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Duramax Diesel Conversion


rustie

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Anybody hear of anyone swapping out their gas hog for a Duramax Diesel?

Seems an absolute natural. My 2008 Sierra HD Duramax 2500 gets 20 ~ 22mpg (100% highway), but has been reprogrammed with 580HP and 1100+ ftlbs torque. Damn thing will light up the rear tires from a standing stop in 2WD (not even brake torquing)....and absolutely LAUNCH when in 4WD (had to replace the steering rods w/HD aftermarket units already). Also had to rebuild the tranny with a Stage-2 from Inglewood Trans. But absolutely terrorize the local tuners....haven't been beat yet....

Unbelievable amount of power, yet drives sedately when treated softly on the accelerator.....and absolutely gets nasty/angry when pushed (the exhaust note is a LOUD, WOOOSSSSHHHH !!!)

As long as enough room is available (like in a 247 LSV), this swap would literally create a very high fuel mileage boat with a "Jekyll & Hyde" personality. There wouldn't be anything it couldn't pull.

Only problem...you'd likely need a trailer mounted fuel tank (bringing your own fuel with you), and props might not last all that long......

One major consolation...if the throttle was treated lightly, your fuel tanks would probably last two or more days!!! You might not even need to refuel on short vacations.

Edited by rustie
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If you're willing to drop the coin to do the swap go for it. My guess is that it would cost upwards of $15K. Don't think you'd have to swap anything other than the motor (other than electrical/computer), the tranny and v-drive units should be able to handle the power given they are the same ones infront of the 8.1L.

Edited by 06vlx
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Anybody hear of anyone swapping out their gas hog for a Duramax Diesel?

Seems an absolute natural. My 2008 Sierra HD Duramax 2500 gets 20 ~ 22mpg (100% highway), but has been reprogrammed with 580HP and 1100+ ftlbs torque. Damn thing will light up the rear tires from a standing stop in 2WD (not even brake torquing)....and absolutely LAUNCH when in 4WD (had to replace the steering rods w/HD aftermarket units already). Also had to rebuild the tranny with a Stage-2 from Inglewood Trans. But absolutely terrorize the local tuners....haven't been beat yet....

Unbelievable amount of power, yet drives sedately when treated softly on the accelerator.....and absolutely gets nasty/angry when pushed (the exhaust note is a LOUD, WOOOSSSSHHHH !!!)

As long as enough room is available (like in a 247 LSV), this swap would literally create a very high fuel mileage boat with a "Jekyll & Hyde" personality. There wouldn't be anything it couldn't pull.

Only problem...you'd likely need a trailer mounted fuel tank (bringing your own fuel with you), and props might not last all that long......

One major consolation...if the throttle was treated lightly, your fuel tanks would probably last two or more days!!! You might not even need to refuel on short vacations.

Which programmer are you running?

Edited by 06vlx
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That just sounds wrong on so many levels to me. I deal in diesels, and while you could do the conversion if you throw enough money at it, it will give you all kinds of installation problems. For example, where are you going to mount the 3'x5' intercooler? You can't run without it. Is the engine built to run on coolant temps under 100*? What about the torque curve? Will the V-drive trannies handle 600lbft of torque? Electronics/harness?...That is a whole other mess of problems.

I say there is no way you can get this done for under $30k...plus the price of the boat. Even when you were done, it wouldnt be like smoking tires at 40mph. And fuel savings? That makes no sense after laying out the money for the engine etc.

You would be better off just putting a blower on a a gas motor.

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Oh BTW, Cummins is the eaiset swap to jam into any vehicle because it is a simple engine (relatively speaking) GM dealers dont even know how to properly work on a Duramax.

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I wouldn't want all that soot going into the lake. Plus, surfing behind a diesel would be downright nasty stanky. Would be sweet to see what kind of launch you could get out of a boat with a whopping diesel and a programmer though. The thing would practically jump out of the water provided everything was built up to handle the torque.

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Which programmer are you running?

Not an add on "juice"....but rather a GM Diesel specialist who reprograms your entire factory computer to whatever stage level you want. He shuts off fuel flow to the DPF and any signals to the EGR...both remaining closed (no blockoff plates necessary). This way, it's easy to reprogram back to stock for the eventual smog tests...just have to re-install the stock exhaust pipe though (not all that difficult actually).

Max you can expect and still keep the factory trans intact is about 450/900, but even at that, the factory lockup torque converter will soon fry (ask me how I know). The Inglewood Trans Stage-2 rebuild provides all new design, HD clutch packs for all gears, plus an absolutely bullet proof, double clutch lockup billet TC that's all good to 700/1400....any more than that and you'd need Stage-3....which isn't the best for the street. When this Stage-2 double clutch TC locks, the truck literally lurches forward. This fooker honks!!! Only problem, the Stage-2 costs bout $3500 installed....

