New Diesels & Their New Emission B.S. - Why Even Buy New??

So my ol' man bought an '09 Duramax a few years back, brand new, zero miles. Fast forward to today (after some idiot failed to tighten the turbo outlet pipe ... then another idiot forgot to install the o-ring .. resulting in 2 loud pipe separations on 2 separate occasions .. but that's a whole other topic ).

Last Sunday we towed the boat down to C C Bay. About halfway there, the truck bucked a couple times ... then the engine light came on. The DIC says "clean exhaust filter". What a friggin' joke that is!! SO I crawl under the truck, & the damn filter is WELDED to the pipe!! WTF is that *censored*?!?!? So the only way to "properly" clean this useless, stupid, moronic, treehugger device is to bring it to the dealer & get porked at $99/hour to command their Tech II to 'clean' the god damn filter! What a friggin racket this is!

Now I hear in addition to this, the new ones out now require a PISS tank! So it looks like the good ol' days of the diesel are finished. Another step backward for America. Unbelievable. I would NEVER spend what their asking for these new diesels, only to end up in "reduced engine power" mode for half my trip because of the god damned EPA. Way to ruin another fine American made product! $60 grand to break down??? Why bother??

I was so pissed ... and appalled ... all at the same time. I guess the only solution is to break out the welder & build your own vehicle. God knows nobody else can.

Oh, this thing only has 30k on it ... and this is like the 3rd time this issue has happened. Makes me F***ING MAD!!

You're absolutely right smitty, I wouldn't buy or recommend to buy a new diesel. I do strongly support diesels, but nothing choked with emissions nonsense. The newest diesel I own is a 99 7.3 powerstroke with no emissions treatment. My father was thinking about buying a new diesel pickup after his 7.3 hit 450,000 miles, but, since he keeps it in excellent condition and has it sprayed with oil every year (not a bit of rust) he would be taking a big step back from the reliablity and fuel economy of his 7.3. I also have a '91 VW jetta non-turbo diesel in excellent shape and a '95 E300 non-turbo in excellent shape. I spend a lot of money on preventative maintenance and have a dedicated maintenance budget to replace parts periodically on my vehicles whether they need it or not at select mileage intervals. If someone wants a good diesel, buy used, bring it to like new condition and keep it there with good maintenance and rust-proofing, you'll never have to buy a new diesel in your lifetime; if you treat your vehicle like a disposable item, this approach will be hard for you to keep.

I also have a 99 7.3 F350 dually. As we pull horse trailers at 12 to 15, 000 #, I have made a mod or two. GB SS 4" exhaust, Bully dog intake (vital - it must breathe) and it is chipped but only moderately boosted. Why? Well, I can climb hills and stay in overdrive, no constant switching. So it's not about HP it's torque. So I get 15 mpg empty and most impressively 12 mpg loaded. Try that with a 6.4 flamethrower. I also have a Mercedes 300D '89 that is converted to run on veggie. My small local Japanese restaurant served up the best soy bean oil diet all stored in an inside 1000 gall tank NOT EPA regulated. Farm power was from Lister CS/6s that ran on the same stuff. I am winning the game yes? No, the restaurant just closed.

Smitty, does your dad ever give that thing a "workout" and get the exhaust temperatures up? High EGT's will certainly help keep the particulate filter clean(er). A good diesel fuel additive won't hurt either...

The piss tank you are referring to is for "Diesel Exhaust Fluid". Like it or not, it is here to stay. Read about it here: http://www.factsaboutscr.com/scr/default.aspx

Info from Detroit Diesel: http://www.factsaboutscr.com/documents/DEFFactorF ... 4-8-09.ppt

As much as I don't like the added expense and maintenance requirements of this system, it does have some perks over the massive amounts of EGR that many of the '07-'09 engines are running.

I agree Smitty. They suck now. I especially hate how they got rid of the diesel sound. They aren't aggressive sounding anymore.

But, in regards to your outlet (dump) pipe separation. Next time that happens seal the exhaust side and then run a pipe from the wastegate outlet to the ground. Atmospheric dump pipe for the win. Had it setup that way on my Neon for a while. Whenever the wastegate opened the turbo got even louder. It was epic.

^^^ I like it!

markviii wrote:Smitty, does your dad ever give that thing a "workout" and get the exhaust temperatures up? .......

Not anymore. I figured that was the reason it kept clogging. For the past couple months he's been stuck at home waiting for a detached retina to heal up, so the truck just loafed around town at 25 -30 mph. Normally he'd be towing the 5th wheel cross country somewhere, keeping it hot.

My brother bought his old '02 D-Max. Now this is a good diesel! Too bad the truck is falling apart from front to rear ... but at least it runs good. He had the Allison tranny built last summer, installed an Edge system, along with an intake & pipe. It's a 3 ton+ extended cab long bed, but will roast most cars in a drag race! Every time we see a Prius on the highway (they're always in the right lane anyway), he lines up the exhaust with their door & mashes it sending a coal-black cloud shooting out, enveloping the econobox. Fun stuff!

Yep- we're done with new diesels. Thankfully there's enough old ones out there to keep me busy for a few decades.

Yup, high EGT is the key, it will regenerate itself much easier with some help from a good pedal stomping now and again!!! I operate a 2009 Peterbilt with a Cummins ISX @ 500HP 1,850 torque rating and an 18 box of speeds and I can for sure relate to your dads issue there SMITTY... Around just over half of my miles are bobtail and thats a whole lotta engine just to move a 16,000# tractor for several hundred miles at a time!!! Fortunatley, once I get to my trailer and couple up I'm always the exact same weight and she's good and heavy with a combination weight of 76,000#, plenty to make that Cummins work for its living and burn off the DPF, especially hauling across I-80 in PA, nice workout... And I also agree that the new SCR systems with the DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) are actually a far better setup than the previous EGR and DPF only combo... While the new setups do still use EGR, they just aren't as aggressive as they were before, less heat dumped back into the intake side of things now= much happier engines!!! Not to mention they have opened the engines up a bit at the same time putting more of the burden on the after treatment to clean things up as opposed to what they were doing by forcing the engine itself to be clean by means of aggressive EGR, injection timing and VGT... Its not really all that bad, while they do have issues (I had the EGR replaced @ 30,000 and the turbo at 60,000 due to failures) I can honestly say that this Cummins in my rig is the strongest pulling engine I've ever had period, and I'm no stranger to big horsepower/torque class 8 diesels, this thing WILL eat up an exact matched spec CAT of higher horsepower (550HP/1,850, RTLO18918B trans, 3.55 gear, on 11R 22.5 rubber) all day long!!!

smitty what do you think about the bmw suv w/ the diesel they been advertising for a couple of weeks now, also I had an 02 gmc w/ the duramax the engine was beautiful but the rotors disentegrated , and I also remember reading in a pop mechcs mag that they were comming out w/ a smaller diesel for their suvs ect. but I haven't heard any more about it , do you know anything more ??,