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Old 12-03-2013, 12:10 PM   #21
SAABDOCTOR
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BLUEWATER That saying is from Pratt and Whitney " No replacement for displacement". and now it's In thrust we trust" or bigger better faster more!! I wish my 05 dodge 3500 had the allison trany!
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Old 08-04-2014, 07:17 PM   #22
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pushed to the MAX

Jumped off the fence and landed on the diesel side. Found a 2011 duramax quad cab with 26K miles private so did not pay the dealer.

LOVE the truck. Way better mileage. Loaded beats my 5.3 empty .
Looking to get more yet after a tune. . . probably an EFI Live set.
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Old 08-05-2014, 02:13 PM   #23
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I'm currently selling my 2005 chevy 2500HD with a very thirsty 6.0 to buy a gmc 2500hd crew cab with a duramax. I cant wait!!!
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Old 08-26-2014, 06:16 PM   #24
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Duramax - the right choice

Pretty sure I made the right choice. About 11.3 mpg at 73mph on the interstate with the TT. Great ride, cruise control worked great, just sit back and take pleasure to drive rather than work at driving with the old truck.

Next step will be to find a tuner and drop in a tune and increase the mpg. Any ideas? Have you done it? DEF delete?
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Old 08-26-2014, 06:26 PM   #25
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6.6 Duramax or 6.0 gasser? in 3/4 ton.

Almost every truck I've seen that has a tuner also has to have work done to it, injectors, transmissions, turbos, fuel rails. Of course it could be those owners are trying to get sportscar numbers out of machine designed to tow and haul, thus causing premature wear.

I do know this, a unmodified duramax brings stupid money, while one that's been "upgraded" is much harder to sell.

I have DEF on mine and I get 23mpg highway, 17 city with no trailer. I get 12mpg towing a 12500# fifth wheel. Bone stock.

I spent a lot of time reading the duramax forums and all those guys are constantly fixing things after altering it.


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Old 08-26-2014, 06:30 PM   #26
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No question, Diesel is the way to go. Had the Chevy 8.1 gasser and we watched the mile per gallon in the fuel display. Now it's a 6.6 Duramax with Allison Tranny. Happy Pulling for sure.
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Old 08-26-2014, 06:34 PM   #27
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I went from an F250 with a 460 on steroids to an F350 DRW with a turbo'd IDI.

From 7 MPG and not able to use A/C for fear of overheating, to 11MPG and A/C blasting in 100 degree weather....DIESEL is the way to go.
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Old 08-27-2014, 02:58 AM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geeman View Post
Pretty sure I made the right choice. About 11.3 mpg at 73mph on the interstate with the TT. Great ride, cruise control worked great, just sit back and take pleasure to drive rather than work at driving with the old truck.

Next step will be to find a tuner and drop in a tune and increase the mpg. Any ideas? Have you done it? DEF delete?
You will have trouble finding a tuner for the 2011. Federal regulations made the manufacturers restrict these. I looked as well and finally gave up. My dad has an 06 with a tuner, but he seldom takes it out of stock setting. He spent a lot of $$$ for a tuner (Bully Dog), EGR delete, 5" exhaust......gained 1-2 mpg. Going to have to run a lot of miles to get his money back and now the Allison runs about 15-20 degrees higher than it used to. Now he's wishing he hadn't done anything to it. The tuners simply increase torque so you use less pedal, they say they increase to optimum, I'm not convinced. The Dmax/Allison pair you now have work pretty damn good together, I wouldn't mess with a happy marriage. As for the DEF delete...again bang for buck just doesn't seem to be there. I've heard of people doing it with very little gain. I just dump $15 worth of DEF in every 4-5,000 miles. Not a big deal to me. Trust me, I have trouble leaving things stock and I've looked at a lot of options/possibilities. I thought about Banks cold air intake, FASS fuel filter setups....you name it. After a lot of research, I've found there isn't much you can do to "improve" the stock set up. I will add the FASS just for finer filtration, but that's probably as far as I'll go. I have added the Mag-Hytec trans and diff covers. If you read up in the diesel forums there is a guy that used to work for Allison out there. He recommends switching fluids to Transynd (double change method). Put the deep pan on with new internal filter, do a Transynd change, swap out the external filter (use only Allison filter) every 40-50K and you're good for 150K on the fluid. I have done this to both of my Dmaxs, have trouble getting the tranny over 170 degrees, even towing 15k through some pretty good inclines. BTW, the last trip to Branson, MO....I was towing 15k, my tranny hit 167, my dad towing 11k with all of his mods was up to 203. He's getting ready to do the deep pan/Transynd swap, will see how much it helps. Sorry for the long post.
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Old 08-27-2014, 03:31 AM   #29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geeman View Post

Next step will be to find a tuner and drop in a tune and increase the mpg. Any ideas? Have you done it? DEF delete?


I threw a Banks Ram Air intake at my '13 LML and the only thing I noticed is cooler air temps. I have an Edge CTS Insight so that I can watch how things are going and the Intake air temps dropped 50 degrees. There was NO gain in MPG! There are stories about some deleting and tuning to get 23-25 on the highway empty...but I'm with Brent and don't believe it.

There is a tuner for an UN-Deleted LML http://duramaxtuner.com/lml/tuning.html
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Old 08-28-2014, 04:44 AM   #30
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duramax tuner

My son has a deleted 2006.5 with EFI Live and Longhorn Tunes, CAI, 5" exhaust. He pulls my trailer at 15-16mpg and 23-26+ empty where I get about 11.1 and 19-20 empty.

I do realize it would take forever to pay for the tricks but would be good to start the savings right away if this is where I go too

Have heard the Fass pump is a good thing too for the micron filters. Some say better mpg due to plenty of fuel at the injector but most debunk that, just better filtration.

Will do the Nicktane oil filter change out to run cheaper better over the counter filters.
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Old 09-02-2014, 09:56 PM   #31
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I have a 2013 3500 DRW Coal Burner. I am super satisfied and happy I went diesel. The extra 8000 dollars at purchase time virtually stays with the truck forever on resale.
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Old 09-02-2014, 10:49 PM   #32
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Pulled same 5th wheel with a 2500 6L and now a Duramax. 10 mpg Imp to 14 mpg, and no stress, always on cruise, truck does not feel the trailer. No regrets at all.
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