Buying a used Diesel Truck

OP,

Please note that anyone of the few who had overheating with a 2004.5 or 2005 GM D/A LLY engine can make the fix for less than $100 to $150. It took a certain combination of circumstances to make them over heat. Pulling long grades near the max or over the max weight trailer at higher thinner air altitude on a very hot 95+ degree day with the pedal to the metal and then only a small percentage of the LLY's would overheat. The likelyhood of overheat with an LLY is very low and most by far have never seen it happen or come close to happening. There has been thread after thread on the many forums and only a few have complained about it while the vast majority of LLY owners had posted that it had never happened to their LLY. It was a vastly overblown possibility of occurrance mainly by loyalist blowhards of another brand of diesel pickup who didn't even own an LLY. You can search the various forums and see it clearly and in black and white on your own puter screen!

We have a Chevy 2004.5 D/A LLY and have pulled our 12,840 lb scale weighed 5th wheel with a 106 gallon, 100 gal usable filled aux diesel tank in the truck bed over the rockies several times in very hot summer temps and all over the smokies and the USA and Canada and never seen the temp over 210. Weight with the 5th wheel is 21,842 lbs scale weighed total rig weight with wife, our siberian husky. and I plus 2 boxes of tools on the back folded down seat of our crew cab long box 4X4. Normal engine temp is 190 and 260 is overheated per the truck's glove box manual. Our truck is total OEM as built under the hood and it's never had any repairs or needed any on the entire truck other than a couple burned out light bulbs, replaced the front brake pads at over 120,000 and they still had about 1/3 pad left, and tires of course. Truck will hit 150,000 on our way back home to Michigan from Florida where we are. The truck is only used for RVing with the 5th wheel or our 11'4" Lance truck camper on the back. We have other vehicles and are long retired so it's not a daily driver.

Injector problems were with the early LB7 engines Approx 2001-early 2003 which is before the LLY. GM extended the warranty on LB7 engines injectors to 7 years or 200,000 miles, which ever comes first. Most had already been replaced under warranty but some never needed it or were not done yet because of no problems with their injectors.

this may or may not help you.

my son just bought a 05 hd2500 silverado 4wd extended cab dura max with 160,000 miles. truck is in very clean shape in side and out. he got it for a daily driver to cut the miles down on his 09.

needs tires and thats it for $11000.

My 6.0 was one of the most reliable trucks i ever had. I had 2 7.3's that left me stranded as well as a late model Dodge. My current GMC has been good. I say its a gamble no mattter what you buy.

This should have included the older 94-97 Turbo Trucks, They have better or equal payload numbers than the Super Duty version because they were lighter, Ford did not update weight labels in 99 and 2000 trucks and will show low payload numbers. 99 and up are easier to tune with tuner and have intercooler.

Better - 1999 - 2003 Ford 7.3L Powerstroke. Work horses! The transmissions on these are not as tough as the Chevy Duramax Allison transmissions. If you buy a higher mileage used 7.3 powerstroke plan on a transmission rebuild. Get a quality transmission rebuild with towing parts and the transmissions can be made pretty much bullet Proof.

Hi Ric, I actually agree. My superduty had a V10.

I'm not shopping for a diesel and was trying to give a scenario where I would consider it. My next one will probably have a gas motor or a later model Duramax or Cummins if money gets better (I.e plus 20k truck). And this is all if I need a HD truck

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Here is what I think is a great summary that I found on this forum some time ago when I was looking for a used vehicle. I take no credit for the content, but can't give credit where credit is due because I don't remember who the original author was... I just kept the info for reference. So having said that, here ya go...

Best - 2006 - 2007 Chevy/GMC 6.6L Duramax. 2008 on up have extra emissions equipment that will lower mpg but are also excellent engines and transmissions with a lot less diesel exhaust smell. 3/4 ton 2500 vs 1 ton 3500 single rear wheel axle models only differ in an extra leaf in the rear spring pack on the 3500. Otherwise the frames, drivetrain, axles, gearing, cabs and everything else is identical. 2005 and prior Duramaxes have 5 speed Allison transmissions instead of the 6 speed Allison in the newer models and the engines were a bit more problematic. Early Duramaxes 2003 and prior were known for Fuel Injector problems. 04 and 05 models may have overheating issues when towing very heavy loads. In 2006 Chevy made a number of design changes to beef up their already excellent Duramax diesels and made them considerably more powerful/torquey as well as adding the 6th gear to the transmission.

Better - 1999 - 2003 Ford 7.3L Powerstroke. Work horses! The transmissions on these are not as tough as the Chevy Duramax Allison transmissions. If you buy a higher mileage used 7.3 powerstroke plan on a transmission rebuild. Get a quality transmission rebuild with towing parts and the transmissions can be made pretty much bullet Proof.

Better - 2003 - 2004 Dodge 5.9L Cummins. These are inline 6 cylinder engines opposed to the Ford and Chevy V8 cylinder Diesels. Less parts = less to go wrong. Excellent power potential on these engines and probably the best most rugged engine ever put in a Pickup. The Cummins 5.9l is simply a legendary diesel! Like the Ford 7.3's plan on rebuilding the transmissions on higher mileage trucks.

Old but excellent - 1996 - 1998 Dodge Cummins. Similar engine to the 2003 - 2004 Cummins but less refined. These are mechanically injected engines versus the newer electronically injected engines. The simplicity of these engines are prefered by many. As with the Ford and newer Dodges plan on a transmission rebuild when the miles get up there.

