3.0L Duramax teardown
Interesting video (46 min long) of a teardown of a 3.0L Duramax that failed at 146,000 miles.VIDEO
Forum Discussion
The owner of that truck must have been really ignorant to ignore a low oil warning for that long. I would think that the difference in oil level between a warning light and catastrophic engine failure would be pretty significant. The guy in the video seemed to think that the timing chain tensioner depended on oil pressure to maintain tension, and when oil pressure was lost the chain loosened, resulting in the Mickey Mouse ears permanently imprinted in the top of the pistons. Not sure how that would explain the grenaded rod bearing though. Either way, I guess this is what happens when you never bother changing or even checking the oil.
If that is actually the case, 146k ain’t bad for a high tech, high revving, relatively high performance engine with sub par maintenance. Can’t watch 46min of something so mundane to see how rj deduced this. But can say we have a fleet of 3.0s dating back to 2019 models, some with well over 100k and the owner keeps buying them due to their reliability combined with stellar fuel mileage.
GM has the floor now. If they’re not cranking out as many of them as they can, they’re on crack. No competition and same power and 10mpg better than equivalent gassers is a winning combo. They also have the short trip regen figured out.
I like simple and these aren’t, but if I was buying a new half ton tomorrow it would be one of these. Hands down.
