- Okay. Don't freak out.
It's happening. It's happening.
It's happening? Yes.
It's happening.
Today, today is a special day.
This is it. This is it.
All right. Okay, okay.
Just breathe, breathe, breathe.
(deep inhale and exhale)
Okay, we're good. I'm sorry.
It's not that today's anything special or anything.
It's just that finally,
after weeks and weeks of me begging
the guys behind the camera, we're finally launching
a brand new series
and I couldn't be more excited than I am right now.
But what makes this new video so God (beeping) special
is that it's not only
a series that I'm super passionate about,
but I also own one.
That's right, of all the trucks that we're talking about
to kick off this brand new So You want series,
is the nostalgic truck of my youth.
That's right guys, the one and only,
LBZ Duramax.
Let's get it.
(upbeat music) (engine revving)
(tires screeching)
While the LBZ may be the topic of today's discussion,
if you need wheels and tires for your LBZ,
or maybe not for your LBZ,
because that's how the world works.
You can find those at customoffsets.com.
We also have some super cool stuff like bumpers
and headlights and taillights,
and even some performance parts like fuel pumps,
tuners, exhaust intakes, and the likes.
(sighs) That was a lot.
Also, if summer's got you maybe feeling
a little strapped for cash, then no worries.
We got this cool little toggle slider thing
at the top of the page that allows you to search for stuff
by monthly payment,
meaning that you can choose
how you want to pick up your set of wheels and tires
or your performance parts, or your bumpers
or any of that stuff.
It's kind of cool, honestly.
It's like Subway. You get it how you want it.
Enough of that though,
let's chat about the one and only LBZ Duramax.
When we pull up the old pedigree on the LBZ,
we're going to find that it's the third Duramax
to ever be produced.
See, back in 1998, when I was a crisp and clean
five years old, General Motors and Isuzu teamed up
to create a brand spanking new diesel engine
that would come to market to be the first high-pressure
common rail direct injection to hit US markets.
This initial design would take them just under two years.
And in July of two, July of 2000,
holy cow, that was a long time ago.
Just a few months after we all thought
we were going to die in the Y2K,
this new engine landed on the US soil.
Side note, can we talk about how ridiculous Y2K is or was?
Like, I get it. Okay, listen, things were changing.
Like, digital clocks were still new.
Everyone was freaking out
because they thought that the banks were going to collapse
because we, for the first time in our entire history,
we changed all four digits.
But like, guys, come on now.
Like, that wasn't that long ago.
And now, 21 years later, we pay for our Busch Lights
and burgers with like, your cell phone.
You just like, hold it up to the register,
and it just, "Beep."
Any who, this new Duramax was a massive improvement
over GM's previous diesel engines,
and it beat both Ford and Dodge
off the starting line in 2001.
Dubbed the LB7, this early Duramax set the stage
for the belle of the ball here, which of course is the LBZ.
While there were other engines in between there,
like the LLY,
the LVZ is really where we want to spend our time today.
In other news, comment down below
if you guys would like to see a video that outlines
all of the various Duramax engines
and all the differences between them,
because there's like 16 of them since 2001,
and they're all just slightly different.
Let us know down below.
We'd love to do it for you if you guys are looking for it.
One of the biggest flaws of the early Duramax engines
was that the injectors were extremely difficult to access.
Now, if you ask anyone who's owned a diesel
for several hundred thousand miles,
and one of the biggest jobs they're going to tell you
that they need to do was injectors.
While the job itself is already a pretty beefy boy,
the early Duramax engines left the injectors hidden
under the valve covers,
meaning that replacing the injectors
was basically brain surgery.
You had to lik, pull everything apart.
It just, it's just not enjoyable.
It was not fun by any means.
Good news though, is that by the time
the LBZ engine rolled out in 2006,
GM had already solved their injector access issue.
The LBZ featured a beefier, heavy-duty block casting,
stronger connecting rods and significantly higher pressure
on that sweet, sweet, common rail fuel injection system.
This, coupled with a brand new engine control module,
or ECN, basically the brain box of your engine,
means that the LBZ Duramax was at the time,
perhaps the most powerful tuneable and easy to drive,
reliable Duramax engine to be produced.
In terms of power, the LBZ put down a respectable
360 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque,
meaning that it put the whooping (punching sounds)
on the old 16 power strokes at the time,
and also made more power than the 5.9 Cummins
at the time, as well.
Take that Ford and Cummins guys.
(blows raspberry)
Also for the first time, the LBZ Silverados came mated
to a six-speed Allison transmission.
This came as a much welcome change
as the previous models had come with a five-speed Allison
that was quite a bit weaker and was, you know,
known for maybe dropping into limp mode
if you were on the highway
and you put your foot into it too hard.
I mean, the LBZ really was the whole package.
It looked good when it hit the streets back in '06.
It made great power.
The interiors were styled well,
and they sounded fantastic with that sweet, sweet whistle
of that variable geometry turbo.
This is where the guys can put in a clip of like,
just bouncing off in a burnout, just
(hissing sound)
(grunts) It's so good. It's so good.
