The 1000 dollar duramax

[oddball23]

Hey guys so I figured I'd do a build thread on my newer(ish) diesel something me and a buddy have been calling the fat white lady or the 1000dollar duramax
2004.5 chevy 2500hd 2wd CCSB and it was rough. Like sat out side in the socal sun with no cover and was outside a cabinet shop that just collected dust for 4 yearz (back fees were like 1300 bucks fuckkk ca dmv.) But with a jump box it turned over and for 1k cash I had a diesel for the first time in my life .and naturally the plan was to flipping it. 2 owner 300k and rebuilt trans 120xxx, and apple car play. Figure worst case i make 500 if I can't get it running. 2 new batteries from Walmart and some fresh atf in the tank with fresh fuel and she fired right up

Enter my dumbass getting my tahoe stolen. So now I need another tow rig..

 

[oddball23]

we'll let's see how much I gotta do to get the truck up to par. Doesn't look to bad ball joints brakes and maybe tires if I really dont care. That was the plan any way

So ended up getting tires from the offroad swap meet for 300 bucks with stickers on 2
Had to replace the brakelines all around and a rear caliper which is why they thought the rear end blew up. As the rotor was broken all the way around and just sitting on the face . So all that got replaced and get it bled and we were rocking even got new seat covers to match the back seat as the rears were leather and the fronts were cloth replacements from a junk yard. Also should note i did put a fass 165 pump and separator since the truck had been sitting for long enough to concern me on the fuel pump.
Thing was awesome for about 10 miles lol

So got onto the freeway and damn near death wobbled myself into a car at 60. Immediately pulled off and drove back to the house at a whole 20mph lol
So turns out the tierod just decided to leave the chat lol literally held in by a gangster ass moog rubber dust boot lol.
The vibrations from that pretty much turned bothe the upper arm bushings to trash along with all of the steering joints lol turns out only the outer tierods had ever been done in 300xxx miles

So decided to suck it up and did the whole ass steering system. Best thing. Ever. Got ppe tierods for like 150 bucks and they are forged like 1 3/8" diameter. Massively overkill while I was there I found a cognito double shear pitman idler gusset kit for like 100buck on Marketplace then finished up buying some cheap Amazon upper control arms and doing the steering box just trying to eliminate any possibility of coming back to it for awhile. Also ended up making 00 battery cables as I wasn't stoked on the whole 450 bucks for 100 dollars worth of cable . But everything started going together on this thing pretty well even got a down pipe for 75 dollars that still isn't on

 

[oddball23]

Well that was wrong lol. About 2 months later I'm driving to work at 6pm and the truck loses all power steering and power brakes in Ortega canyon. 10/10 dont recommend So turns out a power steering hose popped and here were are. Replace and drive around the block and a different line pops. OK to be expected it's older. Remove.replace.retest. no problems cool drive it around the next day and all the p/s fluid is on my driveway. The hydroboost seal died. I changed the entire system every hose bring and part. Got over it. But after that drove it around to perris for work everyday for like 3 months. Was flawless so to the desert we gooooo

 

[Tree trunk]

Hell yeah

 

[oddball23]

Most recent things going about was a full set of ppe 3inch intercooler piping, ppe down pipe new head unit and getting the the thing ready to haul my welding table and tool box up to south lake tahoe. No pictures unfortunately as ive been pre occupied but it's done great the last 7500 miles and doesn't seem to slowing down any time soon