2003 Duramax Questions

[96Z711500]

Hey all, spent alot of time reading around here but not much time posting. Starting to look into 3/4 ton diesel trucks. Have a fair amount of seat time in a 2005 Cummins on the farm, both towing and running empty and have got bit by the diesel bug as a result. Have always been interested in Duramax powered rigs though, especially with how well our 1996 1/2 ton has treated us.

Test drove a 2003 Duramax 4x4 ec/lb with the Allison recently and was quite disappointed in the power the truck had. Truck has 187 000 kms and appears to be stock, hard to say how it was treated in its previous life however. Truck felt to have less power than the 6.0 gasser I drive at work. Have always read what an amazing power train combination this is, and am wondering if there could be something wrong with this particular truck? Hoping there is, otherwise I'll be leaning towards the Cummins camp. No noticeable smoke, or slip in the transmission. Common issues on these trucks? I've read about injector problems, could this be a sign that the injectors are on the way out?

Looking for a 05 or newer truck to test drive as I from what I read they are rated higher. Or another 03-04 for comparison. The Chev defiantly rides nicer and is nicer inside than the farm's Cummins.

Thanks for any insight.

Greg

[Mark13]

Hey all, spent alot of time reading around here but not much time posting. Starting to look into 3/4 ton diesel trucks. Have a fair amount of seat time in a 2005 Cummins on the farm, both towing and running empty and have got bit by the diesel bug as a result. Have always been interested in Duramax powered rigs though, especially with how well our 1996 1/2 ton has treated us.

Test drove a 2003 Duramax 4x4 ec/lb with the Allison recently and was quite disappointed in the power the truck had. Truck has 187 000 kms and appears to be stock, hard to say how it was treated in its previous life however. Truck felt to have less power than the 6.0 gasser I drive at work. Have always read what an amazing power train combination this is, and am wondering if there could be something wrong with this particular truck? Hoping there is, otherwise I'll be leaning towards the Cummins camp. No noticeable smoke, or slip in the transmission. Common issues on these trucks? I've read about injector problems, could this be a sign that the injectors are on the way out?

Looking for a 05 or newer truck to test drive as I from what I read they are rated higher. Or another 03-04 for comparison. The Chev defiantly rides nicer and is nicer inside than the farm's Cummins.

Thanks for any insight.

Greg

The farm I work at has an 02 dmax and it needs 3 or 4 injectors. It's terribly slow compared to what it should be. My 06 was pretty quick stock but not mind blowing. But that can all be fixed by some money spent on aftermarket mods.

[thefermanator]

01 was pretty slow to build power, but 02+ wasn't that bad. Remember that these trucks have no cat converter on them, so GM had to limit how fast the fuel could come in until boost was built up. This resulted in a delay before the power came in and made them feel slower than they actually are. I can attest though that with a small tune these issues are not even an after thought anymore. 06-07 classics with the LBZ engine are the holy grail to find though.

[96Z711500]

Thanks for the input fellas. I should have mentioned that I will run a small tune on whichever I end up with. Not looking for a rocket sled, just something that gets decent milage and tows well. I think there must have been something wrong with this particular one. The truck couldn't get out of its own way, couldn't keep up with traffic pulling onto the highway and constantly downshifted to hold 110 km/h (70 mph) on any kind of grade. Unacceptable as far as I'm concerned, sounds like the injector situation Mark13 mentioned. I'll keep looking, have sometime to look around before getting real serious yet.