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@fastinradfordable

3 ай бұрын

The ‘gas and Diesel engines are different’ argument is MOOT Case 1- the vw diesel was essentially based on a 1975 gas engine from Audi doveloped in the 60s. This engine ran almost unmodified until 1997 powering cars and even ‘bus’ Case 2 Vw 1.9 tdi Literally shares a block with the 1.8t /2.0 gas engines. All 3 engines can go half a million miles. None had headgasket problems. It’s not that they can’t share a design. That’s shade thrown by gm or ford fanboys. The reality is. Oldsmobile was shitty and now they’re gone😂

@fastinradfordable

3 ай бұрын

And u were struggling to find other Diesel engines. Mercedes has been making and importing diesels for United States since 1949. And they still do. For 75 years. Or older than the avg male in North America.

@partrickstowman8039

3 ай бұрын

I have matching 1982 Buick and Olds land yachts. Huge! And they got 28 mpg! The odd head gasket failure to be sure.

@partrickstowman8039

3 ай бұрын

Fortunately for people around here there was a mechanic that could do the head gasket fast and cheap. You had to keep the glow plugs up for our ND winters.

@MrTheHillfolk

3 ай бұрын

Well the other day was depressing. I worked on a generator powered by a 6B 12v cummins. Whats depressing about that ? Someone ruined it by putting some spark plugs in it. They took a great engine and ruined it with gaseous fuel 😂

My dad bought a brand new Chevy truck in 1980 that had that 5.7 diesel. It blew up nearly instantly and the dealer put a 5.7 gas in for nothing as it was still in warranty and they couldn’t guarantee another diesel wouldn’t do the same thing so that was their answer to it. They knew they were junk.

@misterhipster9509

3 ай бұрын

I own a 1980 C-10, head gasket failed @ 70k miles, owner placed in the barn for 20 years and I bought from the kids. Installed an upgraded short block, or DX and remanufactured the pencil injector fuel system, runs wonderfully. To bad about the poor service life back in the day, sad really they are economical.

@latus-rectum45

3 ай бұрын

ARP headstuds and a fuel water separator is supposed to be the fix for this rig!

@cbmech2563

3 ай бұрын

A friend of mine bought one and the dealer told him that if he came in with even a shovel in the bed it would void the warranty. The only only guy I ever heard of that got any kind of life out of one said that he was changing head bolts every 25000 miles 🤔

@davebullock3517

3 ай бұрын

My Dad had one of those and never had an issue with it.

@scottlott251

3 ай бұрын

I used to replace the diesel with the 5.7 Olds gas engine. Talk about a tire burner! Those engines rocked in a pickup.

My mom had an Olds Diesel station wagon. One cold fall morning she started it up, and it made a smoke cloud so impressive that my dad saw it from two blocks away and thought that our house was on fire...

@tcmtech7515

3 ай бұрын

LOL!!! As a kid my great-grandparents lived in a trailer park and someone down the street had one of those. On a cold day, they'd smoke out half the neighborhood getting that thing warmed up. 😅

@InLineDiesel6

3 ай бұрын

Yep, I had one in a Malibu station wagon. On a cold morning it completely white smoked out my backyard and then some. Mine had the injection pump fix and it ran remarkably well. I put well over 300K miles on it without any issues outside of a failed thermostat.

@tobybrown1179

3 ай бұрын

Uncle Buck eat your heart out

@lsswappedcessna

3 ай бұрын

That's just a normal idi diesel, the old 7.3 internationals did it and even newer tractors do it if you don't run the glow plugs long enough. Shame they weren't reliable enough to have a certain one-legged Canadian doing hick shit with them in the middle of a field.

@genegleason4987

3 ай бұрын

I had a Buick park avenue with the 5.7 diesel. Only problem I had with it was diesel freezing up. Mechanic told me get rid of it before something goes bad on its. Traded it next day

love my '06 vw jetta1.9 diesel. 535,000 miles and still going strong.... gets 55mpg all the time...

