Project Looks. Muscle. Longevity.

Improving A 2012 LML Duramax

- Jacob White

After a few months hiatus, Project LML is back for its final installment of the build. Over the last year and a half, this 2012 Silverado made quite the transformation, with everything from suspension and chassis improvements to horsepower upgrades under the hood. When the project was introduced in the March 2018 issue of Diesel World, the plan was to take a completely stock, higher-mileage LML Duramax and turn it into the ultimate daily driver with the versatility to tow whatever you needed, drive where ever you wanted, and do it all with unmatched performance and reliability.

This month, it was time to focus on a few upgrades that had been skipped through the build but are still items any GM owner should contemplate when perfecting the longevity and overall reliability of a truck. Early on in the build we installed a Stage 3 leveling kit system from Kryptonite Products that included upper control arms, leveling keys, ball joints, and new Bilstein shocks. While all of that helped raise the truck up and kept proper CV angles and ball joint angles, we overlooked some key steering upgrades. With the addition of some heavier wheels and tires, we added some strain on the front end and knew the factory tie rods wouldn’t appreciate it if we ever had to use the four-wheel-drive system.