anybody familiar with doing a duramax alpha kind of conversion to a 96 gas wagon? good, bad, dont do it? should i do it or just leave it gas or sell it? i bought this thing to do a duramax conversion, however, i am in the middle of two hot rod builds and it has took the back burner, so i am thinking about just selling it.:grinpimp:

there's a ton of info on this on the hml ( www.humvee.net ). Here's a recent thread about it from hummerx site:
http://www.hummerxclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3059&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

rb

probably cost you more to do the dmax conversion than a 96 gasser is worth on the resale market.

probably cost you more to do the dmax conversion than a 96 gasser is worth on the resale market.


true... been involved in a couple at sin city motorworks in vegas and priced around 35k. it's the computer/wiring which will ruin somebody. they are bad ass though.

would it be easier to just do a 6.5 swap and then boost it with like a banks system? i guess the computer/wiring would be a little simplified then? mechanically , the duramax conversion doesnt scare me off, but the wiring/computer/systems thing i would be lost there.

There is some video of a H1 with a 4BT cummins in it. Perfect for the H1 unless your doing a lot of towing with it.

4bt guy is on humvee.net....bigoll thread on his project.

although he bought an entire wrecked dodge donor truck to do it.

I would go for the Duramax.

If you planning on doing itself i'd suggest Cummins... alot simpler than DMax, Cheaper Parts, and the Common Rail 6bt can be tuned just as well as the Dmax if not better. Or could keep is very simple and reliable and go with a Gen1 6BT. I am currently considering both of these on my 98 H1 still unsure which way I will end up going, also unsure when I will have the funds to back the project either heh!

4bt guy is on humvee.net....bigoll thread on his project.

although he bought an entire wrecked dodge donor truck to do it.

no dodge ever came with a 4bt.

Well someone meant the the 6 (that one is the commonrail). There is an H1 out there with a BT4 also. And I know a fellow who runs the 6, 12 valve (Avalanche Engineering).

have you looked at the price of diesel recently? unless you want the power i would stick with the gas, add a blower and some heads.

yes gas is cheaper, but with the extra mpg it'll be at least a wash -- likely a gain in the long run. Besides, if you are about to drop $40k on a swap, the least of your worries is the price of fuel.

What about just staying gas and dropping in an 8.1?

My question is what is the reason for the upgrade? What are you going to do with it? Doing it for MPG is a waste of money, the cost of conversion will buy you a decade or two in fuel.

Transfering a 6.5 turbo setup into a gasser isn't worth it, too many changes, you'll need a lift, many electronic changes [throttle], your air intake system is different, etc.

Personally I'd go cummins, but then again I'm happy with the stock 6.5 turbo setup.

You can try selling the gasser but they're horrible resale right now, much lower then the diesel h1's. You can sell your truck , and spend another 10-20 grand and get a nice later model turbo diesel h1, which may be a better bet and cheaper then doing a conversion.

I've done this on my own truck. I couldn't make up my mind between the Cummins and Duramax until I heard some of the reliability, performance, and fuel efficiency issues that promote the Cummins. I jumped into a Cummins with both feet, in fact, I bought a rolled, running truck to do the transplant. I've SIGNIFICANTLY worked my engine and trans over, as well as 90% of the remaining "H" truck. Right now, you can't imagine how tough this thing is, but its as touchy as a vintage British sports car. When it runs, you can't beat it, the other 99% of the time....you can't afford to fix it. The price of the engine was barely an issue from brand to brand, but now that its done, I'd say toss the Hummer and get a Formula Toy, an 06 Dodge 2500 5.9L and MOD IT OUT, and pay for fuel for both for 6 months for the same price. I love the HMMWV and the notoriety it brings, but unless its a true toy and you're a true mechanic, be prepared for some unexpected, unwanted fab issues with any swap, as well as lots of time to solve problems that "experts" can't figure out. Above all else, be ready to have every shop scratch their heads and say "we can't work on that here". Even with all the troubles, I'd prolly do it again...but I thought I'd give someone the advice I wish I'd had.

What about just staying gas and dropping in an 8.1?

H1 needs to be diesel. I highly doubt this will be a daily driver so fuel prices and gas mileage are probably of little concern. Anyway, my H1 gets excellent mileage off road compared to gas becuse diesels can idle all day efficiently and can stay in lower Rpms. My h2 would eat a whole tank during a full day of wheeling. my h1 does about 1/4-1/3 tank.

Although I love my diesel, and would love a Duramax, in your vehicle I would just keep it a gasser but drop in a 383HT (high torque)from GM Performance parts. It has more torque than my 6.5TD and 338 hp. The torque is where it should be in a truck engine, down low at about 1700-2000rpm. Best of all, its a bolt-in for you. Your gasser is rare, might as well keep it that way.

H1 needs to be diesel. I highly doubt this will be a daily driver so fuel prices and gas mileage are probably of little concern. Anyway, my H1 gets excellent mileage off road compared to gas becuse diesels can idle all day efficiently and can stay in lower Rpms. My h2 would eat a whole tank during a full day of wheeling. my h1 does about 1/4-1/3 tank.

I would assume that he was looking to do a Dmax swap to gain the much needed torque. You may not have the ridiculous numbers that could be attained with the diesel, but a big block would have much more grunt than the current anemic 350. The money saved on dropping in ANOTHER gas motor in its place would make up for the MPG difference, not to mention the time saved on all the little parts to convert to diesel.

i have decided it would be much easier to just do a head swap and stay with the gas power. a good set of afr's or something should do a lot for this engine, will do a cam swap while in there. this thing already has a nice 4 bolt which should be bullet proof . i even considered a small supercharger, although i dont think it would make an appreciable difference.

i can and do all my maint/build work cause you cant buy that kind of service and get what you expect in todays world . some of these replys just confirm my suspicions that the swap would never really live up to be justified by time / cost / reliability / service life.