@johnfitbyfaithnet

3 ай бұрын

Nice

@DrPowerElectronics

3 ай бұрын

It’s known to be amazing and I am pretty sure was developed with Ford.

@paulgunnersen268

3 ай бұрын

I also have a 2004 vw jetta tdi belonged to my parents and it stop running I towed it home replaced the fuel temp sensor injection pump and crankshaft position sensor running like new vacuum line repaired for turbo also 120,000 miles took it alabama and back to ny 60 miles to the gallon 😂

My ex father-in-law was bitten by the Olds 350 diesel bug. He bought a new 79 Olds station wagon, forget the model. Supposed to be the greatest engine in the world. Six SETS of head gaskets, multiple lifters and two cams later, he's still poking fun at my 78 1.5 liter diesel Rabbit that got 54 mpg highway and in the thirties or better around town. About a month later the miracle Olds loses oil pressure. To boost his mileage, he used Arco graphite in it from day one. I asked my dad about graphite in oil, as it sounded good, at least on paper. He told me that when he was young (he was born in 1917) an oil company came out with graphite oil. The problem was that the graphite particles settled out of the oil when the engine was stopped, gradually plugging oil galleys in the block and passages throughout the engine. It seems that is exactly what happened to the miracle Olds. The block passages became plugged and starved the cam and crank of oil, the resulting metal took out the rest of the miracle Olds engine. Total mileage on the miracle Olds? 65K. I had bought my diesel Rabbit new and I had over 100 K on the engine at that time. I sold the Rabbit to a friend at 220K and he drove it for years before giving it to his son as a first car. The son wrapped it around a tree. Dead Rabbit. I loved a diesel engine that redlined at 5400rpm and held together for hundreds of thousands of miles.

@grancitodos7318

3 ай бұрын

I had a diesel Rabbit, worst car ever, but I liked the diesel engine, even though I had to rebuild it in Guatemala, after a cooling fan failure and overheat.

@MrTheHillfolk

3 ай бұрын

Loved my diesel rabbit ,I ran em daily into the mid 2000s. feel robbed if im not getting 40mpg even now.

@lsswappedcessna

3 ай бұрын

Yeah putting shit like that in any Olds small block or even big block is a terrible idea. Their heads all had a design flaw that made the drain ports easy to clog, which would lead to loss of oil pressure throughout basically the entire bottom end if it got bad enough. Not an issue if you keep up on oil changes and keep the sludge out of them, but these engines will fail due to lack of lubrication if you neglect them or put unnecessary additives in them.

We had a diesel VW Rabbit non-turbocharged 5-speed at that time. 44mpg and never had any issues with it.

@Comm0ut

Ай бұрын

Those were however incredibly SLOW and underpowered. Wonderful little engine otherwise though.

@engineerinhickorystripehat9475

20 күн бұрын

​@@Comm0utI had a customer that had the truck he ran for years on stolen rig dsl . He finally gave up when oil burning caused enough glow plug failures that they surpassed fuel "cost "

When you started explaining what Oldsmobile was, several joints started hurting and I think my elbow popped from old age........ It didn't even occur to me that there are people that don't know what Oldsmobile is or was

@mattbrown5511

3 ай бұрын

I hurt every time I hear someone say that Ford made a "Show" version of the Taurus. SHO (Super High Output) was most definitely not a show car. It was front wheel drive performance package.

@6235dude

3 ай бұрын

+1, SUCKS getting old!

@invisibilianone6288

3 ай бұрын

@@mattbrown5511Taurus or something that came out the south end, of a northbound bull..lol, with blown headgaskets/cracked heads, or transmission failures, if the engine happened to miraculously keep running. Wrecking yards always had several. Same with its twin, the Mercury Sable. Every one of the big three, had certain models, that were failures, waiting to happen..👀☕

I worked at a GMC dealer 77-82.Problems we had with the 350 diesel were rear main seal fails,pistons would black hole,blocks would break at the main cap webbing.Fuel injector and pump fails.Glow plug fails.The first batch had some sort of plating on the fuel injector lines.Inside and out.The plating would flake of and travel to the injector and take out the injectors.We just kept working on them.

