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95 SUBURBAN to a 01 DURAMAX/ALLISON

So far she seems to be running good. I had 300 miles on this tank and plan on taking a trip tommorrow with it so I figured I would fill it up. It got 13.9 on this tank with all of the horseplaying and playing with tunes I've been doing as well as towing my boat down to the lake and back yesterday. It looks like I will be able to get some REALLY good milage from this thing IF I can keep my foot out of it.
 
I had to run in to TAMPA today for some parts and I got to do roughly 60% highway and 40% stop and go driving today and it averaged 19.5MPG. The highway driving was running 62-65, and I also got on it 3 times pretty good to pull out into traffic. Not too bad for milage considering my DAKOTA would be lucky to get 15-16 doing the same run, and it weighs in over a ton less.
 
Impressive. I finally got a chance to watch the vids too very nice build A-1 workmanship. Looks just as good if not better than the "pros" out west.
 
Got one more bug figured out today, now I'm getting full fueling. TrentNell from McRat's forum helped me with my tune some and now I'm getting full fueling out of her and I can't believe the difference 10MM3 more of fuel makes. I also got to run it a bit on interstate and got 20.3 MPG out of her, could have easily broke 21 or 22 if I would have kept my foot out of it. This thing will flat lay you in the seat if you kick it at 70, I think I shocke more than a few when I did it. One bug left and put a set of tires on it and she is done.
 
Ferm, this is a great journey! You do NIIIICE work, my friend!

Thanks for sharing all of this with us; it's great to see what can be done with a little (well, a LOT) of ingenuity and determination!
 
Well it's time to tear part of her back down and put in a BCM I guess. I just got off the phone with FLEECE and was informed that he can't make tow/haul work on a switch at this time. This is a real set-back as my donor truck is already spoken for so now I have to go get connectors, BCM, and a cluster from a junkyard and try and get it to work so I can get tow/haul mode. With 3.42 gears the factory shift points in an 01 TCM normal mode are just not working for towing or around town driving(alot of cycling gears at slower speeds and lock-up doesn't happen until about 58). I really need 2 shift patterns to make this work right, so I have to find a way to make it work. I did try and hook up the 01 BCM and got it to talk on the bus, but it wouldn't turn on tow/haul mode by itself. It looks like the BCM won't turn on tow/haul without the cluster in the circuit. I looked into DESTROKED's kit and theres is a complete stand-alone that will eliminate ALL communications between the ECM and TCM which will put the engine into limp mode and restrict me to 2200 RPM's as well as do away with torque management.
 
Well after months of trying, I finally got tow haul to work. I installed a BCM but still couldn't get it to work, needless to say after monkeying with it for a few weeks I finally found out that I didn't have power to the IGNITION 3 terminal at the BCM. The BCM worked fine and everything in it functioned and scanned when I checked it with a TECH II, but without the IGNITION 3 it wouldn't turn on tow/haul mode. Now I have 2 momentary switches, a toggle switch and 2 LEDS in my switch location. I took my 01's cluster and removed the circuit board, then I took a dremel with a cut-off wheel and cut the logic module portion out, and finally soldered in a jumper and I am using that portion as a tow/haul indicator module and my BCM is a fancy tow/haul module. I still don't have grade braking functioning, but I can live without that as I don't feel like transferring over the 01's ABS system just so I can have grade braking. Now I have to re-adjust my steering box and I'm all set(I installed a brand new AGR super box II and it was mis-adjusted out of the box and sloppy loose:mad2::mad5:, I have to pull it back out as there is no room to get in and adjust the thrust with it installed).
 
