Hey guys, I have this delimma on my hands. Right now I have two vehicles... one is my 07 Silverado 4x4 Vortec Max LTZ 29k miles, it has every option even the electric rear window and navi. The other car I have is a honda civic si for putting around town and for some road trips to go see my gf.

Now, I just graduated from college and started this new job where I have to drive... ALOT. At least 100 miles a day if not way more like 200 miles. Also I am going to be in and out of farms and orange groves and the truck will get a lot of miles and worked hard and scratched up.

I own my truck outright. I owe about 15k on the civic. Now my question is... should I sell my truck and pay about 10k on the civic so I dont owe as much and then buy an older cummins or duramax to use for work? The diesels will get better mileage on the road and I do pull some randomly.

I am thinking about doing this because I dont want to run this newer truck into the ground and have 200 k miles on it in a couple years and scratch it all up... Or should I just suck it up and drive it for a few years a get another truck one day after this one is used up? I just thought I would be losing alot of money by driving this thing and scratching it and then I could pay the civic down...

I need some help. What should I do????

oh and I actually just bought this civic and I like it alot. I do a decent amount of driving after work and on the weekends. Its kinda my fun little car that gets me where I want to go and gets good mileage. I drive to see my girlfriend at college alot. I just graduated and Im waiting for her to get done till she moves down here and we get hitched. so i probably wont get rid of it...

i would say you could probably sell the 07 for about 25-30k right? or more i dont know what the value is but if your willing to sell it i would cause i would rather rack up alot of miles on a diesel vs a gas because usually they will last alot longer in most if not all cases. you can find a truck just like you got but 3/4 ton diesel maybe like an 05-06 anywhere from 20-30k i would imagine with decent miles on it. in the long run you would get better gas mileage out of the diesel. and it would last longer and serve you better i would imagine. stay away from 01-04 if you can because injector issues

mitch

So the 01-04s... you can't actually fix the problem? Do they just randomly fail or something?

I would NOT but an lb7 due to the injector problems!!! I repeat do NOT buy a truck u know the injectors r going to fail multiple times. The injector problem has not been fixed yet. There is a new design,a nd it is better, but it has not been proven to a 100% fix.

So only buy 2004.5 or up? How should i try and sell mine? Ebay? Autotrader? Or both? Thanks for the help.

If you want to buy lots of sets of defective injectors at $3k per change out that would make it a bummer of a bowtie truck. Buy an LBZ or LMM and get the best motors to date and tranny too. It's worth more later and it's sure worth more not wasting money on that problem of LB7 injectors. GM stuck it to the first series of Max buyers in a big way on this deal. Don't get sucked off on that sale.

This thread is just about exactly what I was going to put out to the group intelligence here;

What year of Duramax is the best in the realm of reliability???

I remember seeing in an older thread, that I can no longer locate, (yes, I did search) that the second generation engine was the preferred mix of reliability, cost, and minimum of smog related crap.

I am now thinking pretty hard about trading in my 03 for a newer truck, and I would like input into what year is best to buy.

Gonna be using for a occasional use daily driver, go to the dump hauler, and tow a 33' fifth wheel.

Thanks in advance....

I say lbz 06-07. Supposed to have the best all around motor. Same exact thing as a lly but a better tune with more hp and torque So I have heard. Plus you get the 6 speed that's def a plus

Mitch

I wanna get a manual though.. so probably a 04.5 or 05 right? or do yall think it would be dumb to get a cummins? there are way more manual ones of those. I hate to think of driving a dodge cause ive always been a chevy guy... but its better than a ford right?

im with the rest of these guys dont get a LB7. If I had to do it all over again I would get a LLY or LBZ. The cummins is a hell of an engine but it seems like previous owners dont care much for the truck. Id say get a LLY or later with an allison ( i know you want a stick) and you'll be set.

I would NOT but an lb7 due to the injector problems!!! I repeat do NOT buy a truck u know the injectors r going to fail multiple times. The injector problem has not been fixed yet. There is a new design,a nd it is better, but it has not been proven to a 100% fix.


I know of 4 LB7's right off the top of my head that have had NO injector issues at all...including mine which runs 2 EFI tunes...and I have 163K miles on mine...THEY ALL have their own sets of quirks...LB7 LLY LBZ and so on....ALL have their issues just like anything else.

yeah and there's 400 - 4000 trucks on this forum that have had injector problems. Trucks without injector problems r the minority not the majority. It's only a matter of time until they fail. My truck hasn't had a failure yet either, but I never would have bought it had I know how horrible of a design the injectors are on the lb7. There are a lot of trucks that have not had failures YET. key word being yet. It's a fact the design is flawed, even GM admits it by extending our warranties, but they have not fixed the problem neither has the after market. If u have and extra 3k laying around u want to dump into ur truck then by all means by an lb7, or maybe he likes to spend 8 - 10 hrs tearing apart his motor to do it himself. Who knows but the fact is there is a problem with the injectors on the lb7.

The job of replacing the LB7 injectors is not hard just time consuming. the only downside is the cost of the parts.

I'm helping my dad at his shop doing his and my first injector job... its going well.

Injectors as a concern with the LB7's, but overheating is a big one with the LLY's, and the DPF nonsense with the LMM's. I heard of weaker pistons on the LBZ but that seems to be much more minimal.

If I was buying another truck today I would go for the LBZ, but Im not saying I dont love my LB7...

Also with what I said before. I sold my last truck 03 LB7 because of the injector issue. But I was worried about the cost not the work... its hard to come up with the two grand in cash for a small box full of parts.

I have had zero problems with my LB7, i wouldnt be afraid of them at all !

I know of 4 LB7's right off the top of my head that have had NO injector issues at all...including mine which runs 2 EFI tunes...and I have 163K miles on mine...THEY ALL have their own sets of quirks...LB7 LLY LBZ and so on....ALL have their issues just like anything else.

I know of 2 LB7 trucks in my family ( the only 2 dmax trucks in my family) that are not on original squirters. My brother, like many others, was stranded a couple hundred miles from home when his crank case decided to fill up with diesel fuel. WE replaced all 8 injectors at a cool cost of 2200 bucks. 8 or 9 months later, we had to replace a single injector. My trucks on its second set, but sure enough its smoking at idle, no other symptoms. Im sure the time will come when I have 3 or 4 passengers in my truck and we're far from home and it'll take a dump on me. Just do a search man, theres enough reading to make your eyes bleed. It should convince you to steer clear of the LB7. The LLYs did have some overheating problems BUT there is a FIX for it. 04.5 and up!!!