[Rick]

I had an '02 Duramax 2500 that ran well and was reliable. I had a Van Aiken chip that was detachable for service and never abused my truck always doing the regular maintenance. One Sunday while running through the Kentucky mountains I encountered low oil pressure (I am a guage reader). I was traveling at a steady 70mph with a full tank of fuel and no other visable issues w/otherwise normal guage readings. I pulled over to the nearest rest stop and smelled a strong odor of raw diesel. Nearest dealer was 80 miles south. So with no cell service and in the mid. of nowhere, I had to head out. When I finally arrived at another stop, I had no oil pressure and realized the truck was somehow losing fuel rapidly (my fuel guage was near half). I had the truck towed to a diesel shop in GA who told me that the crankcase was FILLED with diesel fuel and had NO oil left! Chevy fixed what it called a service bulletin item, a broken fuel injector, and the truck was out the door. The independent diesel shop said I should definately get a new motor (I agreed) as I knew my bearings took a hit running without any oil in them. I called GM and asked for at least an extension of my powertrain wrnty. to about 150k miles. and they wouldn't go for it, offering me a free oil change instead! I spoke to a manager who told me the diesel 'acted as a lubricant to the motor in the absence of oil'. I told him he was delerious (I was a mechanic as a teenager) and asked him to put that in writing. He declined. They were NOT going to do anything for me and I knew that motor was doomed somewhere in the future. I read where a kid with a Duramax blew his motor and had to fight GM for a year, spending thousands on legal fees. He hired an engineer who agreed with the kid and GM eventually gave him his money back after a year or so(Read it in Motor Trend). I traded the truck in even though I owned it outright (no payments) and it had good oil pressure/no immediate problems. GM extended the warranty on the injectors only to 100k, but that did little for the rest of a motor that ran on diesel in it's crankcase for over 100 miles in the summer heat. I believe the Duramax is a very good engine with only the injectors being faulty units (produced possibly in Germany by Bosch). I wasn't prepared to fight that huge company but was none the less crushed as I was a former chevy PU owner (had a new '98 2500 before the diesel), and a loyal customer. Their product is better than Ford's fateful former "new" 6.0 diesel, (I heard their horror stories about their vaulted F250 with Ford offering $2500 to owners to buy a new 6.4 Liter diesel), but GM's powertrain warranty is as useful as the paper it's printed on. Just wanted to pass this on as a caution to those who might be drawn in by the new 100k warranty. Read ALL the fine print.

 

[ob_1jr]

True...I agree with you, but I have read somewhere the same thing that GMs stand on fuel in the oil. I think it is BS, and most of the replies on the thread was taking about running diesel in their crankcase instead of oil since it appearantly does the same thing. I will do some searching and if I find the thread, I will post the link here. There is a lot of fine print in the warranties...more than the normal person wants to read or dig into until it is too late.

 

[Rick]

No vehicle can run with fuel in its crankcase. However, I think GM had to stand by the 'fuel in the oil' issue because so many veh's were affected where the injectors had imploded and dumped fuel into the crankcase. What were they going to do, replace every engine? All I wanted was an extension of my warranty. When they said no, I knew they were hiding something and I knew my truck would be doomed in the future. This is probably what owners do when they begin a lawsuit. I could write to truck Trend or some other car mag with my story since that is where I read about the kid whose Duramax blew up. I would be interested in reading that thread if you could find it!

 

[JMD]

Over the years I (and my employees) have run many large diesel trucks. on occasion one will loose an injector and get fuel in the oil. Sometimes this does not show up right away, especially when the driver does not own the truck. While I have had issues with massive amounts of diesel utterly diluting the oil, in several trucks, I have never lost an engine due to this issue. It is usually somthing else that gets the motor. One truck I had (still have) had to have the motor rebuilt due to a leaking cylinder liner at 750,000 miles. This truck twice had major oil dilution issues, once for SURE over 1,000 miles, but it did not show unusual wear in the rod, main, or cam bearings at overhaul.

Having delt with several diesel manufactures over the years I can say with certainty that all of them will handle an issue like this just as GM did with your duramax, unless there is strong evidence of engine damage.

Frankly, if somthing like this happened to my truck while under waranty, I would be somewhat disapointed, but also I am realistic in understanding that an engine builder is not going to replace an engine under waranty because it "might" have become damaged, and chances are that it is ok if the oil presure is the same or even close to what it was prior to the event.

When I am paying the bill for repair, I never replace/rebuild an engine on a maybe either. I cross my fingers and hope for the best, so far it has worked out.