I was a young used car manager back then. These cars were total junk. You could sit a gas car right next to a diesel and the diesel would sit for months. We basically had to give them away. Now that being said Mercedes Benz 220D, 240D and 300D along with VW Rabbit cars and Rabbit pickups with diesel motors ran great and we sold them as fast as they hit the lot.

Mom bought an 81 rabbit diesel for 7200 out the door. Those little fellas are some of the best diesels of the time , ran rings around the domestic garbage as far as reliability.

@aggie46

3 ай бұрын

Had a Diesel Rabbit for a loooong time, still have a diesel w123 mercedes..Most reliable car ever built.. GM idiocy, particularly how they treated their customers guaranteed most would never buy another diesel anything, many never another GM product, more than a few never another US built car. GM knew how to properly build a diesel engine; ie Detroit Diesel, Electromotive locomotive engines. In europe Opel(part of Buick then) built a fine engine. This is what happens when bean counters and marketing override good engineering.. Had they got it right there would be fewer imports in the market imho.

@dcpack

3 ай бұрын

A shame they have been legislated out of existence for the US. Our government at work.

@stoneylonesome4062

3 ай бұрын

Volkswagen Diesels produced about forty-ish horsepower with a timing-belt and a weak head gasket. When it came to 80’s Diesels, Mercedes was king, with the MFI Peugeot Turbo-Diesels being a close second.

@davidelliott5843

3 ай бұрын

I have a Fiat 1.3 diesel based on their FIRE engine line that’s been around since mid 1980s. Double overhead cam, 16 valves, direct injection and 70bhp out of the box. They can be mapped to 95 bhp. A major feature is the split crankcase/block. Above crank is cylinders in cast iron. Below crank is a one piece aluminum block that carries the bottom bearing shells. It’s as strong as. Cylinder head carries valves lifters and rockers. Twin cams are above that.

@iaial0

3 ай бұрын

​@@davidelliott5843 1.3 iirc have also an alloy head and Multijet

We were a Chevy dealer during the era of these engines. We traded for a Olds Delta 88 with a diesel that drove to the dealership. On Monday morning I got in the car to move it, and when I started it-- the crankshaft broke. It was under warranty so Oldsmobile replaced the engine. We had sold a diesel Monte Carlo that had a recall-- we were supposed to inspect the injection pump for a yellow dot-- supposedly if it had the yellow dot it was OK-- and it did. Well, sometime after the folks purchased it the governor weight retainer ring broke, the engine went wide open, would not shut off with the ignition key, and the wife drove it 15 miles to the dealership holding it with the brakes. We took plyers and pinched off the fuel return line and killed the engine. Had to replace all the brake calipers, rotors, and drums-- and repaired the injector pump. Folks kept the car. I was at a Chevrolet zone meeting when the 6.2 came out-- and one of the higher ups told us how the 6.2 was a clean sheet design-- which it was-- and how the 350 was "a black mark on the face of general Motors"....

@tomcampbell6363

3 ай бұрын

That 6.2 was a runner! Great mileage in a 4wd suburban!

@lsswappedcessna

3 ай бұрын

Yeah GM half assed the conversion, for sure. Having a diesel engine BASED ON the 350 Rocket wasn't a bad idea, directly converting a 350 Rocket WAS.

@dennis-nz5im

3 ай бұрын

Was driving a 260p engine with a cutlass salon body , pump did same thing. Drove to the guy who did diesels and he cut the line . Pdi at olds in Orlando 78-80. Buick v 6 , remove the oil sender and replace with a low pressure so that the light didn’t flicker. Too small outer bearings on A body in 78. Campaign was a bearing with more rollers . GM buried it’s self .

