A couple months back, some guy emailed me as a result of diesel-related posting on another board. This guy CLAIMED to work for Allison and CLAIMED that GM was discontinuing the Duramax because of future emission and fuel mileage problems. He also CLAIMED that the Duramax didn't stand up to sustained dyno runs. And he CLAIMED that GM planned to discontinue the Duramax and use an engine that looked like - I believe he said - a Perkins, and that the engine contract was a done deal and thiis whole thing was so hush-hush not even the dealers knew about it. I told him he was full of **** and to go play his games with someone else. Has anyone here been contacted by this guy?

I got the same Email:

The Duramax is dead. It never was a good engine, and never will be. It's aluminum head is weak, it has too much displacement, and doesn't spin high enough.

Signed,
Henry Ford

What Ever! Dealers are normally the last to know anyway...Why do people have to be that way?

What Ever! Dealers are normally the last to know anyway...Why do people have to be that way?

Because some people are low lifes and have nothing else better to do!:eek:

2 words....Envy and jelousy. Probably some 15 year old kid with a new Cummins T-shirt causing trouble.

McRat, now that was cute! lol

The Duramax on its death bed? Let's see GM is putting it in their vans, Hummers, Avalanches, Suburbans.... They'd put Duramax's in their little golf carts on the lots if they could. JJ

Lets see - Engines are the heart of Isuzu, an industry leader of over 17 million diesel engines worldwide. and they have only been making diesel engines for 70 years, so absolutely they will probably fold because the Aluminum head is weak. I don't think they could come up with a solution for that being that they make diesel engines for the entire planet. Hmmm I have an idea, if it's such a problem, cast it in iron...nah, they would never think of solving such a major problem with such a simple solution from a moron like me...could they?

Utahski,

No offense, but that is a post that I would expect from a troll. All that it will do is get a lot of people P-O'ed.

Kendall69,

:rant: As far as the aluminum heads issue.
The use of aluminum for cylinder heads, Cat used aluminum cylinder heads in the supercharged DW-20 and DW-21 scrapers and others back in the 1950's. Personally, I don't know of earlier aluminum headed diesel engines, although I'm sure that there are some. Since then a lot of other manufacturers have used aluminum heads on diesels with good results.
Where an aluminum head will fail is when it is allowed to run low on coolant. Then it will crack, warp and blow gaskets. After that happens some people will blame the aluminum head for the failure, when the damage is actually a result of low coolant or another cause of high coolant temperatures or restricted coolant flow.
If an aluminum head is allowed to exceed the maximum temperature allowed by it's manufacturer, then damaged heads are a sure result.
In this case GM/Isuzu have decided that the benefits of the aluminum heads outweigh the the benefits of using cast iron heads. Properly maintained, the Duramax is capable of running several hundred thousand miles. But even the best engine design in the world will fail if it is not properly cared for.
Every engineering decision is a compromise. There will always be arguments both ways. In this case GM/Isuzu have decided to go with aluminum. A metal that is more expensive to buy, and cast than cast iron. They did so because the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.
If you have a PHD in engineering, then I would suggest that you compose a white paper on the subject and submit it to GM. I'm sure that they will welcome your advice.

Britt

Like I said before, GM just uped production of the Duramax to 200,000 units for the next year, that does not sound like a move by somebody that is gonna trash the program. Even so, I could care less, I have my Duramax/Alison and am in love with it.

The Iron Head Powerstroke 6.0 V-8 Turbo Diesel has been blowing head gaskets on a regular basis for a couple of years now. Even bone stock trucks have had it happen.

Head gasket issues on stock aluminum-head Duramaxes are nearly non-existant. Even at twice the factory HP levels, the head gaskets are staying intact. It can be argued that the Aluminum Head Dmax holds pressure even better than the Cummins.

lol what a funny thing to hear, sounds like the guys at cummings and navastar are scared, i know i have total job security, i was told this week that our projected shipments for september will be 5000 units a week, we have now hit 660k motors we are running strong, there already starting making 07 blocks to be sent to isuzu in japan for the newest motor, i would have just gave him a hanky said quite ur job if u hate it, but dont make yourself sound smarter than u are

No offense, but your post is what I'd expect from someone who reads without comprehending. Go back and read my post again. And if you still don't get it, I'll send the stupid email to you.

