Sooo I called the guys down at Predator about converting my H2

[kalantar]

The cost is 30k to upgrade to a used diesel engine/ transmission and that price includes the exchange of the old engine. They mentioned mpg would increase to 18-24 mpg and that I would have 500 hp and 1000 ft lbs of torque. Quite impressive if those are actual #s. I am still debating my options, I would love to have the improved mpg's and increase towing capacity for my toy hauler, even though I only tow long distances 2 times a year. I am just not sure if it is worth 30k and would love to ditch my gas friendly ride since parking is an issue with my new place.

Any thoughts??

[1fastcobra]

i want to get it done but 30k is crazy i could see 15k

[[__--MUD--__]]

Did you ask them how the price breaks down across the components & labor?

[HumminNBoatin']

Its not cheap lol. And its a TON of work. It's not just a motor swap. Its a full on drivetrain swap. And body lift.

When you do it there is a TON of electronics work and also the duramax has the allison trans. then you have the part time 4wd transfer case bolted ot that. Then you need custom drive shafts, custom crossmembers. Cooling system.. blah blah blah .... Its a big deal. FYI IIRC they used to chare $40K to do this.

[Intercooled]

Orangecrush had his done just recently. I believe he is happy with his. I believe he was just getting 20 mpg. Following his thread and conversion it was a ton of work. 30k buys alot of gas. Not sure if its really worth it. I always think of a situtaion where if you got into an accident and the h2 was totaled what would you get for it. I'm sure you would be out your 30K pretty fast. Maybe you could have it appraised and be able to cover some of your loses. Its a big expense for what the truck is worth. If you really want it and youve got the dough, then go for it. I'm just thinking financials here. I'm sure you'll be happy with the final product. I always get concerned with delaing with a company that is far away if someting wasnt working right or adjusted properly, etc. Whats the warrenty with thier install? How about any issues that arrise during warrenty? What do you do? How does it get serviced? By who? Just thinking out loud.

[kalantar]

']Did you ask them how the price breaks down across the components & labor?

No, I did ask them how much would they charge for labor if I supplied my own donor vehicle and their response was I wouldnt be saving much and it is much better for them to do it turn key.

[kalantar]

Orangecrush had his done just recently. I believe he is happy with his. I believe he was just getting 20 mpg. Following his thread and conversion it was a ton of work. 30k buys alot of gas. Not sure if its really worth it. I always think of a situtaion where if you got into an accident and the h2 was totaled what would you get for it. I'm sure you would be out your 30K pretty fast. Maybe you could have it appraised and be able to cover some of your loses. Its a big expense for what the truck is worth. If you really want it and youve got the dough, then go for it. I'm just thinking financials here. I'm sure you'll be happy with the final product. I always get concerned with delaing with a company that is far away if someting wasnt working right or adjusted properly, etc. Whats the warrenty with thier install? How about any issues that arrise during warrenty? What do you do? How does it get serviced? By who? Just thinking out loud.

Good points, 30k can buy me roughly another 100,000 miles on my H2. Yes the improved tow capabilities would be nice but only to a certain extent. Now that I think about it ,for 30k I can buy a pretty sick used lifted dually.

[kalantar]

Orangecrush had his done just recently. I believe he is happy with his. I believe he was just getting 20 mpg. Following his thread and conversion it was a ton of work. 30k buys alot of gas. Not sure if its really worth it. I always think of a situtaion where if you got into an accident and the h2 was totaled what would you get for it. I'm sure you would be out your 30K pretty fast. Maybe you could have it appraised and be able to cover some of your loses. Its a big expense for what the truck is worth. If you really want it and youve got the dough, then go for it. I'm just thinking financials here. I'm sure you'll be happy with the final product. I always get concerned with delaing with a company that is far away if someting wasnt working right or adjusted properly, etc. Whats the warrenty with thier install? How about any issues that arrise during warrenty? What do you do? How does it get serviced? By who? Just thinking out loud.

Good points, 30k can buy me roughly another 100,000 miles on my H2. Yes the improved tow capabilities would be nice but only to a certain extent. Now that I think about it ,for 30k I can buy a pretty sick used lifted dually.

[Indy]

You can probably get a supercharger for a small fraction of that cost, and have $25k left over for gas. Don't forget, even a diesel engine requires fuel, so the difference might only be 8 or so mpg between the two. But a diesel would be nice. If they had offered one, that's what I would be driving now :)

[Faustus100]

That sounds like a lot of work! But whats the turn around time.I believe Orange Crush had to wait for months!

[Waters]

You can probably get a supercharger for a small fraction of that cost, and have $25k left over for gas. Don't forget, even a diesel engine requires fuel, so the difference might only be 8 or so mpg between the two. But a diesel would be nice. If they had offered one, that's what I would be driving now :)


Yeah, I'm running and intercooled MagnaCharger on my '03 and it runs great, enven with 40" tires.

[OrangeCrush]

You can probably get a supercharger for a small fraction of that cost, and have $25k left over for gas. Don't forget, even a diesel engine requires fuel, so the difference might only be 8 or so mpg between the two. But a diesel would be nice. If they had offered one, that's what I would be driving now :)


The problem with the supercharger is it doesn?t supply enough power. Even with a supercharger, 38?s and 4.56 gears, I couldn?t leave my truck on cruise control and expect it to climb the least incline without dropping down a gear... not to mention getting 7-8 mpg on the highway.

God forbid I had to pull a 2-3K lb trailer, it was excruciating to maintain a 70mph run and I would easily get 5-6 mpg.

NOW, I can literally run 90 mph with a 4K lb trailer and pass uphill at will without dropping a gear.... all the while maintaining 17mpg.

