can i put a duramx in my 1996 6.5 ??

blwilingham · September 24, 2003

blwilingham · September 24, 2003

i have a great deal on a duramax but i dont know if it can be done and i'm looking to see if anyone else has tried it ??

Colorado Kid · September 25, 2003

It's been started, but I don't know that it has been done.

Jim Bigley (Owner of The Diesel Page)has a D-max physically installed in an older body style pickup, but to the best of my knowledge he hasn't solved all the electronic challenges and got it running. Evidently the challenges are pretty big because the motor was in there and I saw it when I was in Montana in September last year.

Be sure you get ALL the wiring harnesses and computers, including the instrument panel, if you're going to try this. There has been a series of articles on The Diesel Page about the truck, which he calls Power Project II or something like that. All the old articles are eventually taken off line and archived, so I don't know if they are still up, but if you're going to do this project you probably ought to join that site and buy the back issues in necessary, so that you don't have to figure it all out for yourself.

422 SS · September 26, 2003

Wow.If you can do the swap and get it working right it would impress me.I think it would take a electrical engineer to figure all the wiring out.It would definitely be a unique swap.It would be far more than I could ever do.

99-2door · September 27, 2003

A possibility that you might check out is this:

2001 C-3500 HD was available with the 8.1L . The HD was still using OBS configuration in 2001 and 2002 I think. It should have been available with the 6.6L Duramax too. Since it is an OBS truck, you could use the wiring harness from it to make a more or less plug-n-play install for 96-00. I looked at a 2001 with the 8.1L, it looks just like any 96-98 inside. You say you want to replace a 6.5L?? IF your truck is a 95+ this should work. A 94 or older will require mods to the cab to get a 95+ dash to fit. I have been researching a 8.1L swap into a 96-98 c1500 shortwide is the reason I know all this information.