@johnrose3169

3 ай бұрын

@@lsswappedcessna The diesel was a true diesel - not a converted gas engine. GM used the tooling of the gas V8 to build the Olds diesel. The 350 Rocket had nothing in common with the 350 Diesel. The diesel block, heads, pistons, connecting rods, and crankshaft were all unique to the Olds diesel. The 5.7 liter displacement was the only thing the two engines shared - along with the tooling to build the engines.

My Grandpa had a 80's Chevy Caprice with the diesel 350. It eventually got handed down to me when i was in need. That old car had a million miles ( not really but it was a bunch anyway) and was still running fine when it got wrecked. I loved that old car. Cant tell you how many time I got yelled at at the fuel station for putting diesel in it.... even though you could hear the darn thing running from across town 😂😂.

The thinking behind the design was to keep costs to retool cheaper. However, a lot of diesel enthusiasts I've talked with have stated, the 5.7 and 4.3 diesel blocks were stronger than the gas versions to handle the higher compression. But all the tooling was kept pretty much the same so they could keep costs down during manufacturing. Being that these were indirect injection engines, kind of explains the higher compression ratio. The later GM 6.2, 6.5, International 6.9 and 7.3 were all IDI and had over 20:1 compression. By the end of the Olds diesels production, they had pretty much had them mostly all figured out, but the reputation was already tarnished and were discontinued.

@clydeschwartz

3 ай бұрын

The 5.7 Olds diesel engine was a good engine the ones built after 1982 had way less head gasket problems but they vibrated so bad a family friend had a Buick station wagon with one he tore up the transmission so he had a turbo 400 put in it then the vibration was so bad the bolts for the alternator and power steering pump sheared off so I had to drill them out and it was horrible on starters in the cold Minnesota winter so he put a 6.2 starter in it and had to crush in the exhaust pipe below the starter it would start in the winter if you kept it plugged in and number 1 fuel it got fairly good mileage even with out the overdrive transmission it really howled to do 65 mph at 55 it was not bad. He used it many years then the injection pump went out and it went to the crusher. Other people converted there's to gas with very low miles on the drivetrain the gm 200 metric transmission was a joke even with a gas engine

@johnrose3169

3 ай бұрын

Correct - on the tooling and the D and later DX blocks were nothing like the gasoline blocks - much heavier.

@patrickday4206

2 ай бұрын

6.2 21:1 in some models 6.9 19:1

My father had a1978 Oldsmobile 98 with a diesel motor in it. It leaked oil from everywhere! The dealership garage had engines all over the place laying on the ground! We owned it for about 6 months before my dad traded it in. What junk ! My father purchased a 1978 300SD turbodiesel and it ran forever! We also owned a VW rabbit diesel and it had a 5 speed manual. 55mpg on highway,40 in the city. Kept it 10 years. Never had a problem with it until I sold it to a neighbor and he ran it without coolant and burned up the motor.

Tales from an old guy. In 1978 i bought a new Scottsdale 1/2 ton with olds 350 diesel. She was rigged out for flagging and pilot car. It got fantastic milage about 24 - 27 mpg. It burnt almost nothing idling all day, running all the beacons and wig-wags. Amazing! This is before LED's, and was retrofitted with 270 amp Leece- Neville alternator that puts out 140 amps at idle. Was very lucky, put 120,000 km on her without any major issues. Had her on Finning oil sampling program. Metals were very high from new. Changed oil every 3000 km. Put issapro v8 pyrometer on it. Would easily go to 1100F. Never took her above 850F! The small factory oil filter was joke, about 23 microns I remember??? Searched through NAPA catalog and found a 9 micron hydraulic filter that had the same threads and base. This filter was about twice as long as factory and 2 inches wider! Was really pissed as pickup had ZERO resale value, dealer wouldn't take it as a trade! Dont know about US, but GM Canada after a few years eventually had a generous trade in for origional owners against buying new 6.2 detroit diesel. Needless to say i traded her in for another Scottsdale 20 with 6.2. Another lemmon... Did not like been driven hard. High EGT's Lots of 6.2's died from over heating... Well not nearly as bad as the Olds, used oil and lots of issues, and warranty updates, of course lots not covered!!! Applied many of the tricks from my Olds to the 6.2. She faired much better than most. Soon as Ford came out with the 6.9 IDI, traded her in for 1986 ugly F250. They were ugly! Not a power house, but lot more than 6.2 and you could drive 6.9 hard and did not complain or break down. EGT's Never above 900F period! Ended up been best truck I have owned. Better fuel milage than 6.2. No oil consumption, between 6000 km oil changes Finning oil samples were always excellent. IDI's will have cavitaion damage unless additive levels are montitored. Put 380,000 km on f250. Couple glow plugs was only repairs. Never used any oil or had blowby. Sold it to another pilot car operator. She put another 300,000 km on it trouble fee! Bought new 1990 F350 supercab with 7.3 IDI turbo diesel (not a power stroke), another trouble free truck! PS Ford rated the IDI turbo at 190hp as not to undercut the new PowerStroke 215 hp coming out in 1994. Stock IDI pulles the same grade at same speed as Powerstroke. Obviously the Powerstroke is electronic engine and starts much better in the cold and probably more generous hp and torque curves. But stock vs stock there was almost no difference.