Wimpy - GM 6.2 Diesel engines. Only slightly better are the GM 6.5 Diesel engines. Neither are very efficient or powerful engines. Thank god GM did not design the Duramax engines... they got Isuzu to do that for them. With the debut of the Duramaxes GM went from the bottom of the gutter up to the top of the heap while Ford was going from a great Diesel engine (designed by International) to one of the worst Diesel engines.

Worst - Ford 6.0L Powerstroke diesels. Lots of problems! I found many older 7.3L Powerstroke diesels commanding higher prices than comparable mileage 6.0L Fords. I had intended to buy a 7.3L Powerstroke but found that they command such a premium price that a Duramax was a better choice for me.

In 2008 new EPA regulations restricted the pollutants that diesel engines could emit. All manufacturers had to make changes to their engines to accommodate these regulations. Every manufacturer added diesel particulate filters (DPF's) to the exhaust paths of their engines. These DPF's build up the unburnt particles in the diesel exhaust and plug up. The engine control routinely burns off these particles by injecting diesel fuel or Urea into the DPF to raise the temperature in the DPF and burn up the trapped particles. This cleansing process either burns diesel and lowers mpg or Urea which has to be replenished periodically. This is comparable to the mandate of catalytic converters in the 70's. Eventually DPF's will be improved and be more efficient resulting in less effect on the performance of the engine.

I recently purchased a 2006 Chevy Duramax 2500HD crew cab long bed and love it. If I ever need the extra payload capacity of a 1 ton I will add air bags which will give me the payload capacity of a 3500 with the unloaded ride of the 2500. I test drove a 3500 dually and the streets were suddenly very small and very narrow. If I could have made do with a short bed I would have been all over a Dodge Mega Cab with the legendary 5.9 Cummins engine to get the expansive cab with all the extra rear seat room.

Some good reading: http://www.dieselpowermag.com/features/1........_10_best_used_diesel_trucks/viewall.html

P.S. The suggestion to plan on rebuilding transmissions are based on Automatic transmissions. Manual transmissions are usually less prone to internal wear and problems and generally only require periodic clutch replacement.

*Disclaimer: These are just my humble opinions!

...after having a 6.0 Ford diesel that was completely "bulletproofed", 15,000 miles later it failed again...on the road...again...700 miles away from home...again...

Maybe some here can comfortably leave home on a long trip while driving a known ticking time bomb, but I was so tired of waiting and worrying about the next trip killing 6.0 disaster...it took the fun out of driving the truck...

Yes, you can buy one cheap...why is that?...and also, why jump into that fire when there are proven alternatives out there to choose from...Jeremy says "The 6.0 diesel is a GREAT driving motor when it's running right" and I would agree...but it runs "wrong" too often for me...JMO YMMV

Regards

If I were in the market for a diesel and I had 20k in hand I would....repeat...would consider a 6.0 Crew Cab Super Duty F350 Dually lariat.... But only if I could get the truck for 10-13k. I would then bulletproof the motor with the left over cash.

The 6.0 has a fantastic transmission and the 05-07 trucks were very comfy rides.

At minimum on a 6.0 I would do head studs, BPD EGR cooler, BPD Oil Cooler, coolant filter, clean or replace the turbo, find and replace the bad injectors, and add a OBDII monitoring system to keep check on the coolant and oil temps.

The Rams and the Chevys of the early to Mid 2000's had somewhat cramped back seats on the crew cabs. The Superduty was the clear winner for me due to the rear seat space.

The 6.0 diesel is a GREAT driving motor when it's running right. It's quieter than a 7.3 or a 5.9 but you still know you are driving a diesel.... Unlike today's diesel trucks that sound very quiet.. It's reasonably powerful and gets decent fuel economy.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

100,000 miles isn't bad on a diesel. I have 179,000 on my '03 Ford 6.0 that I got cheap. I can do a lot of fixing for the difference in price for a new truck. All seems to be well so far. It is an old school engine that needs to be run like a diesel. Let it idle for a bit before you take out and before you shut it down. I keep its services up to date too.

Your $20000 budget is going to limit your choices considerably unless you go high mileage...or take a gamble on a 6.0 Ford...

The Ford 6.0 is an engine to stay away from if you are looking for a truck...now if you already have one, you have taken the big hit and need to do modifications that are well documented to try to make the engine at least tolerable...there are many reasons that these trucks sell for thousands less than the competition...

The 6.4 Ford has a mixed bag of owners with opinions. It is likely better than the 6.0 but comes with it's own expensive common and documented repair possibilities...it is the stoutest built Ford and responds quite well to performance programming...some say it makes more reliable tuned horsepower than any others...

The Dodge diesels have been quite reliable for several years...and the truck quality has improved substantially...early 6.7 had some teething issues but most of these have been resolved...the later models are fine trucks but are well above your budget...

That leaves the GM twins and the DuraMax/Allison combination...research will show that the pre 2006 DuraMax has had some issues. 2005 and earlier models have had injector failure issues that is expensive to repair...but most of these have been replaced by now...there were also some trucks that had overheating issues when pushed hard...the jury is out on how widespread of a problem it is...

Then there is the 2006/early 2007 LLY and LBZ series engines. Although they have different model designations, for all practical purposes a LLY is a detuned LBZ, many of us believe these are the "Gold Standard" for used diesel pickups(for my fan club, please note I wrote "used":B). If one doubts this fact, just look at the "rising" prices for these trucks even as they age. Are they perfect, probably not, but their track record speaks for itself. Solid performance with minimal emission controls, an industry standard Allison transmission and reasonably good fuel mileage. It may be hard to find even a high mileage truck for much less than your budget...It took me 3 months and two lost deals because I thought about it too long before I bought mine...just the market place facts...

Good luck in your search...

Regards