I never did the conversion for gas mileage, I did it for the ability to drive down the highway at 85 without getting passed by every Pinto going up hill.

A supercharger works great on a stock tire sized H2 but the moment you put bigger tires on it (even with gears, it sucks) I?ve had two H2?s with liftkits, big tires and superchargers and they both were identical performance wise.

As of now, I?ve got about 7-8K miles on my conversion. Once I got the initial oddities fixed, I haven?t touched it. With my tuner on it, I?m pushing over 500 HP and over 900 ft. lbs of TQ.

The last trip I made to FL was over 1500 miles and at speeds on average of 84-88 mph (for the most part) I maintained 20.0 mpg round trip.

As far as getting it serviced, it?s as simple as taking it to a chevy dealer. Once you can get all the techs to stop checking it out, it acts and runs like an HD2500.

It was definitely a PIA to do. The actual installation wasn?t that hard, the wiring was HELL. Fortunately I didn?t have to do any of it.

My .02 worth....


Mark

[OrangeCrush]

That sounds like a lot of work! But whats the turn around time.I believe Orange Crush had to wait for months!


8 to be exact.

Mark

[Faustus100]

8 to be exact.

Mark
But worth EVERY minute:beerchug:

[OrangeCrush]

But worth EVERY minute:beerchug:


EVERY!!!!!


Mark

[HUMMDAT]

I still think 30K is a bit steep.

[[__--MUD--__]]

Bought some parts off a guy the other day and he happened to mention they came off a duramax H2...The second or third one hes done.

I'm ready to call bull**** on this being a big ****ing deal and start gathering parts for the swap.

The run through I'm getting is just buy a used truck, same year as your hummer. The duramax and tranny will be swapped w/ your H2's parts, sell the truck w/ the 6 liter when done, recoup most of your cash.

The engine harness for the duramax will plug right into the h2. Body lift isn't ****, going to need some new driveshafts made up, fuel pump, + other misc items. Guy was saying the traction control is even working on this setup which the trucks normally dont have.

Gonna be sending me some photos here soon on this.

[Faustus100]

Please do! Im very interested in this!!

[dmcg2210]

I live in Wichita, Ks and there's a shop here that does the conversions as well. I am trying to talk the wife into it because i'm a guy who likes power but she wants better mpg.. So she calculated the savings and how long it would take for this conversion to pay for itself using the gas savings each year. It will take 47 years to break even on a diesel swap so the wife wont let me wpend the money for this project.. Have to do it myself for under 10k if i can find a salvage diesel engine and drivetrain components.

[[__--MUD--__]]

A good 06 motor and allison tranny runs about $5500-7500 off craigslist. I agree its not going to be a paying back investment, but I think its DIY doable for 10G. You also have your stock motor and tranny to sell for additional credit.

[seventwozero]

']A good 06 motor and allison tranny runs about $5500-7500 off craigslist. I agree its not going to be a paying back investment, but I think its DIY doable for 10G. You also have your stock motor and tranny to sell for additional credit.

On paper sure it seems like no big deal, if OrangeCrush had a competent mechanic work on it for 6 months, fail, then send it to the professionals (Predator).. I think it's a project the average DIY'er might want to reconsider.

I'm not sure if it's necessary, OrangeCrush's conversion was done body off, maybe the Duramax does fit from the top? And the wiring isn't just plug and play, the instrument cluster is replaced, 4w drive switches. It really is a lot of work.

FWIW, If I had the coin I'd do the conversion in a heartbeat.. but with the Cummins/Allison combo :beerchug:

[[__--MUD--__]]

So where did his mechanic get stuck? I though predator was the one that had it for 6 months.

Arn't the truck clusters the exact same as ours? Just reprogrammed and tach labled for low rpm diesel?

I gotta get these guys online that have done two of these conversions themselfs. Put an end to this 30G bull****. I'm telling you its a conspiracy between these conversion companies to convince us we can't do this ourselfs.

[seventwozero]

']So where did his mechanic get stuck? I though predator was the one that had it for 6 months.

Arn't the truck clusters the exact same as ours? Just reprogrammed and tach labled for low rpm diesel?

I gotta get these guys online that have done two of these conversions themselfs. Put an end to this 30G bull****. I'm telling you its a conspiracy between these conversion companies to convince us we can't do this ourselfs.

The mechanic for OrangeCrushes truck got stuck in the wiring after so many months and thats when it got sent to Predator. From what I remember from his thread, Predator had it for a month or two, only because they were busy with other projects and it got bumped down the list, probably because he didn't get the full conversion there.

From what I understand, the wiring is a mess. You need to piece together the harness from the H2 and the harness from the donor motor, it's definatly not a plug and play sort of game. The 2/4 wheel drive switches need to be installed in the cab (as you get that option with the duramax/ally combo!), and the instrument cluster (which I imagine has some diesel only things compared to ours like glow plug timers and such). I'm not sure if the body off is necessary to do the conversion, although I'm sure it makes life a lot easier considering the amount of work involved.

I'll agree, even with a brand new duramax motor and allison transmission, 30G is bull. I would like to think any competent mechanic could do the swap, he just needs to have the troubleshooting skills and patients for the wiring system. You read about guys in magazines that do International swaps into F350's, you would think the same person would be able to do the H2 swap.

There is no reason this can't be done at home, the Predator guys probably don't have any classical training in diesel motor H2 swaps, probably because there isn't training for it, they've just tried it a few times, failed, and tried it a few more times. I've inquired to my mechanic a few times, who I personally think has the skills to do the work, but he seems slightly less than interested due to the amount of work involved.