3500 dually
Member
Well guys, my sons 2003 gmc 2500HD crank broke about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Just got running again. My million dollar question is what causing these??? Ive heard a lot of different answers, so I thought I would ask my friends here.
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I'm guilty, but most of mine had those miles on purchase.Think about the 6.5- most people finally agree to swap hb around 100,000. But i bet if we did a pole here, there is 25 people with over 200,000 miles on a balancer.
It's still uck of the draw. Theres HUNDREDS of broken DURAMAX cranks from guys running aftermarket balancers on engine with cirtually no run time. LML's seem to pop around the 150-200K mile mark, others are a gamble. As to harmonics, these same harmonics are present in engines running ATI balancers, it's just a natural harmonic in the engine. Wagler and I believe Callies are both working on forged cranks for the DURAMAX, and theres been some interesting stuff coming from that as well, but still not much.From 2 fleets - 1 I was a mechanic, the other cheif mechanic. The first had 43 duramax, the second had 210 when I left. The larger fleet was the one that had trucks putting on 100,000 a year on.
I saw somewhere near 30 broken cranks. Keep in mind we went through somewhere near 600 trucks for that between the 2 fleets. All but 1 had very obvoius bad balancers. Engines were free crate replacemements under GM field testing program, so we ran them till they popped. When you get to where you can geel the harmonic spots in it pretty bad- swap it out. If it were a tire shake or a driveline vibration you'd think nothing of it, but somehow part of the engine is untouchable.
For years I've been trying to get people to hear me on balancers for diesels. I'm telling ya, swap a balancer in duramax every 150,000 and watch the crank live.
Sure some people get lucky. Ive seen 1,000,000 miles on untouched engines that we only added oil to, never changed oil, and just did the hallow oil filter housing for no filtering. Doesnt mean thats the best answer.
Think about the 6.5- most people finally agree to swap hb around 100,000. But i bet if we did a pole here, there is 25 people with over 200,000 miles on a balancer.