Well I finally took the BURB on her first road trip this week. I sold a transfer case I had to a guy in North Carolina and the wife wanted to see snow. So we loaded up the BURB with clothes, us, transfer case, and the 2 dogs and headed north. All in all the trip went as smooth as could be other than now I have to go wash all the salt off and it's barely 40 degrees here. We traveled almost 1800 miles and I averaged 20.005 MPG for the whole trip. The milage really dropped off when the sun would go down and the air temps dropped as my EGT's would go up about 20-50 degrees at night and my boost would go up .5-1 pound as well. I figured I was getting close to 23 during the day driving, but at night it would drop off to about 18. Only needed the 4 wheel drive for a short stretch to get up to OBER GATLINBURG as she was fishtailing pretty bad going up those steep roads. I was also pleasantly surprised by how well she started in the cold. I wasnt able to plug in the block heater, but after sitting overnight it had warmed up to about 8 degrees at the motel we were at Friday Morning and she fired right up without hardly any smoke at all. Now I need to go clean her up, but heres a cold start video for you guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KybncEUsN0
 
Glad it was a good trip. It says alot about the mechanic(builder) when you can log a decent road trip with no issues after any work has been done. Let alone a shoehorn swap like you did. Great job again. You have really got me thinking about swapin a 6.6 LBZ into a ................................. can't tell you.:nono:
 
Hey Ferm, when you say "dash swap" do you mean the entire "door to door" dash from the 01 or just the cluster like they did on the 1500 gasser from The page?

I also seem to recall something about swapping over the column for tow haul.

I'm in the very early planning stages of an LB7 into my 98.....

Cheers
 
malibu795 said:
just read the enitre thread... might be doing this to my 99..
no allison swap though
Click to expand...

Personally I feel this will be a big mistake at the weight levels your towing at. For the extra 200 pounds it is more than worth it to have an ALLISON VS the 4L80E. Swap in a 4500/5500 tail housing and you will have the parking brake set-up as well.
 
malibu795 said:
just read the entire thread... might be doing this to my 99..
no allison swap though
Click to expand...
Me too. Just the part about "I just read the entire thread." As for the technical know how to take on such a project. Well I could teach you to bake if you wanna move up here and teach me to swap in a dmax. And just because I am in BC it's not bake as in BC bud bake. I am a baker who enjoys tinkering on everything from building projects around the house to working on my truck as much as I know how to do it. Swapping out a motor, well I would just buy the dmax and drive it then tinker much as I do with the 6.5 I gotta give ya credit for having the gumption to get it done. That laying rubber was quite impressive. I could just picture my dually laying FOUR strips. It's got 4.10's:D Been a while since you've finished the project. How do you like it ? How does the insurance company like it ? Congrats on the truck and wife
 
Edzzed said:
Me too. Just the part about "I just read the entire thread." As for the technical know how to take on such a project. Well I could teach you to bake if you wanna move up here and teach me to swap in a dmax. And just because I am in BC it's not bake as in BC bud bake. I am a baker who enjoys tinkering on everything from building projects around the house to working on my truck as much as I know how to do it. Swapping out a motor, well I would just buy the dmax and drive it then tinker much as I do with the 6.5 I gotta give ya credit for having the gumption to get it done. That laying rubber was quite impressive. I could just picture my dually laying FOUR strips. It's got 4.10's:D Been a while since you've finished the project. How do you like it ? How does the insurance company like it ? Congrats on the truck and wife
Click to expand...

Insurance company is fine with it as it really doesn't get driven much with the price of diesel now. They didn't even give me any trouble insuring it for a stated value policy either(only cost me an extra 60 or so a month to change it to a stated value of $25K instead of the book value of about $6K). So far she is doing great except for the infamous LB7 injector problem. These new and improved LB7 injectors fail just like the old ones do as I have 1 or 2 on there way out now with 32K miles on em. Other than that she still gets an honest 21-22 running 70-75 on the interstate empty, and I get 10-12 hauling my travel trailer with it at 65-70.
 
THEFERMANATOR said:
Insurance company is fine with it as it really doesn't get driven much with the price of diesel now.
Click to expand...
I don't know what your price of diesel is but here in the suburbs of Vancouver BC. it is 5.60 per US gallon. I live 7 miles from Washington state and can see the Pacific ocean from by back deck so fill up there for 4.39 US gallon. They complain here about losing revenue from Gas taxes. Gee ya think. I fuel up maybe 2-3 times a year in Canada but only because I can't make it to our interior and back on a tankful. BUT, I only buy enough fuel to get home and to the USA. I also save by riding the klr 650 and it is running on US gasoline.
 
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