2015 Silverado 2500 Duramax Build

[mississippi_dude]

Hey yall,

Its been a minute since ive posted on a forum. Over 10 years. It all started when I got my first jeep when I was 15



Ah, yes. Unibody life. Ive always had a thing for the Jeep Grand Cherokee ZJ. Dont know why. I like them all but the 1993-1998 bodystyle will always have a special place in my heart *sheds tear*

They are also colossal pieces of junk lol. As a high school kid I didnt have the money to bring it to the shop every week (because it broke every week) so I had to learn how to fix it myself. Armed with a haynes repair manual and forums like Jeep Forum and Mallcrawlin I got a craftsman socket set and started my wrenching journey.



I'll keep the jeep stuff brief because this is a truck build thread but the jeep eventually got a 7" long arm lift and then it got sawzalled down to a buggy and by then it was in such bad shape I just scrapped it and started over.

 

[mississippi_dude]

Here's the next hunk of junk I bought. This was a 97 with the 5.2 and a vortec supercharger. It was already built and I thought it would be reliable and last forever. LOL. Whatever the supercharger didnt break It just fell apart on its own. It got me through the rest of highschool and college and trips back and forth from the gulf coast to Ole Miss but after that I sold it for 1700 (supercharger I sold a year before) and the guy got a deal.



I will love this thing till the day I die. It will always be a sore subject.

 

[mississippi_dude]

So 8 years after the jeep I had a frontier, then a tacoma, then a 2015 GTI (combo breaker) then a silverado 1500, then a new ram 1500. But all that time there was only one thing I wanted. A diesel truck. I love diesels. The way they sound, the way they smell. When you hear a diesel it just screams POWER. I mean, if youre on this forum then like me we are all just big kids who like to play with our toys (rigs) out in the woods. But thats just me and thats what I like.

So I made a horrible financial decision and bought a 2015 Silverado 2500 with the duramax diesel and 200,000 miles on it. Bone stock.

 

[mississippi_dude]

I made it 60,000ish miles before I had any trouble which surprisingly (not) was the emissions system. All I will say is that I got it fixed and then the truck ran much better, both in efficiency and power and I have not had any problems in that department ever since.

The next change was the tires. I wanted a mud terrain but I drive around 50,000 miles a year so that was a no go. All terrains dont look as cool so thank the rubber gods for the hybrid terrains.





I went with the Nitto Ridge Grappler after a few months of research (yeah im that guy) and I couldnt be happier. 35x12.5x18 load F.
I almost went with the toyo r/t but the sidewall wasnt as aggressive looking and I just liked the way the nitto looked more. I also debadged her too. Im a sucker for a clean look.

 

[McCarthy]

How many miles on the truck now?

 

[mississippi_dude]

How many miles on the truck now?

315,000

 

[Outdoorsbound]

315,000

Sorry for attempting to resurrect an older thread but this is the first instance I've seen of anyone else on here that drives what I do.
Couple questions if you don't mind:

1) Any issues w/ the CP4?
I have a CP3 retrofit kit in the mail as well as a FASS lift/filter system. It frosts me no end that I have to drop thousands to remove a doomsday device that GM installed in my truck.

2) I'm shopping leveling kits. Debating on upper control arms and front diff drop. Don't want to fry my CV joints. Any personal experience / advice?


Thanks for any insight.

 

[Martin480]

I made it 60,000ish miles before I had any trouble which surprisingly (not) was the emissions system. All I will say is that I got it fixed and then the truck ran much better, both in efficiency and power and I have not had any problems in that department ever since.

The next change was the tires. I wanted a mud terrain but I drive around 50,000 miles a year so that was a no go. All terrains dont look as cool so thank the rubber gods for the hybrid terrains.

View attachment 620979

View attachment 620980

I went with the Nitto Ridge Grappler after a few months of research (yeah im that guy) and I couldnt be happier. 35x12.5x18 load F.
I almost went with the toyo r/t but the sidewall wasnt as aggressive looking and I just liked the way the nitto looked more. I also debadged her too. Im a sucker for a clean look.

Any updates on the build?

 

[mississippi_dude]

Sorry for attempting to resurrect an older thread but this is the first instance I've seen of anyone else on here that drives what I do.
Couple questions if you don't mind:

1) Any issues w/ the CP4?
I have a CP3 retrofit kit in the mail as well as a FASS lift/filter system. It frosts me no end that I have to drop thousands to remove a doomsday device that GM installed in my truck.

2) I'm shopping leveling kits. Debating on upper control arms and front diff drop. Don't want to fry my CV joints. Any personal experience / advice?


Thanks for any insight.

I never had any issues with the cp4. I think I did the swap around 275k. Maybe it never would have failed. I just saw it as a ticking time bomb and removed it from the equation as soon as I could. It’s frustrating that GM and Ford and Ram now all use a pump with known problems but what can you do? Gotta pay to play I suppose.

If you can afford it I would do a 4” lift. If it’s just not something you want to do then I think a 2” level is not as bad as people make it out to be. I cranked my stock keys up an inch or so and swapped out the shocks and I’ve put 100,000 miles on it like that without any suspension or cv issues. It’ll be stiff, but it’s stiff either way.


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[Explorerinil]

I never had any issues with the cp4. I think I did the swap around 275k. Maybe it never would have failed. I just saw it as a ticking time bomb and removed it from the equation as soon as I could. It’s frustrating that GM and Ford and Ram now all use a pump with known problems but what can you do? Gotta pay to play I suppose.

If you can afford it I would do a 4” lift. If it’s just not something you want to do then I think a 2” level is not as bad as people make it out to be. I cranked my stock keys up an inch or so and swapped out the shocks and I’ve put 100,000 miles on it like that without any suspension or cv issues. It’ll be stiff, but it’s stiff either way.


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Ram /cummins no longer use the cp4.

 

[Tex68w]

Ram /cummins no longer use the cp4.

Correct! They went back to the CP3 in 2021, thank the lord.

 

[mississippi_dude]

Correct! They went back to the CP3 in 2021, thank the lord.

Good on them. Do they still use a factory lift pump as well? I believe that contributes to wear and tear on the cp4 on GMs as it has to draw fuel and pressurize because there is no lift pump from factory. It blows my mind that they even use them at all


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[mississippi_dude]

Update

Nothing really happened for a while. I turned the torsion keys up a bit and did Bilstein 5100s front and back.

I exceeded the payload a couple times

Then the cp4 fuel pump started to make me nervous. Mostly just the horror stories. I never actually had it fail, but I saw it as a ticking time bomb and decided to do a cp3 conversion.

I had already had the truck deleted at around 250,000 miles. So far the mods were just

DPF/EGR delete
4” straight pipe
50hp tune

As it sits now, additional mods have been

Fleece cp3 conversion
Air dog 100 lift pump
GDP cold air intake
Magnaflow muffler
LB7 up pipe
100hp tune

I have no interest in doing any more “power” upgrades to the truck. Maybe a Y bridge at some point but the truck is reliable and strong as it is so I’m comfortable with it right now.

After that I ended up getting a topper for it. This opened up a can of worms in terms of truck modifications. Here’s a bad picture of it

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