What do you mean "Nobody will tell you"

I've personally called Mash Motors on more than occasion and was told step by step how to do many mods, including the body lift and what lift has the best pieces...

You are one of 5 companies doing this... there are 100's of Duramax H2's out there...

Why would you spend $10k on a used/wrecked truck when all the parts needed for a complete swap cost a little under $13,000....

 

As a Automotive Engineer I am Glad you are making what my EX company did not want to do........GOOD JOB, let me know if you need any detail chassis and other info., not that you cant get all that form the net.

 

If you change your mind, let me know...just trying to offer some additional help. This dude make a pretty big point to me that the body control module was functional w/ traction control on his conversions.

 

Bflorin, Yes we would love to talk to him and find out what he may have discovered, on the the LMM GMT900 platform (what DuraBurb is best known for) we can keep everything but just cant seem to figure it out on the 800 platform.

Twinmill Thanks for the prop's and your right it does look easy when we watch these builds from our living room
the shop is located at:
1144 Ocoee Apopka Rd
Apopka, Fl 32703
407-497-7031

Muddydawg if you know where to get the drive line new for under 13K ("complete" not major components) I would love to know. Missing pieces may only cost a few bucks here and there but it adds up fast, A new running gear just isn't cost effective. This client will have about 19K in his build in the end. 7500 for parts and labor plus the donor and incidentals. The nice thing about this approach is that in the end we have a 25K H2 with a 17-20K build thats worth 45K easy,(I've never seen one sell that cheap but it could happen) so it is a truly cost effective build.

Engine in


drive shafts in and on to exhaust and fuel


The client is a car dealer and wanted to keep the factory exhaust & emissions but said do what we felt was appropriate, (never tell a builder that). But he loves it



Body back on and on to cooling

 

Flood this thread w/ more pics! I want to see it all!

 

Our Stance is still stock


getting the cooling system to fit was tough to say the least, much worse then a V8 S-10. The radiator and intercooler are to tall to line up with fan and fan shroud so we notched out the core support and fabricated a new top and bottom support, this allows for a "fully" shrouded cooling system.


The engine bay is 2" shorter then the conventional SUV or P/U so fitment is tight but it works.

 

Are you using the engine mounts off the diesel or something custom/different?

Body lift required on your route? I've seen them both ways... I had been under the impression the body lift was for gaining a few extra inches up front, which then created clearance issues w/ the allison.

Keep the details coming!

 

The engine is "bolt it" but the trans cross member top plate is modified. I have an agreement with sales and others in the shop that I'll post these builds but not get to carried away with trade details. This dose show you can do this yourself but it ain't easy. We do lift all of our SUV's in a fashion we have coined "Reverse Rake" meaning we lift the front and taper it to the rear, this has a two fold effect as it retains the stock level stance with the added weight and lines the fan up with the factory H2 fan shroud, the Allison fits on its own in any of our SUV builds.

 

So this was the final fitment before the hood, you'll notice everything looks stock and is placed & fastened in the same conventional manor as GM would typically do


Take note of the front of the support, we worked a "raised lip" to get the much needed real-estate for the A/C core, this also adds to the rigidity as the hood will swing off this panel and we don't want it to get flimsy on us.


HOOD ON
Notice the oil cooler notch




We did have a issue with the A/C core being to high into the hood opening, so we had to fall back and punt so-to-speak by pulling everything out and lowering the core 1/2"

here is the finished product roughed out


God I love his wheels

 

what will you get with the deramax for mpg and will you have a cooling problem with the deramax vers the gas engine.mike