GM Thailand Builds 500,000th Duramax Four-Cylinder Engine
20
Sponsored Links
General Motors Thailand is celebrating an important production milestone after building its 500,000th Duramax turbodiesel four-cylinder engine at its Rayong Plant.
GM’s Rayong powertrain plant began building the small diesel engines in September of 2011 and has been churning them out at a consistent rate ever since, with the engines finding their way into the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks, along with the global Chevrolet Trailblazer and Holden Colorado 7 SUVs.
“(Duramax engines) are one of the most important components that we manufacture in Rayong for both domestic and export markets,” GM Southeast Asia president Hector Villareal said during a visit to the plant this week. “Reaching half a million engines is not only an important milestone for the GPS team but also for everyone at GM Thailand.”
The 2.5-liter XLD25 and 2.8-liter LWN diesels are Euro 5-compliant diesel engines that feature a variable-geometry turbocharger, aluminum cylinder head, integrated oil cooler and high-pressure common-rail fuel delivery system. GM says the motors are two of the most advanced four-cylinder diesels on sale today.
“GM Powertrain Thailand is the only GM facility that fully manufactures the 2.8L Duramax diesel engine,” said Amnat Saengjan, GM Thailand vice president of manufacturing. “Our exports represented over 20 percent of total production, 80,000 engines of the four-cylinder diesel 2.5L and 2.8L Duramax engines in 2018.”
The GM Rayong Assembly Complex opened back in 2000, however the powertrain plant was not constructed until 2011. Prior to this, the site featured only an assembly facility. The assembly plant and powertrain plant are located on the same plot of land and sit adjacent to each other.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM Powertrain news and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
- Sweepstakes Of The Month: Win a Corvette Z06 and 2024 Silverado. Details here.
Sponsored Links
LWN also used in Chevy Express and GMC Savana vans.
Why are these engines being built in the United States.. Trump needs to seriously consider revoking any waiver if one exist to force General Motors to bring the production line back home in the United States.
What a ridiculous comment. You make it sound as if waving a magic wand and forcing a company to build a product in the U.S. will solve the problem. It’s far more complicated than that. And one complication is that people in the U.S. want to pay the least amount possible for a quality product.
Its hard to believe you actually wrote “Trump needs to seriously consider revoking any waiver if one exist to force General Motors to bring the production line back home in the United States.”. Its well documented that Donald Trump has had numerous products that he hawks manufactured in countries other than the US. This includes clothing, products at his TrumpStore.com website, beverages, hotel and gift shop products, and even his campaign gear. He even has had illegal immigrants working at his companies. And Ivanka Trump, until very recently, also had her products manufactured in countries other than the U.S. until the facts were made public and she closed her clothing line.
What an ass hat lol
The US has a small diesel market and SE Asia is a large one. Most of the pickups in SEA are diesels and Thailand is the second largest pickup market in the world behind GM. The Colorado is not a big seller their, but its sister vehicle the Isuzu DMax is the best selling vehicle in Thailand.
When i first went to Thailand for 4 months in 2003, the Isuzu small pickup trucks ( later same truck as Chev Colorado ) had the 2.8 liter turbo 4 cylinder diesel. Since i never worked on the early Thai built version of the 2.8 liter, i am not sure…..but the HP and torque are the same as the early version. What is the difference? Did GM buy out the right from Isuzu for this engine in 2011 and just put a Duramax name on it? Thailand builds that small pickup truck for 11 different countries in Asia, so to see the year to year difference in English, i had to go to the GM Holden site to see the power ratings over the years. there were such minor differences in power from year to year, that, it seemed like the same engine that Thailand is selling now. GM has been saying for years that the Thai built Colorado is different, but you will need a measuring tape to tell the difference.
Diesel World website has a good article on the differences and it includes an in-depth interview with Scott Yackley, Assistant Chief Engineer for the global Duramax project. Read it and you’ll see there are differences and they aren’t minor as you imply.
The 2.8L diesel was an Italian VM Motori engine, introduced when the company was jointly owned by Fiat and GM. It has nothing to do with Isuzu.
It’s also used on FCA vehicles.
Duramax is a joint venture of GM and Isuzu.
The current 2.8L has a new cylinder head and a re-toleranced crankcase.
The current engine has 147 kW of power. The first VM Motori engine put out about 100 kW.
Yes let’s celebrate an American company building parts overseas, and you wonder why I refuse to own another chevy/ gm product
Just go get yourself a ZL1, it’ll be ok little guy,
More jobs for the USA ! THAT’S RIDICULOUS, $crew that 3rd world country. Keep it at home people. It’s just another smelly diesel.
Let give USA jobs away, let’s make polluting diesel because they can’t clean up the refineries enough for gasoline….
My 2017 LWN blew a idler tensioner which in turn led to catastrophic damage, valves bent and rockers broken. Even worse than that is the fact that NOBODY HAS PARTS FOR THIS ENGINE. My mechanic had to buy the garbage PLASTIC tensioner off of eBay because no dealer has it. This is the worst engine he says he’s ever seen because he can’t believe a big company like GM has 0 parts available to fix this piece of junk. I’m done with GM and feel like I got played by them. Complete garbage.
A 2017 is still covered by warranty. Why are you not making a warranty claim?
I’m at 75k miles
“Even worse than that is the fact that NOBODY HAS PARTS FOR THIS ENGINE.”
Nobody has parts for this engine? No one? Really?
I just did a 2 minute internet search just looking for engine parts for a 2017 2.8L Duramax diesel engine. Parts that I could order online right now. Here are just some of the engine parts found: motor mount, timing belt, entire engine, cylinder head, head gasket, valve cover gasket, exhaust valve, valve seals, valve springs , valve keeper, tensioner, piston rings, piston, connecting rod, crankshaft, camshaft, vibration damper, front crank seal, oil pan, balancer, oil pump, etc.
I own a 2017 Chevy Colorado with the 2.8L diesel engine. No problems at all so far.
Would you be able to send me a link? I need to get this thing running again. If it helps my mechanic find something he needs I’d appreciate it.. Thanks
GM is a global company period get used to it because nothing will change that fact.
Ford and FCA are Global companies, is this something new? When I was in Thailand I saw allot of GM and Ford trucks on the road, so what! Non of your comments will change the fact that they will continue to build and sell we’re they can remain in a very competitive market, are you new to business?
I keep saying that, these guys want GM to be a global leader but make everything in the US. Ford even in the Model T days had overseas production for overseas markets, it’s the same for GM, they’ll make vehicles and parts in that part of the world FOR that part of the world..
Look I feel like every one in America. But gm Ford Chrysler are all global companies it makes sense in the world we live in now .also I have a 2.8 in a 2500 Express one of the best engines ever made along aside lbz duramax. People are always going to find the worst in everything that will never change.