Hello!
I'm Cason, I have been lurking on the forums for a few years and have learned alot. I just recently finished my 2.5 year project of Duramax swapping my 1985 GMC K2500.
The truck, named Smokey, was my grandfathers and was gifted to me about 15 years ago, it was originally a 6.2 diesel and early on in my ownership I found a Banks turbo kit for it. I was never impressed with how it ran and we quickly outgrew the truck, so it sat in the garage for nearly 8 years before I decided to get it back on the road and take my Grandpa for a ride.
In 2023 I bought a running 2004 LLY donor truck, but it was cheap and didn't run well at all. after pulling the engine I found the crank was broken and wiped out most of the mains. I then bought another engine and started a rebuild. check my signature for the quick summary of parts. I did all of the engine assembly, rebuilt the turbo, built the exhaust and engine mounts, did all of the paint on the engine and chassis, and all of the tuning with EFILive.
In Sept. of 2025 I was able to get the truck back in 1 piece and take my 84 year old grandpa for a ride and even let him drive it. since then I have put about 250 miles on the truck with zero issues, until this week when the 230k mile transmission decided to spring leak from behind the converter. now I will be rebuilding the transmission and planning the next phase of the build that should get me to around 800hp with a set of compounds and some fuel upgrades.
I learned a TON tearing this deep into the engine and I hope I can be a good contribution to the forum.
I'm Cason, I have been lurking on the forums for a few years and have learned alot. I just recently finished my 2.5 year project of Duramax swapping my 1985 GMC K2500.
The truck, named Smokey, was my grandfathers and was gifted to me about 15 years ago, it was originally a 6.2 diesel and early on in my ownership I found a Banks turbo kit for it. I was never impressed with how it ran and we quickly outgrew the truck, so it sat in the garage for nearly 8 years before I decided to get it back on the road and take my Grandpa for a ride.
In 2023 I bought a running 2004 LLY donor truck, but it was cheap and didn't run well at all. after pulling the engine I found the crank was broken and wiped out most of the mains. I then bought another engine and started a rebuild. check my signature for the quick summary of parts. I did all of the engine assembly, rebuilt the turbo, built the exhaust and engine mounts, did all of the paint on the engine and chassis, and all of the tuning with EFILive.
In Sept. of 2025 I was able to get the truck back in 1 piece and take my 84 year old grandpa for a ride and even let him drive it. since then I have put about 250 miles on the truck with zero issues, until this week when the 230k mile transmission decided to spring leak from behind the converter. now I will be rebuilding the transmission and planning the next phase of the build that should get me to around 800hp with a set of compounds and some fuel upgrades.
I learned a TON tearing this deep into the engine and I hope I can be a good contribution to the forum.