 

[Rick]

Thanks JMD for your valuable input. I bought a diesel for two reasons: Diesel fuel was cheaper at the time and a diesel makes huge power, way more than a gas big block, w/less maintenence. I realize that any motor will have some issues which you deal with (my new '98 2500 w/small block burned 2+ qt's oil every 3k miles), I felt my case was unique as I ran the truck in the summer heat with virtually no oil pressure and a crankcase filled with diesel fuel. After fuel was pouring out of some port in the motor, a respected diesel mechanic shut it down and removed the oil filter which contained pure diesel. He looked at me and said this motor should be replaced. He pumped out a few quarts of fuel form the crankcase and again there was no oil at all. The motor holds 10 qts. Overall, I feel that the Duramax is an exceptionally well made motor that despite having no oil pressure, got me out of the KY mountains w/diesel in its crankcase. Ford built it's vaunted 6.0 liter and has quickly removed it from the market with unforseen breakdowns, none of which was reported in a Duramax. Considering my circumstances, I felt Chevy should have at the least extended my powertrain wrnty to 150k which I had asked them to do. (I wasn't pushing for a new motor). If it doesn't break down in that time frame, it might not in the future. When they refused, I took the mechanic's advice and traded it in at 68k miles. Thanks again for your experience.

 

[bvarga]

gm has a 200k 7 year warrenty on the lby injectors, I have a 2002 2500HD and i have injector problems it wont start when it is hot, I took it to Hatfield Buick GMC in Redlands and they tell me that it was put into service in October of 01 and it is 3 month out of warranty EVEN THOUGH I HAVE 34,000 miles on the truck and the motor was replaced but Inland GMC at 10k so the truck accually has only about 20k on it and they say they have no record of the new engine, I went through GMC in Detroit to get the appointment and they called me and I talked to 2 guys there and they feel that the warranty will be covered cause of low milage but the guy at Hatfield tells me its up to his service writer and it goes against there store if they warranty it, I will find out the first of next week and hope they do. I have had GMC trucks my whole life and if they dont warranty it i will never look at another gm again, No wonder they needed bail out money , I run a heavy equipment truck so i am very familiar with diesel and my truck is serviced reguarly, Bob

 

[pete the hack]

Ricks story has me a little agitated. I just bought an 02 with 59k and it's my first D-max. Is the solution to this problem as simple as swapping the old injectors for some new ones before I get into a bigger problem? I'm sure the injectors aren't cheap, nor is it "easy" to replace them, however it seems better than his result.

 

[bvarga]

Im a heavey equiment mech and i hear that after you fix the injector problem that the rest of the engine is great, I been reading a fass filter system helps a lot the stock filter only filters to 10 micron and the fass goes alot smallter cause lots of 6 and 8 micron particles are hard on the injectors, Hatfield told me it will take a week to change my injectors, I know i can do it in 8 hours.

 

[mijdirtyjeep]

Im a heavey equiment mech and i hear that after you fix the injector problem that the rest of the engine is great, I been reading a fass filter system helps a lot the stock filter only filters to 10 micron and the fass goes alot smallter cause lots of 6 and 8 micron particles are hard on the injectors, Hatfield told me it will take a week to change my injectors, I know i can do it in 8 hours.

I will pay you 8hrs labor to do it when mine need to be done.... :drink

 

[bigdaddydiesel]

Ricks story has me a little agitated. I just bought an 02 with 59k and it's my first D-max. Is the solution to this problem as simple as swapping the old injectors for some new ones before I get into a bigger problem? I'm sure the injectors aren't cheap, nor is it "easy" to replace them, however it seems better than his result.

Remember these two words, Filtration and Lubrication.

Many people out there do not understand how much damage can be caused by the smallest particles of dirt in your fuel. A good filter setup, (FASS / AirDog, etc with extra filtration) or even a better quality fuel filter that will filter down to at least 2 microns will help a lot.

Also, running an additive regularly in your fuel, ( every fill up) will help to keep your fuel system lubricated so that the injectors last longer.

NOW, that being said, if oyu want to, then yes, go ahead and get some after market injectors and put them in, I do believe that this will help, but at the same time, you would still want to take some of the other precautions as well.

BTW, congratulations on finding an '02 D-max with that kind of mileage!!! WOW

 

[usafracer]

^^^^^^ Big daddy is right on^^^ filter and lube.


Good luck on getting it done in 8 hours. It took me all of 12 and that was busting tail.

 

[90v65speed]

I have an 02 also that I picked up with 51k miles I'm up to 57k now and I hope if they go out its soon so I'm under warranty. How much does it cost to replace them yourself?

 

[Speedpro1]

I have been going through the same thing for about 8 months now with General Motors.
My thread (Blown Engine!!!!!). We are in court as we speak! My engine failure was caused by an injector failure. I have proof that shows that General Motors and Delphi engineers all know about the problems and fail to correct them. They try to wiggle out of all the warranty claims. If you don't stand up to them and fight for whats right, they get away with it! Their warranty isn't worth the paper it is written on and the extended warranty is worthless too!
Don't they realize it's our tax dollars that just saved their ass?!

 

[bvarga]

Well GMC called me back today and being such a low mileage vehicle they are going to warranty my vehicle, I will have to pay $500 deductable but O well im happy with that. I will find me fass fuel filter system and take care of that after I get it back After that I hope I have no more issues for a while, It is a good running tight truck . I made alot of phone calls and it payed off and they were very responsive to what I had to say.