[kray]

K.Ray's 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD LB7 Duramax Build Thread
VIN: 1GCHK29132E298781

This is my 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD with roughly 140,000 miles on the clock. She has the LS package with 4x4, extended-cab, long-bed, and Allison transmission options. I bought this truck to do work and haul cars. I have no plans to hot rod in this truck. It's a tool for a job. Having come from years of owning Toyota Tacomas, I very much like having power and hauling capacity. The long bed on this truck is amazing!

I'm currently trying to button her up. She was a PA truck for many years so she's a bit rusty underneath. Looks like not much real maintenance was preformed so I'm trying to slowly change out all the filters/fluids/wear parts back to factory spec. Expensive truck.

Engine/Transmission:

• Lincoln Diesel Injectors (Stock)

Exterior:

• Tow Mirrors

Interior:

• Vinyl Floor

Electronics:

• Edge Insight CTS

Misc:

• 18ft Car Hauler

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[kray]

Saved

 

[kray]

East TN has been snowed in all week.

 

[kray]

Injector time.

 

[kray]

Full weekend of wrenching by myself! First time knee deep in a duramax. It's basically the same as every other toy. Worst part was the rear bolts on the driver's side. Those suckers are tucked in there pretty good. I stopped for the night after getting both rocker covers on.

Nearly all the injectors were toast. I honestly don't know how the thing was running so well. Lots of debris in the lines. Very gross. Typical LB7 mess.

I just randomly happened to notice on the Lincoln Diesel website that 'If you don't return your cores within 45 days they cut your refund in half' and '90 days you don't get a refund at all'.

WOW?!

It would have been nice of them to tell me that up front or put something in the box notifying me. I have just a few days to get the cores back. Luckily they are out and I can send them out tomorrow. Overall decent products but really unfortunate way of doing the cores. I know they are making bank off those things. I won't go through Lincoln diesel again. I dissected one of the injectors and there was nothing special about it when compared to a normal rev.2 Bosch injector from what I could tell. If I have to do this again I'll just go through my local dealer for $200ea ($1600-ish total plus tax) and sell my injectors to the local shop who buys cores for $60 each ($480 back). Doing it locally would have run me $1270 plus seals. I spent $2700 at Lincoln Diesel. All in all I probably wasted ~$1500 doing it the way I did it but live and learn. The truck is running great now so I'm pleased and Brent at Lincoln Diesel was always happy to help whenever I had a question.

 

[kray]

Only had one leftover part.


And quickly found the remedy thanks to the internetz.


Job done!


And here's my trophy...

 

[kray]

Here's a write-up I did on www.reddit.com/r/diesel for a fellow inmate. It has some good points concerning the injector swap.

Nothing horrible just very involved to get down to the injectors. It's approximately a $3000-$5000 repair if you pay a shop to do it.

You have to buy the replacement injectors which can run a few grand. Usually around $200ea.

You have to buy replacement fuel line seals and FICM seals.

You have to buy the injector removal tool. This makes it very very easy and ensures you don't pull a cup out. Twist the injectors to loosen them before using the tool to pop them out.

You have to drain your coolant to remove lines and insure against removing an injector cup.

You'll probably also need a handful of tools. I had to buy several hundred dollars for of stuff to get the job done and I have a fairly stocked weekend warrior's garage.

The upper valve covers are glued on from the factory. Use a slide hammer on the lift points and it pops right off. Make sure you have all your bolts out.... I did not and got to buy a new valve cover.

The worst part is dealing with all the bolts at the back of the bank near the firewall on the driver's side. They are all sandwiched in their pretty badly. I removed the heatshield which game me enough room to use a 5mm Allen wrench. Other said you can take a Allen socket and grind it down to get it to fit in there. I spent most of my time Sunday dealing with this area.

I started Thursday night, worked all day Sunday, drove 3 hours on Monday to pickup a new valve cover for $36, and worked all day Tuesday.
It is every bit of a 12-24 hour job. Just tons and tons of bolts to turn. I learned a ton about the truck in the process. Was very frustrating at times, but the way the truck runs now made it all worth while.

Smooth. As. Silk.

Oh! One more thing. Purging the fuel system will take some time. Lots of air to get rid of. Just purge like you would if you put a new Fuel Filter on. Crank it a few times. Purge again. Keep doing that until no more air bubbles come out and then it should crank over. After each initial crank you'll get a big air bubble when you go to purge that wasn't their the previous time.