@giggiddy

3 ай бұрын

What a great and interesting story. Those are the exact detailed type stories I enjoy. Thanks for sharing my friend. Cheers

@patrickday4206

2 ай бұрын

I was getting 18 in my 6.2 what where you getting in your 6.9

@ronunderwood5771

Ай бұрын

An old IH guy here. The 6.9 was based on the MV404,446 gas engines. The MV family came out in the 70's. They were supposed to replace the SV 304, 345, 392 family as emissions got tighter. IH put a new assembly line in at the Indianapolis plant. It was the most modern, automated engine line in the world at the time. The bore and cylinder spacing was fixed position. When the gas crunch hit IH looked at converting the SV family to diesel and realized it wouldn't work. So they looked at the MV. The story goes that this project did not have the support of the board but some key people pushed it forward AND made contact with Ford. Ford use far outstripped IH use.

Anecdotally, it's true that GM ruined the image of diesel cars in the US for a whole generation. Largely it came down to bean counters, which GM seemed to have in abundance. From a theoretical perspective, the engine was clever; GM took inspiration from the ubiquitous Ricardo Comet prechamber ("swirl chamber") design but significantly modified it, and the result was a slightly quieter and smoother engine. But, no water/fuel separator, no additional head bolts, primitive TTY head bolts, little to no dealer and customer education, etc. What a shame. You are correct in that the later 4.3 V6 was a better offering. My grandparents had a Pontiac 6000 with a 4.3 diesel and it proved to be *reasonably* reliable while they owned it. Not fast of course, but I do recall them raving about the fuel economy. Nearly 40mpg on the freeway in a roomy GM A-body. Not bad for the era, or even now

@gentrest6421

3 ай бұрын

Actually GM had produced great diesel engines for passenger cars. By Isuzu. All European and Australian diesel passenger cars where powered by Opel/Isuzu diesel engines. Instead simple use knowledge or at list assist from Isuzu or Detroit Diesel, they tried to engineer something absolutely "in house". Nonsense.

@karlschauff7989

3 ай бұрын

@@gentrest6421 They no doubt did a design in-house because they would save significant money by not having to retool their engine casting/machine tooling. If they adopted an Isuzu design back then, they would have to spend hundreds of millions to build plants dedicated to casting, machining, and assembling those engines, and then hope the American market embraced the switch from gasoline vehicles to diesel vehicles.