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This is what you want:

Now that's zatcly what I was thinkin.....but maybe just a little overkill in a Malibu (ya think?)

Although, I would NEVER support nor purchase ANYTHING from Banks....ZIP...ZERO...NADA.

Those fookers are the ones who were in kahoots with Cali CARB to put all other aftermarket diesel suppliers out of business in CA....or at least make their products illegal. They gave CARB all the info needed on raising the GVW from 8600 to 14,600 lbs....requiring ALL diesel pickups (dualies included) in CA to be smogged right along with gas vehicles. Previously, anything over 8600 GVW was EXEMPT from smog checks. Thanks to Banks....NOT NOW!!!

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Interesting "what if".......it would take someone with a lot of money to burn. And what about surfing?

Personally I don't think it would be worth the massive effort. Pretty cool nevertheless

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That just sounds wrong on so many levels to me. I deal in diesels, and while you could do the conversion if you throw enough money at it, it will give you all kinds of installation problems. For example, where are you going to mount the 3'x5' intercooler? You can't run without it. Is the engine built to run on coolant temps under 100*? What about the torque curve? Will the V-drive trannies handle 600lbft of torque? Electronics/harness?...That is a whole other mess of problems.

I say there is no way you can get this done for under $30k...plus the price of the boat. Even when you were done, it wouldnt be like smoking tires at 40mph. And fuel savings? That makes no sense after laying out the money for the engine etc.

You would be better off just putting a blower on a a gas motor.

That's an easy one. Water intercooler. They are rarely used on road vehicles, but on a boat it would be the cat's meow! Thumbup.gif

I don't think you would be anywhere near 30k. I would guess someone with a good knowledge of engines and electronics with a good garage could get it done for under 10k. The diesel conversions guys are doing on the older gas trucks has certainly caught my attention since I own a 71' Ford F250 that drink fuel at the rate of 7 mpg. Biggrin.gif I don't think the boat conversion would be any hard than that - I think it would actually be a bit easier.

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Like the sound of a gas motor vs. diesel any day of the week.

The banks motor looks OK, but am not sure why people want diesels. It seems that most of the Malibu people are fine with HH in the 23 and 247 or one would see more 8.1L motors for sale in the used boat section. Diesel would be complete overkill, imo.

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Like the sound of a gas motor vs. diesel any day of the week.

The banks motor looks OK, but am not sure why people want diesels. It seems that most of the Malibu people are fine with HH in the 23 and 247 or one would see more 8.1L motors for sale in the used boat section. Diesel would be complete overkill, imo.

Plus1.gif Very seldomly have I read posts where people complain of being underpowered and then the response is to re-prop. Not really sure what purpose would be. When would you need all that power and how could you justify the time and money spent to complete this. The only situation that might justify it to me is if a 247 completely blew up out of warranty.

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At some point in the drive train I'd be willing to bet that you'd break something, whether it's the tranny, vdrive, shaft or anything else. I really doubt that most of that gear was built with the amount of torque that we're talking about in mind. Also keep in mind that all Malibu vdrives have gear reduction (ratios depend on the motor), & that would be one more thing to deal with.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Anybody hear of anyone swapping out their gas hog for a Duramax Diesel?

Seems an absolute natural. My 2008 Sierra HD Duramax 2500 gets 20 ~ 22mpg (100% highway), but has been reprogrammed with 580HP and 1100+ ftlbs torque. Damn thing will light up the rear tires from a standing stop in 2WD (not even brake torquing)....and absolutely LAUNCH when in 4WD (had to replace the steering rods w/HD aftermarket units already). Also had to rebuild the tranny with a Stage-2 from Inglewood Trans. But absolutely terrorize the local tuners....haven't been beat yet....

Unbelievable amount of power, yet drives sedately when treated softly on the accelerator.....and absolutely gets nasty/angry when pushed (the exhaust note is a LOUD, WOOOSSSSHHHH !!!)

As long as enough room is available (like in a 247 LSV), this swap would literally create a very high fuel mileage boat with a "Jekyll & Hyde" personality. There wouldn't be anything it couldn't pull.

Only problem...you'd likely need a trailer mounted fuel tank (bringing your own fuel with you), and props might not last all that long......

One major consolation...if the throttle was treated lightly, your fuel tanks would probably last two or more days!!! You might not even need to refuel on short vacations.

This is coool, love the idea. This is probably a just cause i can idea.

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You couldn't run the same tranny vdrive set up with a diesel. The sweet spot on those motors is 1K-2K rpm. Once you start going much over 2k those fuel savings start dropping fast.

To allow the boat to pull say a wakeboarder and keep under the 2k mark at cruise you would have to make massive prop or gearing changes too.

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