Things to watch for:
If the fuel return banjo bolts aren't torqued to the specific spec they will leak fuel into the head and down into the block (into your oil). Watch oil level religiously for a few days after the job. If you're making oil then you've got a leak.

Clean valve cover around where the injector electrical wires go through to avoid dumping dirt into the head when you remove it. Ask me how I know.

Take pictures and label as much as possible. Put bolt groupings in ziplock bags or trays.

Soak your injector lines (feed lines) in CLR water mixture overnight. Other how-tos say 6 hours but that wasn't long enough for me. 12-24 hours did the trick much better.

Get fender covers. You will be sitting in the engine bay or hanging over it for a very long time.
Having a second pair of hands to retrieve things helps immensely.

 

[jwcgmc1985]

subd!

 

[oldsracer]

Did you buy an install kit or just reuse most of your original parts. Mines got 220k on the clock and no added filtration so I am essentially replacing every part involved in the job. Does the tool really help in avoiding pulling a cup out with the injector? Also did you flush your FICM and rails out and if you did how? Thanks in advanced.

 

[kray]

Did you buy an install kit or just reuse most of your original parts. Mines got 220k on the clock and no added filtration so I am essentially replacing every part involved in the job. Does the tool really help in avoiding pulling a cup out with the injector? Also did you flush your FICM and rails out and if you did how? Thanks in advanced.

I'll try to answer in order below:

- I bought the full install kit from Lincoln Diesel that includes all 8 injectors, all 8 injector body o-rings, all 8 injector feed o-rings, FICM banjo bolt seals, thermostat housing o-ring, lower valve cover gaskets, upper valve cover liquid gasket, and all the stuff to redo your cups. The only thing it didn't come with were the tools. Call them to order this or you'll pay for duplicate parts ordering through their website. Brent will take care of you. Just tell him what you're doing. They will also send you decent instructions via email. Get ready to drop some coin and make sure you get your cores back within that 45 day period.

- The tool really really helps. Buy it. Your sanity is worth it. Mine was maybe $50 on amazon. Twist the injector body a few times to free it up and then just pop it out with the tool. None of my cups budged. Here's a video on how to use it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyxeIBJSnjI

- I left the FICM alone. I flushed some clean diesel through it and then dried it out. Too many electronics in there to really mess with. I tried to vacuum the rails out a little but left them alone for the most part. Keep in mind I did the GM injector treatment a few weeks back before doing the injectors. It appeared as if that cleaner got all the grit and crud out of the system. It was all lodged into the injector feed inlets. The rest of the system was fairly clean. I also let my feed lines sit in CLR/water (50/50 mix) overnight and then sprayed them off with some brake cleaner. They came out looking like new.

- Also, make sure you have a 19mm crows foot socket and a variety of 5mm allen wrenches and sockets. I'd actually recommend grabbing the valve cover bolt replacement kit from MA or your local hardware store. You'll also need a small torque wrench to do accurate inch pound work. The most important part is getting your return lines to the proper torque spec. Those seals only work with that torque setting. If they are off they will leak fuel into your motor. That was the most nerve-racking part for me. I'm still sweating and checking my oil.

Feel free to post up on here if you need advice or help during. I have this thread set to email/notify me when anyone responds so I can answer questions. Good luck!

 

[oldsracer]

-I'm looking at a kit from injectors direct(.com) and through a lot of research this seems to be the most complete kit. I only wanna go in their once so if its replaceable and not ridiculously priced then its worth it to me.

-Okay that's a huge relief because they want $28 per cup and I don't really wanna order them if I don't have too.

-As I said I've got a high mileage truck that has no added filtration ever and is from Texas and so far every part of the fuel system has had stuff in it but that's a good idea to just flush with clean fuel.

-So far only stripped the passenger side down and already need some new bolts so thats another reason I went with the previously mentioned kit because the bolts are included.

Thanks for your help, I'm sure ill be asking questions along the way

 

[kray]

-I'm looking at a kit from injectors direct(.com) and through a lot of research this seems to be the most complete kit. I only wanna go in their once so if its replaceable and not ridiculously priced then its worth it to me.

-Okay that's a huge relief because they want $28 per cup and I don't really wanna order them if I don't have too.

-As I said I've got a high mileage truck that has no added filtration ever and is from Texas and so far every part of the fuel system has had stuff in it but that's a good idea to just flush with clean fuel.

-So far only stripped the passenger side down and already need some new bolts so thats another reason I went with the previously mentioned kit because the bolts are included.

