Duraburb Project

klmore

Adventurer
I look at this site every day, but rarely ever post. I have gained a great deal of knowledge from everyone here so I thought I would return the favor and try to give something back to the forum.

I have an 2006 2500 Suburban with the 6.0 and I have grown seriously tired of the terrible fuel economy. Recently I towed my M101 trailer to Florida and back for a family trip and averaged 8.9 MPG. I spent roughly $1k in fuel alone.

My Sub is paid for with 63k on the odometer and I don't want to buy a new truck. I have three kids of my own and often times they bring friends with them on a trip, so a large SUV is a requirement. My last trip had 3 adults and four kids. I have room for some gear in the rear and on short trips I use a rack on the back receiver. Lately I tow my trailer more often as I find new uses for it.

After much thought I have decided to have Eric Swanson at Duraburb install a Duramax LBZ into my Suburban. There are many pros and cons to this project, the biggest being the price tag. I'm going to document the entire process on this thread and update it as often as possible. I have asked Eric if he could help with this and has agreed to provide detailed pictures of the conversion. I also plan on repairing and upgrading things on the truck I don't like or felt I have neglected up until now.

Current Suburban specs:

6.0 liter with Magna Charger Eaton, cam, headers. 420HP / 494 torque.
4L80E Trans.
Factory 4.10 gears.
6" Fab Tech Lift with Cognito Upper control arms. 7" of total lift.
37" BFG All Terrain tires, with Pro Comp wheels.
AGR Rock Ram hydraulic steering and new steering box to handle larger tires.
Kennesaw Mountain rear bumper with a few upgrades. I think I have a post on this one.
ARB Front bumper with a Bulldog 12000 winch.
I have other mods I won't bore everyone with.

Things I'm unhappy with currently:

The Bulldog winch will be replaced with a Warn m12000.
My off road lights on my ARB are too dim to be of any help.
My ARB was designed for a 2500 HD and has a ugly gap in the front as a result.
My Painless dual battery kit was installed and I was never really happy with the wiring.
One of my fender flares is cracked from the tire hitting it off road.
I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting.

This is where I am starting. Eric and I picked out a damaged 2007 2500 HD that was purchased out of Fargo. The truck is in the process of being picked up and shipped to Florida this week. My Suburban will be picked up and delivered to central Florida in the next couple of weeks. I hope everyone finds this interesting and if there are any questions feel free to ask.
 
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klmore

Adventurer
donor truck

Pictures of donor truck.
 

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Deleted member 9101

Guest
Loos like it will be one beastly project!!!
 

Jakes01234

Explorer
Stupid gm for not making one of theses... im not a ford fan but the 7.3 in an excursion is about the only ford i like... Im sure you will love it as i love all my duramaxs past and present, great fuel mileage with my 2500 with a little tune i get 22 mpg at 70 on highway and my 5500 rack truck gets 18 mpg at 65 that things geared like a beast to...
So im sure it will do great in the body of a suburban...
cant wait to see updates
 

locrwln

Expedition Leader
Very nice. Just a question, won't you have to do the 2" body lift to make room for the Allison? If so, won't the ARB fit better afterword?

Looking forward to this, like someone already mentioned, GM should have done this from the factory.

Jack
 

LimaMikeMike

Observer
awesome, a duramax'd lifted H2 pulled up to the pumps behind me the other day, he said he went from a solid 8mpg to 19mpg avg. Sounds like a worthwhile project to me.
 

Patman

Explorer
Sounds like a great build. I'm a Cummins diehard, but after beating on my Buddies D'max (with permission) its hard to not be a convert. It is hard to believe they didn't build an HD D'max 'Burb from the factory.
 

klmore

Adventurer
Very nice. Just a question, won't you have to do the 2" body lift to make room for the Allison? If so, won't the ARB fit better afterword?

Looking forward to this, like someone already mentioned, GM should have done this from the factory.

Jack

Good question. The body will be lifted 2" in the front to make room for the driveline. I believe it is at factory height in the rear. This is done with progressive size body mounts. The front suspension will have to be lowered 2" to make the ride height level. I may go back down to 35's to save fuel, but it really does look good with the 37's.

I may install the 2500hd truck front sheet metal and that would solve the bumper issue and look cool in the process. I'm still working out the details.
 

xpndbl3

Adventurer
so you have a supercharged lifted suburban without regearing the axles and are running 4.10s and 37" tires and the option to gear deeper for better mileage wasn't presented first?

How many gallons of gas will you have to save by the more expensive diesel fuel prices and the swap to even break even? 100,000 miles worth? more?
 

klmore

Adventurer
so you have a supercharged lifted suburban without regearing the axles and are running 4.10s and 37" tires and the option to gear deeper for better mileage wasn't presented first?

How many gallons of gas will you have to save by the more expensive diesel fuel prices and the swap to even break even? 100,000 miles worth? more?

With 410's I'm running at 2200 RPM at highway speed. The supercharged engine has more than enough torque to tow and rarely kicked down for a passing gear. I had 35's for a long time and the 410's worked well enough that regearing was never really needed with either tire size.

When the Duramax is installed we are taking the 11.5 rear and the front diff with 3.73's and installing that into the Sub as well. With the torque of the diesel the 4.10's just are not needed. I still may lower the truck and put 35's back on it.

As far as the price of conversion is concerned, I'm planning on selling the complete driveline out of my Sub to recoup some of the cost. I'm guessing that I will get around $8K for my engine, 4L80E, transfer case, engine harness and computer. That includes the supercharger. I'm guessing it will pay for half of the cost of the conversion maybe less. I don't think this is a cost effective conversion when a cost analysis is presented, but I would be lying if I said there is no fun factor to this. My other option was to buy a new F250 and build it to what I wanted. I just couldn't bring my self to sign up for a $50k truck and then spend another $20k getting to where it needs to be. Especially when my Suburban is sitting in the driveway paid for.
 

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