BARBER's 2003 Chevy LB7 Duramax

BARBER

Black on Black
Mar 21, 2012
509
1
0
Owanka, SD
I've had intentions of getting myself a Duramax for a while now. I actually wanted to wait until I got my '08 paid off this fall and then was thinking of picking up a GMT900 with a LMM in it. Would of probably picked up a crew cab as well. Then, on the same hand I really was wanting to get into a new LML...but didn't want to be paying off a $35-40k payment. I had a friend of mine offer me his '03 CCSB, but passed on it. My Dad found me this '03 ECSB Chevy locally (well, an hour and a half drive away...local to us still) and on Wednesday me and him went to go look at it and test drive it. Everything was great on it, the salesman knew the previous owner and it came from the edge of Wyoming. P.O. installed and serviced garage doors and he would have put on 120K plus miles on the truck. He traded it on a new halfton truck.

This one had a really good history behind it. I'm the third owner. Second owner bought it around 30-40k, had new injectors put in it around 50-60k. New transfer case was put it at 150k. It had 161,xxx miles on it when it was sitting on the dealer's lot. It originally came from another dealer down the road in the next town, and either the dealer OR the first owner installed a flip over gooseneck ball. The salesman claimed the second owner probably didn't even own a gooseneck trailer.

When this truck hit their lot, they had a trailer dealer across the street put the trailer brake controller in it and they would use this truck to pull a trailer to go after a used vehicle. Was very satisfied knowing that history.

But, it's an '03 extended cab short box, LT trim package...leather with a center console, heated seats (driver's side doesn't work) Bose system, and Onstar. It had just under 164k miles on it when I test drove it. Thing is VERY sound and solid and drives nice down the road. Dealer put on new 245 tires (lame).

As far as the salesman knew, the transmission had been untouched, I had them knock off $300 so I could take and have the trans serviced real soon since the dealer hadn't done that. The first night after getting it home I found an envelope from a transmission and automotive shop, insided contained a warranty agreement and other stuff regarding a transmission. From what I could tell it wasn't info regarding a service job on it. Looked like a new transmission went in or was rebuilt. Did some calling around and sure enough, a shop in Wyoming installed a new rebuilt Allison from the place in Montana ALONG with a new billet converter! Right now its at 33k on the rebuild. Needless to say I'm pretty stoked about this new information!

Onto the couple pics I have...
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The bad:
Has hail damage on the roof. The hood was PDR'd earlier.
The PRND indicator doesn't light up on the cluster.
Red colormatched spray in bedliner is faded.
The starter will probably need to be rebuilt...every once in a great while it will spin and not engage. Done it twice so far.

Immediate plans:
Already removed the step bars.
Got some Escalade handles ready to paint. Do the tailgate handle next.
De-badge.
May de-mold and put GMC moldings on.
Level.
Tint. Thinking 5% front and brow with 15% on back windows.
Exhaust. MBRP straight pipe, probably a 4 or 5inch.
Drop-in air filter.

Future plans:
Tune or programmer. EFI Live with a DSP5 switch probably.
LML driver's side manifold.
Maybe a deep trans pan.
CAT filters.
Turbo horn.
Air bags on the rear axle.
33s after the tires wear out.
 
In for the build. Your plans sound good, I would highly recommend doing a Pump Rub kit from someone like Merchant Auto. There only like $90 and will prevent you from eating another tcase
 
Yep I still got my '08...not going to let that girl go for a long time. I hope high hopes of making that thing fast come this fall...either a motor swap and/or some form of forced induction. The Duramax will get basic mods but will be my work rig/daily to pound over the gravel roads.

The pump rub fix is something I should add to my list, I've checked into them and watched the videos on them.
 
Now that you have something to daily, you should go FI on the 08.. LB7's are fun as fuck though, I can't wait to see what you do to this one
 
sweet truck i just hope while you where removing the step bars you removed that coat rack looking bull bar type thing off the front of your truck besides that im super jelly :up:
 
sweet truck i just hope while you where removing the step bars you removed that coat rack looking bull bar type thing off the front of your truck besides that im super jelly :up:

It's gonna stay for now until I get a ranch hand style moose killer hanging off the front.

Nice truck, love my 03's

I'm really loving this one.

mad jelly,

did you ever get the ride better on the NNBS you said you thought it had something to do with the shocks both being on the back? im tempted to flip the one if it wont effect the ride.

Rides better after I dropped the tire pressures down, but I still think it needs some traction bars due to the way I mounted the shocks. If I make my '08 go fast, I might possibly take the lift off and go back to leveled with the body lift and 33s.

Now that you have something to daily, you should go FI on the 08.. LB7's are fun as fuck though, I can't wait to see what you do to this one

Picked up a piece of exhaust pipe yesterday, hope to hack off the muffler and straight pipe it soon. LB7s are loud as EFF!!
 
It's gonna stay for now until I get a ranch hand style moose killer hanging off the front.



I'm really loving this one.



Rides better after I dropped the tire pressures down, but I still think it needs some traction bars due to the way I mounted the shocks. If I make my '08 go fast, I might possibly take the lift off and go back to leveled with the body lift and 33s.



Picked up a piece of exhaust pipe yesterday, hope to hack off the muffler and straight pipe it soon. LB7s are loud as EFF!!
Just wait til you get full exhaust. LB7 with muffler hack mod does not sound good at all
 
My "muffler hacked" lb7 sounds fucking awesome imo. A full 5 inch would obviously flow better but thats beside the point
 
Well I did my muffler hack with a 3.5 in. pipe. It doesn't sound too bad. I think I'll get a 4in. system later down the road.
 
Thanks. Paid $12,6xx for it. Got some Escalade handles that need to be sprayed for it. Will do the bowtie and paint the edges of the lights to cover up the reflectors at the same time. Billet grille insert came today. Got a K&N drop in as well. Also got some GMC side mouldings coming to replace the big black ones.
 
Nice progress it sounds like so far Shawn. Hopefully the paint under the moldings is okay since the GMC spears are so much smaller than the chevy moldings.
 
Nice progress it sounds like so far Shawn. Hopefully the paint under the moldings is okay since the GMC spears are so much smaller than the chevy moldings.

Ah damn it...I never thought about the paint underneath being bad. I need to do some buffing on the paint sometime soon and when I do it I should pull the flares and check underneath them.