The man speaks wisdom


Originally Posted by BC30cal
Kenneth;
Good afternoon sir, I hope the week was a good one and this finds you well.

The 2.8 Duramax was, as far as I am aware, an entirely different engine than the inline 3.0 liter 6 cylinder.

Here's a blurb I found online regarding the 3.0.

"The Duramax 3.0-liter diesel uses a lightweight aluminum block and cylinder head to reduce mass, though the cylinder liners are iron. That’s still a 25% mass savings over a comparable cast-iron block. The main bearing caps are iron, as well, which protect the engine under high combustion pressures while a deep-skirt block (where the block casting extends below the crankshaft centerline) contributes to the strength. Also adding stiffness, an aluminum lower crankcase extension is attached to the main bearing caps."

To begin with my thoughts on that, I'll say I began running diesel equipment on a reasonably large farm in the mid '70's and have been involved with diesels from that time on in varying amounts including Kubota, Mitsubishi, VW, Cummins, Ford, GM Duramax, Perkins, Cat, International and Mack engines - off the top of my head.

My last place of employment before retirement was a GM dealership and I try to stay up to date on what the newer ones are doing, sometimes through a family member who is a certified diesel mechanic.

If I was shopping for a new diesel pickup, the very last thing I'd hope it to have would be an aluminum block for a plethora of reasons, not the least of which is that diesels need heat to burn efficiently and an aluminum block will not retain heat like a cast iron block will.

When I worked at the GM dealership, I got to see first hand how the big 3 dealers struggled with the parent companies attempting to make the new emissions strangled diesels keep running.

I have nothing, as in not one good thing to say about the newer diesel engines in their factory state.

Sorry to be negative, perhaps I'm entirely too jaded from my experiences and it's entirely possible that GM has engineered this new diesel to be perfect and wonderful in it's first edition.

Hopefully that was useful to you or someone out there sir, good luck with the truck purchase whichever way you decide.

Dwayne