Koolz what are the 07 engines going to be if they are ready shipping parts back to Japan? For testing or to manufacture the engines?

Koolz what are the 07 engines going to be if they are ready shipping parts back to Japan? For testing or to manufacture the engines?


dont know i from what i heard they built up a couple 06 motors with 07 blocks, the ship them to japan to isuzu for the engineers to tear down and rebuilt with the R&D parts

No offense, but your post is what I'd expect from someone who reads without comprehending. Go back and read my post again. And if you still don't get it, I'll send the stupid email to you.


Utahski,

Please do send me the "E" mail, thank you.
If you go back & read your post from the perspective of someone who hasn't seen the "E"mail, then you will see that I comprehended what you wrote just fine.
Perhaps it would have been best to just have included it in your original post. Then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Thank You,

Britt

Navion,

I don't know how to post an email or I'd have done it.

You also missed the sarcasm of Kendall69's post.

Navion,

I don't know how to post an email or I'd have done it.

You also missed the sarcasm of Kendall69's post.

Simple,

Go to the email that you want copy, hi-light the text you want, right click on the highlighted text, select "copy", then open a reply to this thread, right click inside the message box. Then select paste to copy the previously highlighted text into the message box.

As far as Kendall69's cast iron comment, it may have been sarcastic, but then, did you miss the sarcasm in my reply?

If I remember correctly, your total # of posts when you started this thread was around 4 to 6 or so.
I am also a newbie here. But I also have 37 + years of experience with diesel engines from single cylinder air cooled units to locomotives with all kinds in between.

A post like yours on a board like this had all the hallmarks of someone trying to stir up some Censored . A typical profile of a troll. If your are, in-fact not a troll, then Please accept my sincere apologies.

As I said in my last post, if you had included the email to which you were referring, it would have made this exchange completely unnecessary.

Britt

navion _ I was being exreamly sarcastic about going to cast heads. I know there has never been a problem with aluminum, and others are moving towards aluminum - I was just making a point when the poster insinuated that Duramax would fold because of a perceived "flaw" when, if it was such a "flaw", could be reminded by changing the metulurgy, ( and that's coming from a moron like me) , not the brilliant engineers who have been manufacturing, and designing these engines for longer than anyone on this site has been alive.

navion _ I was being extremely sarcastic about going to cast heads. I know there has never been a problem with aluminum, and others are moving towards aluminum - I was just making a point when the poster insinuated that Duramax would fold because of a perceived "flaw" when, if it was such a "flaw", could be reminded by changing the metallurgy, ( and that's coming from a moron like me) , not the brilliant engineers who have been manufacturing, and designing these engines for longer than anyone on this site has been alive.

Hi Kendall69,

No Harm, no foul!:cool:

I was sure that you had tongue in cheek. My reply was for others who think that cast iron is the only answer for diesels. I recently read a post (I forget where) where a fellow was calling GM engineering stupid for designing an engine with aluminum heads because the EGT was near the melting point of aluminum. He was predicting that all aluminum headed diesels would self destruct in short order! :rolleyes:

Anyway, thanks for the reasoned response.

Britt

navion 10-4

Navion,

First, let me explain something. Everybody likes what they like. I bought a DMax because for several reasons I didn't want a Dodge or Ford, and really like Chevys. People buy what they like and who cares what someone else says? Several of my friends drive diesels...probably more have Chevys, but some have Cummins and some are hardcore Ford guys. One guy has both, plus a couple Chevy gas trucks. One guy has a 460 gas truck and 4 PStrokes in the family. I don't like those things but so what?...it's his money and he doesn't need my opinion. They suit him just fine. And if someone likes Ford or Dodge but not Chev and says something about them, who cares? It's stupid and juvenlie to get PO'd over something so petty. Especially to the extent that some people do get upset. And if someone would be able to pull another's chain so easily - just by making an anti-Chevy comment - then that's a personal problem.

On another board, somebody was considering a DMax purchase and posted an off topic question about them and fuel mileage. A bunch of people responded, including me. As a result, I got a couple emails from some guy who was trolling me. He was trying to pull my chain. My thread here was to see if he'd tried to do the same thing with anyone on this board.

Now Navion, my connection is a dialup and this website downloads very slowly. It's a hassle going back and forth between here and email. I'll email you from here, and if you get back to me I'll forward both messages.

Dave

That was a good, honest exchange. I really like this website. :p: :D