(tires screeching)
(diesel engine whistling)
The LBZ really was the classic example
of having your cake and eating it too,
an oasis in the middle of the desert,
and at the time, the pinnacle of General Motors engineering.
So let's say you want to go out and buy one.
What can you expect buying one in 2021?
How does this old cat eye Silverado stack up
against some of the other trucks on the market?
Well, for starters, let's get this out of the way,
and no, I'm not Captain Obvious,
but it's not a new truck, right?
And that means that even the best looking
and cleanest examples of these trucks,
still aren't going to be brand new.
It's just the way it works over the last 15 to 20 years.
They've been driven.
They've probably towed a trailer too in their lives,
and they may have had a set or two
of wheels and tires on them in the past.
For this reason,
one of the biggest things that you can expect
if you buy an older truck like an LBZ,
is that you're likely going to need to replace some parts.
Let's face it, the truck's, 15 years old now, guys.
This shouldn't come as a surprise to you.
In addition to any mechanical maintenance parts
that you may need to do,
odds are pretty high that you're going to need to do
a little bit of body work to make yours a show truck
if that's what you're into.
Pretty much anyone who lives north of like I-70
is going to need to do some body work
cause the salt and the snow tend to eat away at the rockers
and cab corners of these trucks pretty quickly.
They also like to rust right above the fender wells
in the rear on the box.
Not that I know.
(exhales)
It's just a little, a little frustrating.
You think you got it cleaned up.
You sand it down, you paint it up.
You think you got it all good to go,
and it comes back.
Whoop! (exhales)
All right. We're good.
We're good, we're good, we're good.
Outside of all of that,
now that we covered that and we went there,
these trucks drive fantastically, honestly.
They have just enough creature comforts to keep you happy,
especially in some of the higher trim levels,
and make a great daily without having to drop, you know,
like a hundred thousand dollars on a brand new truck.
Assuming you can even get one in 2021 because well,
there's like this microchip shortage, and you can't get it.
It's a whole thing. Trust me.
If building your truck is more your thing
then we have great news for you.
Because these trucks are 15 years old,
the aftermarket support on them is fantastic.
Wheels, tires, lift kits, bumpers, lighting, grills,
interior mods, performance mods.
You name it. You can get it.
And usually, these parts are priced pretty well.
Heck, even factory replacement parts are relatively cheap,
and the trucks are easy to work on to boot.
My blower motor resistor went out the other day.
It cost me $26 and it was three screws to put it in.
It took me five minutes. It was great.
I just, (claps) done.
If it's power you're after then you're also in luck.
There are tons and tons and tons of online guides
about how to build your truck to 600+ wheel horsepower
pretty fricking easily.
To be honest, if you're looking to do pretty much anything
from mild to wild on the old LBZ,
there's likely someone out there that's done it,
and they've probably written a how-to guide to do it.
These trucks are just so (beeping) common
and for good reason.
Because it's an early to mid 2000s GM truck,
putting wider wheels and bigger tires on these trucks
can be a bit of a hassle.
In most cases, you're going to find guys running a 20X10
or a 20X12 on these trucks,
usually with either a 33X12.5 or 35X12.5 in there,
typically paired with a six-inch lift kit.
Now, again, typically this setup allows you to get away with
that wheel and tire stuffed in there
without having to trim much, because, well you know,
GM does this cool thing where they're like,
"Hey, so wheel wells, they go around the wheel and the tire,
which is round, but what if we made them square?"
(bomb exploding)
So anyway, GM did this cool thing where they made
square wheel wells,
which doesn't really make a lot of sense to me,
but you know,
if you want to put any bigger wheels and tires in there,
you're probably going to have to trim at least some.
Not that I'm mad or anything, you know,
it's not like we had to cut like my truck really far apart
and then, like, Norcal.
Anyway, we'll get into that in a little bit.
Any who, on the more wild side of these trucks
are the big lift guys.
Now, if you go to our gallery,
there are several examples of guys on 10 inches of lift
on their trucks, including this one,
which they could put right here, that absolutely slaps,
in my opinion.
On the flip side,
you can also get away with a more low and wide look
if that's what you're into.
On my personal truck,
we went a 4.5-inch BDS lift
and stuffed a 22X14 and a 305/45 street tire in there.
It wasn't ideal. We had to trim.
We cut the bumper. We Norcaled the (beeping)
out of the cab corner.
But you know? It looks (beeping) and I love it.
At the end of the day,
I think what makes the LBZ so (beeping) popular
is that it was the classic case of not knowing what we had
until it was gone.
For the two short years of the LBZ production,
GM was making perhaps one of, if not the most reliable,
best, clean power-making diesel trucks they have ever made.
Period. They look fantastic.
They run forever.
And more than that, they're super nostalgic
for guys who are my age who remember seeing them as a kid.
It's why I bought an LBZ Duramax.
I remember seeing them when they first came out.
I was like 13 and I told myself that I wanted to buy one.
And then I did. And it makes me so (beeping) happy.
What do you guys think about the LBZ Duramax?
Do you love them? Do you hate them?
Let us know down in the comment section below,
and as always be sure to subscribe to the channel.
With that, we'll see you on the next one. Peace.
(upbeat music)