Almost two decades ago General Motors was on the verge of launching a revolutionary new engine that could have rewritten the history of pickup trucks. The 4.5-liter turbodiesel V8, known as the Baby Duramax, was nearly ready to roll, was even shown in a Suburban as a concept at a SEMA show one year, and was set to rewrite the rule book while setting a new bar in the half-ton truck segment. Then the crash of 2008 hit, GM filed for bankruptcy, and the Baby Duramax was shelved. GM said the prototypes were all crushed, but at least one engine made it out of GM’s hands, somehow. It’s now in Sweden.
This isn’t an over exaggeration. The Baby Duramax was going to have more torque than any other engine offered in a half-ton at the time, deliver better fuel economy than competitor’s engines that had less power, and featured technology that didn’t show up in sports cars for another 10 years. It was an engineering marvel that now seems as if it was simply ahead of its time. What could have been, or rather, could be, given at least one prototype is out in the wild. Are there more? How many? Where are they?
View Price on AmazonOn the latest episode of The Drivecast, we discuss the Baby Duramax, code named LMK, what it was, what it could have been, and the prototype that made it out into the wild. Know something about the LMK Baby Duramax? Send us a line at tips@thedrive.com. First time here? The Drivecast is The Drive‘s weekly podcast that takes you behind-the-scenes on the largest controversies, stories, and characters shaping the automotive industry along with the way our roads look today. Powered by The Drive‘s inside access, original reporting, exclusives, and insights, The Drivecast aims to make everyone an insider.
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Caleb: All right, Joel. I’m excited to finally talk about this on a podcast. This, consumed so much of my life there for a little bit as I was doing this reporting, trying to uncover, you know, the current story with the lost Duramax. And, here we are, and it’s kind of ironic because you just spent the last week in a Silverado EV Trail Boss. Quite a different rig there, don’t you think?
Joel: Yeah, no. I mean, look, we live in such a different timeline than the 2008 and the LMK and all that stuff. It’s true. I just had a Chevrolet Silverado EV Trail Boss and, you know, this is… It’s an electric truck, right? With a massive battery pack, and it’s heavy, and it has all the torque—775 pound-feet of torque—and all of the horsepower—725 horsepower. On 35s, and off-road this and whatever. It’s a rolling oxymoron. Like, it is a rolling contradiction, and we’ll do a review on that and everything like that. But it is ironic timing that we are talking about the baby Duramax and what could have been, given we are in such a different timeline. And history would have probably been changed in the the truck segment, which we’re about to talk about.
So, before we get into everything, Caleb, walk us through what we’re even talking about. The background here, what happened, and the history itself, prior to us finding the engine itself that escaped the crusher. What are we even talking about?
Caleb: Yeah, sure. So, the 4.5-liter Duramax, that was a project that, really got wound up there in the mid-2000s, toward the end of that decade. It was a really spectacular engine, with over 300 horsepower and more than 500 lb-ft of torque. The Baby Duramax was going to have more torque than any other engine offered in a half-ton at the time, deliver better fuel economy than competitor’s engines that had less power, and featured technology that didn’t show up in sports cars for another 10 years.
Source: thedrive.com