Good video, Josh. As always. I owned an ‘81 Bonneville with the 5.7 diesel engine. Great car, 30mpg with a 30 gallon fuel tank. I drove the car gently and finally lost a head gasket at 100k miles. The shop manager came out to confirm that the engine had never been opened up before. Sometime after that I swapped in a gas engine. I could have driven that diesel car from MD to Fl nonstop if I had a catheter. :)

Good video. Oldsmobile also made a 4.3 V8 Diesel for the 1979 model year only. A much-needed water/fuel separator was finally added to the 5.7 Diesel lineup in 1985 (the last year for the production of the Olds Diesel). However, it was too little too late. The D block (1978-1980) was replaced with a beefier DX block in 1981. The DX blocks solved many of the bottom-end issues that plagued the D block. The D blocks were known to experience broken crankshafts and for literally pulling the main cap bolts out of the block because of short bolts. The top end of the DX block still only had four TTY bolts to a cylinder. The head bolt clamping ability still wasn't good enough to withstand a 22.5 to 1 compersion ratio, so they continued to blow head gaskets. The 4.3 V6 Diesel had six head bolts per cylinder. If the 5.7 could have started out with this it would have been a far different outcome for that engine. If an owner of a DX block knew how to maintain one and if he drove it gently it could last. Some went for many miles because of knowledgeable treatment.

@paulgunnersen268

2 ай бұрын

As far as having a water and fuel separator which is highly recommended to prevent damage to the fuel injector pump the design they were using in the 77 and 78 olds had a problem with the ceramic cover had two o rings that got sucted inward and had a loss of power air was getting in dealer installed in Pennsylvania

From what I remember, if you found a good mechanic that knew what to do to fix the 5.7 diesel, it could be a good engine, kind of along the lines of the fixes that went into fixing the 6.0 and 6.4 Navistar engines that Ford used in their pickups

@misterhipster9509

3 ай бұрын

Quoted for truth.

@danhammond8406

3 ай бұрын

Even after all the fixes the fords are still boat anchors

I know someone that bought one in a fancy full size Olds. The injector pump leaked in the basement garage, weeks to replace and it leaked again. Head gaskets went and during the repair process a bolt got dropped in the intake. Scratch the engine. The dealership owner had lent his personal car, a Caddy, and really wanted it back. This guy told him write me a check for what I paid for that pos, and you can have the Caddy back. He took that check and went to Mercedes dealer. That was a good reliable diesel...

My mom had a wagon with the 350 diesel. That car was a beast! It ran great and we took it on a lot of trips.

Yep Josh, my first ever aquisition from a bona fied dealership here in Phoenix (The Buzzard) was from the used lot. Absolutely beautiful '85 Olds Cutlass Supreme Brougham (diesel) circa '86 or so. Luckily for me one of the 2 main 12 volt batteries went out just about the time I'd learned that this particular motor is going to have problems. They took it right back & we drove out in a '79 GMC Vandura. Put over a quarter million of the hardest miles possible on that van. Great trip down memory lane. Cheers!

I had to replace a few head gaskets on those atrocious shitboxes. I remember the passenger side was a real chore because of the heater box hanging off the firewall so you had to pull the whole engine a trans assembly forward to get the head off since the heads of the headbolts would snap off due to the high compression in what was a modified gasoline engine. We would run a quart diesel fuel through the crankcase to clean the Penzoil sludge from the crankcase doing an oil change. Diesel fuel quality was atrocious back in the 80's, these cars clattered, smoked and stank like diesel ass. I will whole heartily agree that GM is singularly responsible for killing passenger car diesel applications in the US forever more! GM = General Mishap.

The REO in Diamond REO trucks stands for Ransom E. Olds, the founder of Oldsmobile. It was his next venture after selling Oldsmobile to General Motors. There were 3 Oldsmobile diesels, 4.3 l 260 CI V8, 5.7 l 350 CI V8 and the 4.3 l 260 CI V6. I never got into the Olds V6 Diesel but the 350 and 260 V8 blocks and cranks were better than what was used in the gasoline engine, the only difference in the 2 V8's was the bore size. They had thicker cylinder walls and a forged nodular iron crankshaft, and used the main journal size of the big block Olds 3.00" as opposed to the small blocks 2.5. The later DX block received .921" roller lifters over the previous .842 flat tappets. The 350 block is still desirable for building gas strokers. The main problem these diesels had was head gaskets and not having a water separator in the fuel system, with ultra low sulfer fuel having a supporting role. And the reason we're still talking about how bad it was 40 years later is because the issue is even more misunderstood now than it was then. But did this engine alone ruin the diesel market? No because it was also very expensive to have the fuel system of a VW rabbit serviced. Most automotive shops were grasping at straws when it came to diesels and diesel shops didn't really want to mess with them. VW dealers weren't everywhere. At least Oldsmobile dealerships were nearly everywhere and their mechanics were usually top notch.

