turbo noise is good for me so I think I will delete. I do like the big rumble of diesel also. Would a 5" give me more of that?

 

[Vern]

the 04.5 and newer dmaxs are pretty much all turbo noise due to the variable vane turbo where as the 01-04 dmax are all rumble and no turbo noise. the 5" may make it a bit deeper but probably still lotsa turbo noise. however, with efi live you can tinker wth the vane position to make it more rumbly at idle but can affect driveability if u don't let the vanes close once you start moving or something along those lines.

 

[Fearless Catman]

EFI live with tunes from idaho rob, 5" exhaust and a edge cts for gauges and just drive the hell outa it, Dont waste your time with other chips or programers. Good luck and enjoy your new truck.

Agreed. I have EFI live on mine with the 5 DSP switch. Best money I ever spent. Dont know why I wasted all my time and alot of my buddies when the EFI Live was out in front of us the whole time. There's a reason they cost more than simple tuners.

 

[merlin2569]

Here are the mods I did to my 05 Duramax in the order I did them.
-AFE Air Intake and MBRP 4" Turbo back exhaust
-Edge Juice w/ attitude and CTS Monitor. CTS is awesome for monitoring any and all functions going on with your truck.
-Sinister Diesel EGR Delete. Didn't think this would make as much difference as it did, but the truck just ran better with that thing out of there
-AFE Turbo mouthpiece
-AFE Intercooler tubes both drivers and passenger side

Overall very happy with the performance of the truck.