Thanks for your help, I'm sure ill be asking questions along the way

There's honestly not that much in there. Just the injectors and the return line. The rest is outside the valve cover and fairly simple to get to. Having done it once I could probably knock a truck out in one 8 hour day. It's simple once you know what you're looking for.

The trick is to just go slow and don't force anything. If you're getting frustrated take a break.

Having a high-mileage truck I would make sure to clean around the valve cover really well to avoid dirt falling in when you take it off. You'll probably end up replacing fuel hoses more than you will gaskets/seals. My truck has an easy 144k on it and the hoses were starting to fall apart. The rest looked like it was brand new (other than the injectors themselves).

 

[kray]

Story of going to get my replacement valve cover hit Road & Track today.

Express delivery in a $73k Mercedes-Benz E400 cabrio

 

[parkly761]

I also recently replaced my injectors that i had bought from lincoln diesel. I was also not aware of the 45 day core return policy until i just now read your thread. I must have got lucky because i bought mine and they sat in my garage in anticipation of doing the job for some time. I dont know exactly how many days it was but i had to have been cutting it close.

I did not use the injector removal tool. if i were to do it again I probably would. It was a PITA to get a few of them out but for the most part, a pry bar did the trick.

I was in the same boat. took me roughly 16 hours of actual work time to complete the job. But now that i have done it, know what im looking at, and what to do and what order to do it in, I feel as if I could knock one out in 6-8 hours. What i dont understand is the guys that claim to get it done in 3 hours. I dont see that even being remotely possible...

 

[kray]

Vinyl floor in!

I picked up my new floor from Auto Carpet for Car, Truck, Van - Stock Interiors, which is an Auto Custom Carpets source. The first floor they sent me was wrong and did not fit my truck. Their customer service quickly rectified the issue, had FedEx pickup the wrong part the next day, and sent me the correct floor as quickly as possible. Very impressed with their customer service team!

The box comes with the vinyl floor folded up and replacement padding mats for the front and rear, where applicable. You need to take the vinyl floor out of the box a few days before and unfold it flat so it can start to relax. I used the factory padding and didn't use the included padding that ACC sent because the factory padding was one large piece and not attached to the factory carpet. While I was ripping out the factory carpet I let the new vinyl floor sit in the driveway under direct sun to soften up a bit more. You have to be very very careful as you can kill the pre-molded parts with direct sun. I simply let it sit out a few minutes to get nice and liquidy. It made for a super slick install and cut like cutter with a razor.

I was blown away with how perfect the floor fit my truck. Trimming was a kind of a pain. I recommend trimming little portions bit by bit. I rushed two spots and paid the price with holes that show through past the plastic trim pieces. I'll buy another floor in a year or two and redo it now that I know to be careful.

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out and happy to have a weather/dirt proof floor! Silly that a work truck would come with carpet, IMHO.

 

[kray]

Truck threw a P0089 code over the weekend. After logging actual and demand fuel pressure I decided to just order a new Fuel Pressure Regulator and be done with it. Demand was pretty linear but actual was all over the place. Often 100-300psi difference.

I also took the opportunity to rotate the tires. As I was doing the front passenger side I lucked under the liner and noticed a few wet things. My heart skipped a beat as I had just done the injector job a few weeks back. After studying it for a few moments I realized the water sensor on the bottom of the fuel filter was leaking. I wonder if this has been causing all my problems with fuel pressure? A new fuel filter and water sensor are on their way.

 

[kray]

New fuel filter and water sensor arrived today. I'd say that fixed the problem! WOW. New FPR gets here next week. I'll probably still throw it in for science.

 

[kray]

Did some hauling today. I'll show off some of my home in east Tennessee.

 

[kray]

The car hauler didn't get used and was taking up space in the yard. Sold it today and bought an enclosed for hauling the bikes around, hauling the tools around, and maybe even a little camping. Who knows.

She's a Haulmark 6x12 with custom inner nose shelves, interior lighting, roof vents, and tail support jacks.

 

[kray]

Replaced the fuel pressure regulator (FPR) tonight. I bought it through amazon

months ago and just got around to doing the job today. The one I got was a genuine Bosch FPR. I was pleasantly surprised. There's a few vendors so not sure if they all sell the same type.

Thing to note: Needed a turbo inlet horn gasket, which I got from the dealer for $6 and a long-style T25 torx with 1/4 drive, extension, and swivel. Plenty of good how-tos around the net, just goole for them. Gotta have the long T-25 or it just wont work with the fuel lines down around the FPR. Job wasn't easy but wasn't terrible. My idle lope is finally gone and it looks like my fuel economy bump up a little, too.