@truracer20

3 ай бұрын

As far as the transmission failures of the CARB test cars goes, the TH200 was junk, a moth fart was too much power for them. The TH200 debacle is the reason we have the TH350 with the multi fit bell housing. GM couldn't build enough TH 200's to meet production AND warranty needs so the TH350 was substituted, when GM finally scrapped production of the TH200 they re-engineered the bell housing of the TH350 for the Chevy and BOPC patterns. But the TH200 lived on and went from total garbage to becoming the 200R4, a very good 4 speed overdrive.

During this time period we had the famous 5 points at levittown, pennsylvania gasoline price riot. 5 points meaning an intersection where 3 roads met. There were 3 gas stations there, all 40 yards apart. From 1977 to 1981 gasoline went from 40 cents a gallon to 1.30 gallon. Apparently the prices rose quickly, leaving gm short on time to research and develop these diesel power plants. The economy was really bad, its a time when our factories and steel mills started dying quickly. We havent had such a bad economy since 1980

@victorjeffers1993

3 ай бұрын

Yea we have we got one now thanks to Obiden

Our neighbor bought a Diesel suburban back in early 80s, we use to camp with them, first trip to Fla they had issues all the way down towing a 20ft camper, got it fixed during the 2 weeks we were in Fla, motor blew up 40mi from home. He ended up ripping that POS Out and put a small Detroit outa some mid sized dump truck, all i remember as a kid was the whole back of Suburban was black with soot, and when they drove by it huffed clouds of black smoke. Boy did that truck pull! They put some big standard transmission in it. Ill find out what motor and trans it was and comment. What a cool truck for the early 80s

@SquishyZoran

3 ай бұрын

I’d love to know what and how they did it. I’ve wanted to put a Detroit in a suburban for many years and any info would help immensely!

I'm going to pause at 0:49 to guess that it will be the Olds 350 diesel. EDIT: That wasn't a hard guess really. When I was in high school, I had this Chevrolet Caprice. It had a 305 gasoline V8 in it with a 350 turbo transmission. It also had a brake booster that ran off the power steering pump, and prominently displayed on the inside of the fuel filler door and the gas gauge were the words "DIESEL FUEL ONLY". It was a diesel caprice that someone had swapped a gasoline engine into.

It also didn't help that customers didn't know about the differences between diesel and gas, and weren't really properly educated on things like anti-gel additives or glow plug cycling. This just piled on top of the reliability issues.

My parents had one of those. It blew up. I remember as a kid sitting on the side of the road waiting for the tow truck to show up. They had only recently bought it 2nd hand and I think the place they bought it from bought it back. I have always heard that same line as well; that engine destroyed the American diesel market for cars. I believe it.

I've heard the later DX block olds diesels were pretty solid But by the time those came out the damage was already done

@ischmidt

3 ай бұрын

Giving up on something immediately after fixing the problems rather than trying to educate customers was kind of a GM tradition, going back at least as far as the Corvair.

Some 4.3 diesels made it into Generac generators. I think they were factory leftovers that Generac bought on the cheap. They used to do that a lot, maybe still do. "Engine of the month" the dealer techs called it.

@tcmtech7515

3 ай бұрын

Onan loved to do the same with their bigger units. I have seen many commercial Onan gensets over the years and I can't recall two ever having the same engine in them.

@sandasturner9529

3 ай бұрын

Lol, the stories here.....

