GM planning for almost 100,000 4.5L diesels a year

General Motors is expecting their new Duramax 4500 diesel V-8 to be a popular option in their trucks after its 2009 introduction. The engines will be built at GM's Tonawanda, New York engine plant and the company is preparing to build 400 engines a day. That works out to about 94,000 engines a year. The new engine will be launching in the Hummer H2 and then get added to other full-size trucks. If diesels turn out to be popular in other vehicles and fuel economy regulations are raised it wouldn't be surprising to see production expanded and availability added to some car platforms.
[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
small-wee-wee 11:19AM (9/29/2007)
I'd rather see them plan 100,000 1.5L clean diesel engines.
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steven 12:09PM (9/29/2007)
@1... GM already has four-cylinder diesel engines with 1.3-, 1.7-, 1.9-, 2.0-, and 2.5-liter displacements. Not sure if a 1.5 would offer anything more....
It might help to read the article referenced first, as the post above has about 1% of the info needed to get a proper point of view. Not sure 1.5Ls are going to do anything for their light duty pickups which is the primary purpose of this engine.
GM estimates that this new engine will improve fuel efficiency by 25%, reduce CO2 emissions by 13% and decrease particulate and NOx emissions by at least 90% in its GMT900 pickups and the HUMMER H2. This new V-8 engine is also 50-state legal.
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Mattias 3:36AM (9/30/2007)
#2: GM's Diesel line up needs to be cleaned soon: The 1.3l is the small Fiat engine, the 1.7l an old Isuzu/Opel design, the 1.9l is the newer Fiat design. The 2.0l is a VM design. In the mid term, the 1.7l will fade away and be replaced by the Fiat 1.3l. In the long term the Fiat 1.9l will be replaced by a VM design and since GM took over majority of the VM the 1.3l will go the same way. Rumor is about a 1.6l that shares the block with the 2l VM engine. A 1.2l three cylinder is also possible.
BTW: Is this 4.5l V8 somehow co-developped by VM? I just can't believe that after a history of failures -- the were no reliable diesels built by GM without help from Isuzu, Fiat or VM -- they suddenly manage to build a competitive Diesel?
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bfg0 11:19AM (10/01/2007)
This is supposed to fit where any small-block GM V8 fits.
That means you could take your mid-80's Porsche 911 and drop a 4.5L diesel in it with some help from renegadehybrids.com...that would be awesome.
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