My 2004 Yukon XL 2500HD LBZ

bigdogyj

Member
!!! CAUTION -- Picture heavy post !!!

So I've been living on the diesel forums for the last 15 years or so and figured its time to get back into the camping/overlanding/offroad forums again. It's been a few years but I have been known to do some serious rock crawling on trails such as the Rubicon, Dusy-Ershim, Slickrock, Fordyce, KOH, etc with my old Jeep. Life gets busy and found myself less and less apt to go beat up my rig on those trails. Fast forward a few more years and now I'm married (no kiddos yet) and have a dog that loves road trips. Since we still love to go camping, I've decided to start making our favorite road trip vehicle more capable for the dirt/fire roads and overlanding trips. This thread will serve as a record of projects and upgrades I've made to our 2004 Yukon XL K2500 with a 2006 LBZ Duramax conversion.


We started with a bone stock 2004 Yukon XL K2500 with 181k miles on the 8.1L V8. Picked it up in Colorado and drove it back to California. This thing was pretty clean for its age and mileage. The PO took very good care of it.

066f8ee4e0acab537403241d42048a5f.jpg


f7d0b586dfb9b3de98a5938dc423a697.jpg


I rebuilt the front end with new Cognito UCA's with the intent to level it in the near future. All new bushings and wheel bearings up front were replaced with factory ACdelco components. All steering joints and hard parts were replaced with Rare Parts tie rod ends and idler/pitman arms as well as a Cognito Pitman/Idler support kit. Put a few more miles on it and it was time to hit the road.

3afeba93a022a4e7900d9ca7ea37b17a.jpg


7cd9ee575bc60728645d6ca11c40719c.jpg


ed99add1a5122e0f4926d7d07c5c94db.jpg



Took it on a couple 2-3k mile road trips with the wife and dog and after netting 11.2MPG it was time to do something serious if this was going to be our long term road trip rig...



I did some research and came back across a guy that did duramax conversions on NBS suburban's. I originally heard about him nearly 10 years ago, while I thought it was cool -- it wasn't a necessity. So now 10 years later I no longer need a 1 ton dually diesel for towing/hauling and get far better use out of the suburban than a pickup but need need better MPG and would LOVE the power and torque of a diesel. Since the acquisition cost of the suburban (Yukon xl) was relatively cheap (compared to a new rig) and I currently owned a 2006 Chevy 3500 Duramax which was in great shape (I just never drove it), it was determined that I'd pull the powertrain from the 3500 and put it in the suburban and then sell of the rest of the truck and the 8.1L powertrain. A few talks with Eric @ Duraburb and we had a plan hashed out and a scheduled start date.

Prior to doing the conversion I did a few prep things (dynamat and insulation -- since the diesel engine would be noisier) as well as some cleaning in the cargo area and tinted windows, etc.
ae48fbcfcae30663f118f25c30151758.jpg


Then it was time to hit the road and bring both my Chevy 3500 and the Suburban out to Apopka, FL. We of course has to stop by the Duck Commander warehouse (unfortunately we got there too early and they hadn't opened up yet)...

d76238aa759c4d9fd5547d464aa7c122.jpg


d48e67a51c094ed0f3391abfe3c14fc8.jpg


We dropped off both trucks and flew home while Eric and crew got to work....

d1f9a8ca560bd8f0a2c9a16d18cf3ab9.plist


84be2e0c3f95bb729b87c4316f443656.jpg


A couple months later and we headed back to Florida. LBZ is in place and it's ready to roll.

35aea9b0fb3a4f551e68d564d1aceb62.jpg


7960c04e70460e40a31d8fd623bab844.jpg


The wife and I made the trek north to Niagara Falls with several stops along the way to visit with family... And eventually back home (5003 miles on its maiden voyage from FL to CA).
f1f79f8783bbf008a503babb833f31e4.jpg
17874ee772bb4c697549c86c448ccf4c.mov


End of Chapter 1....
 
Last edited:

bigdogyj

Member
So another year goes by and some idiot decided to bust a window with a rock (so juvenile...) didn’t take anything of value but we have good insurance and they ended up paying us a pretty decent amount to take care of everything. And we had some $$ left over to put towards a few upgrades....

1b32612f6c0febd91e9d708b808eaeee.jpg


8faa111c8fccbd97c0ccbc646ff115c4.plist


b83037f8ca1cce3442428383e0d0e2b1.jpg


2f043c14d5bc26e8b017476c747041e1.mov


de70ae79375e41a45de19a502e50127b.mov


Shortly after I found a set of Hummer H2 wheels so I found a decent 285/70R17 tire to match....

ce744e7bec5c7237d8c7784820c9678f.plist


add7ae96df6616a66190be13e352be40.mov


Along the way we got a set of used AMP research steps which made the wife happy and now we are ready to get back out on the road.
We've done a few smaller trips in California, but next month we'll be headed back to Albuquerque and back thru Nevada and back home.
 
Last edited:

bigdogyj

Member
Finally got a day to get the winch installed. It’s a Warn M12000 with synthetic rope. Still gotta make the connections to the battery and mount the fair lead but its mounted and almost ready for action...
cde4a7b31b6f35ca14581127fc7c596b.jpg

7e8d1fdcf231d3e15f4e02b97dcdd8f5.jpg

6283a8597f3375026ef19e7b95159658.jpg

137333e1c223b914cb10d9e6def868f2.mov


I also swapped the PIAA fog lights for some Baja Designs. Got a deal too good to pass up so I jumped on it. Plus I’m a sucker for good projector fog lights. More on those later...
 

