I am in charge of our fleet at my work and I am wondering if I should be getting duramaxes or 8.1's. We install racks and haul bundles of insulation right now we have two LB7 duramaxes and a 2000 3500 with the 454 Gas mileage is pretty unimportant. We have not had any problems with our duramaxes yet but I am wondering if to a fleet it is worth having the diesel and its high repair costs. I don't want to see injectors going out or cam pins breaking. Because I will take the heat for it. I imagine 8.1's will be more worry free and much cheaper to replace. I am talking about purchasing used trucks some wilth mileage as high as 150K.

If you're buying trucks with that kind of mileage on them I'd go for the diesel. They generally last longer than the gas motors.

Do you need the power of the diesel over the gasser for your use? You say mileage is unimportant so that's out the window.

If you get LLY's at least the injectors are easier to replace and won't dump a bunch of fuel into the oil sump.

I haven't heard anything about the cam pins so I don't know what you're referring to there.

It sounds like you don't really have any good reason to go one way or another and you already have both in your fleet so why not just go and buy the trucks that are the best deal/in the best shape. End up with a few of each. Once you use them both for a while at least you'll know which gives you the least problems for the next round of truck buying

Not sure if you're buying new or not, but I don't think they're offering the 8.1 anymore. Now you just get to choose between the duramax and the 6.0, that's an easy decision.

I have heard of some pretty outrageous mileage gas motors and I know a few lb7's with 500k but I also heard of one take a crap at 147,000 due to the cam pin breaking. At $15,000 to replace the motor something like that happening is sickening

The diesel power is nice but the 454 seems to get the job done the small blocks sometimes drop into second up hills and spin 5k rpm which is unaccetable.

I will have to look into lly's but I doubt any of them are under $25,000 yet.
I also do not know if overheating will be a problem we dont typically pull trailers but we do load quite a bit of weight in the trucks with these racks.

I love the duramax and my personal truck is a duramax and I won't part with it but I'm not sure if with a fleet if it makes sense.

BTW: If you are buying high-mileage used, have you looked into Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers? They have a tonne of used pickups.

IMHO a gas engine with 150,000 miles is getting close to major rebuild, where the Duramax still has a very long way to go. (Average for both).

I picked up my LLY last summer with 37,000 miles for something around $26-27,000. The value of the "diesel option" really seems to fall and makes the used ones a good value.

Good luck.

I agree, 8.1 150,000 is getting close to needing work, some may go 225,000 but who knows. I cant imagine buying a ld pickup w/that milage to start. W/t he drivers we have and the way they get beat we have new ones that dont hold up.

The gas and electric company here in Madison has numerous trucks and vans and always had ran diesels. As they replaced them, the ended up going with the gassers, they said the Duramax would cost them too much.

I owned a 03 duramax and it blew up at 98,000 miles. The bill was over $14,000 under warranty. I had the work done at a Chevrolet medium duty dealer in Jamestown New York. They told me that they service medium duty trucks all the time with the 8.1 with over 500,000 miles on them. In 05 I bought a new truck and got the 8.1 and it has 208,000 miles on it as of 3/10/07. And over half the miles are towing miles. It still runs like it did when it was new.All I've done is change the plugs twice. A couple months ago I ran into a guy who had 497,000 miles on his 03 8.1. GM's warranty on the 8.1 in medium duty trucks is 2 years unlimited miles and the duramax is 100,000 miles or 5 years. Even GM has more faith in the 8.1. GM says that the durability for the 8.1 is 200,000 miles and the duramax is 250,000 miles. Not much difference for alot more money.