D45

Explorer
285/70R17 is like a 32.7 x 11.20 tire

Any clearance issues?

How much was the Yukon lifted?
 

rayra

Expedition Leader
Burb looks real nice with that bumper. Diesel conversion is real interesting, 'Dura-Burb'

How do you like the mirrors? I'm getting ready to do some camper towing and thinking about buying a pair and I'm wondering how the slider adjustment works...
 

bigdogyj

Member
285/70R17 is like a 32.7 x 11.20 tire

Any clearance issues?

How much was the Yukon lifted?

Yes correct on size.
Tires did rub the rear of the front fender liner when full turned, especially going up an incline (driveway,etc). I pulled the liner and did a partial “nor-cal tuck” by taking a grinder to the body seam at the bottom to put a couple cuts in just the seam. Then used a mini sledge to hammer the seam over flat and pounded it smooth.
Then used a flap wheel on the grinder to sand it smooth and sealed it with Eternabond RV Seam sealer then reinstalled then trimmed an inch or so off the bottom edge of the liner before reinstalling. It sounds like a lot but was maybe 45 mins per side and plenty of clearance now.

The front torsion bars are set to factory ride height (z height) but there is 1.25” body lift at the front to clear the intercooler for the turbo and it tapers down to 0” at the back. So that combined with the fender mods gives it plenty of clearance.
In the rear I also run a RoadMaster active suspension kit which has a coil spring on the top of the leaf spring for additional load capacity. I’ve had air bags on my pickups and never really enjoyed the ride quality. This coil is nice and it’s adjustable so I have it set to raise the rear .25-.5” over stock just to keep some rake in it for when I tow our haul something heavy.

This is not a pic of my truck but gives you an idea of what it is...
2fbd6483e9dd11013ae3adcdffe25560.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Last edited:

bigdogyj

Member
Burb looks real nice with that bumper. Diesel conversion is real interesting, 'Dura-Burb'

How do you like the mirrors? I'm getting ready to do some camper towing and thinking about buying a pair and I'm wondering how the slider adjustment works...

I agree. One of the better looking bumpers for these trucks. I found an arb bumper that looked good but had trouble sourcing it as I think they discontinued it. These worked for the 2500 burb/Yukon frame so I went with these TrailReady base winch bumpers front and rear. I ended up swapping the grill with one from a 2003-2006 Sierra HD so that the lines at the bottom of the grill would match the top off the bumper. Plus it gave it that slightly modern look over the typical Yukon grill of this vintage.

DuraBurb is the place that did the actual diesel conversion. Eric did a fantastic job. Several people including California smog referee was thoroughly impressed and could have been otherwise convinced it was a factory install.

For the mirrors I actually replaced them a couple times. You might notice my earlier pics had mirrors with amber lenses on the outside edge. They were aftermarket and vibrated alot. To the point they were useless on the road. I ended up taking the factory OEM mirrors from my 06 dually And they were plug n play. They work great without vibrations. The extension part is all manual but the mirror is powered, heated and has the turn signals.

I have a post with a collection of part numbers I’ve gathered and used on my rig. I’ll post it up here soon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Last edited:

rayra

Expedition Leader

vintageracer

To Infinity and Beyond!
Not making a judgement just asking a question based upon the way you phrased your comment about gas MPG:

The 8.1 has horsepower, torque and did deliver 11 MPG therefore how many multiples of 100,000 miles do you expect you will have to drive this Duramax Suburban just to break even on fuel savings if any?
 

bigdogyj

Member
Great. I have a regional auto scrapyard that often has GMT800 series vehicles in it, I'm hoping to score some factory versions for the powered aspects, if I can. Rockauto has the aftermarket set for ~$135.

Amazon has a brand pair for $85

Definitely aim for some old oem takeoffs. Even if you have to take them apart and clean them up they will be far better than most aftermarket ones. Aside from them vibrating the adjustment motor was not effective enough to be useful. I didn’t even bother trying to fix them. I think I tried the koolvue but they were close to $200.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Last edited:

bigdogyj

Member
Not making a judgement just asking a question based upon the way you phrased your comment about gas MPG:

The 8.1 has horsepower, torque and did deliver 11 MPG therefore how many multiples of 100,000 miles do you expect you will have to drive this Duramax Suburban just to break even on fuel savings if any?

No offense taken.
Yeah like I mentioned early on I couldn’t complain about the 8.1 really aside from 11 mpg.
With the duramax I avg a solid 20mpg. If all highway and keep it around 65mph I can squeak 22mpg and have a few times now. But I’m usually cruising 70-75mph so that usually nets me 19-20mpg.

Given the higher cost of diesel fuel I definitely wouldn’t recommend this purely from a financial aspect as it would probably take 250,000 miles or more to break even. However the added power and torque and 6 speed Allison is what I really enjoy and I’m so used to that power train it’s just a dream to drive when towing or hauling loads. And it does it effortlessly. I love that part. Plus I’m a fan of the duramax. So it was a win win for me. I don’t miss my dually at all.
The nearly double mpg is icing on the cake at this point.

Given all of that... I plan to drive this thing for at least 250,000 miles or until it’s totally rusted or destroyed. Given the fact I’m on the west coast I don’t have to deal with rust so that could be a while. Haha.
 

flash23

New member
Very nice build, man. Turning my 04 Suburban 6.0l into a Duramax is a dream of mine. I thought I had seen somewhere that Duraburb stopped doing conversions on 00-06 models? When did you have this done?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
188,118
Messages
2,902,333
Members
229,523
Latest member
winnrider
Top