Everyone thinks that it was a converted gas engine. It was NOT. It actually was designed to be a diesel. There was only five head bolts per cylinder. The hydraulic lifters were not ported right and oil starved. The pistons didn't have a large enough bowl to swirl the explosion which put excessive pressure on the head gasket fire rings. Another thing about those times was the labor unrest. There were many many sabotage and failure of pride in the workforce. I've worked on cars that was so poorly built it's amazing they even made it the factory door. Engines with not loose but missing main bolts, found pounds of hardware floating around under the valve covers and lifter valley, oil pump pickup bent up that it was barely in the oil, and many more. I didn't get much bodyshop work but they were straight out and was asked to look at a Rt door window problem on a C10. The whole door was filled with gravel up to the window regulator. That means the door was filled up before it was assembled and installed.

I remember my Dad purchased a brand new 1981 Chevrolet Chevette. It was powered by a 51 hp Isuzu diesel. Incredibly good fuel economy, but I remember it's highlight performance was the shift from 1st to 2nd. After that? it was all over for the performance part .

@ChevyConQueso

3 ай бұрын

Buddy had a Toyota pickup of sinilar vintage with their baby diesel. 81 hp I think it was? Dismal. 51 is so much worse. 😂 Ford used a 4 banger Perkins for a couple years in the early 80s Rangers as well.

@sumduma55

3 ай бұрын

​@@ChevyConQuesothe chevette was probably around 6-800 pounds lighter than the Toyota pickup or more depending on the trim levels. The 30ish horsepower difference wouldn't be as impacting as it sounds. But I have owed both and the general assessment here accurate. They both were left wanting until you put sky high priced gas in them and realized how much further they went than other common vehicles at the time.

@khrisvaughan7145

3 ай бұрын

​@@ChevyConQuesoi think only the 2.2l was perkins and was na. If turbo it was a mitsubishi 2.3l diesel. I had 2 of them a 86 and 87. Stupid trucks had no power but easily got mid 40s + mpg

If I could find another 5.7 diesel I would drive it until the wheels fell off. Had an 82 impala with the v8 diesel while working road construction and going to college in the late 90's. Had 280k when it was retired due to being rear ended. Biggest problem with diesel cars is they are driven like a gas engine. Fire it up and stop at the store and shut down. No warm up or cool down. Thanks for bringing up fond memories.

I remember as an early teenager one winter helping a Family Friend who ran a wrecking yard. Move the diesel cars in and out of the heated shop so the diesel cars could thaw out and start. The wreckers pulled in a bunch of them! All gelled up. Best Wishes! M.H

Great video - well done. I grew up during that time era and considered that car (Oldsmobile known for the first modern short stroke high compression overhead valve v8s - Rocket V8) but when I realized it was a gasoline engine converted to a diesel I thought that this would be a reliability nightmare - boy was I right.

I remember that the EPA was pushing US automotive manufacturers to raise their CAFE Corporate Average Fuel Economy at that time. The easiest way was to install lightweight V-8 diesels by the hundreds of thousands. What they didn't count on was that the US population drove these underpowered vehicles the same as traditional gasoline fueled vehicles. Cold starting could be a nightmare. Water in the diesel fuel destroyed injection pumps but was hardly noticed in gasoline vehicles. The engines were gutless, had different service requirements, and were quirky. Diesel fuel wasn't available at every gas station like it is now. In cold climates, the heater barely worked, too. What I recall was that diesel powered US cars of that era had a good start by promising great fuel economy and cheap fuel which cost less than gasoline back then. But as soon as somebody you knew started having troubles with their diesel car, the bad reputation spread quickly. Mercedes and VW diesel cars had far better engineering for decades and their owners were happy. But the drive toward CAFE ruined the US diesel vehicle market very quickly. Europe had small turbo diesel powered vehicles that were far more successful for decades but diesel popularity never really caught on in the USA aside from pickup trucks.

Early 80's as an auto insurance adjuster for a major ins co in So Cal, I walked into a small rural GM dealership in Perris Ca to check out a wreck that had been towed into it. Guess I took a different route wandering behind the Dealership to the bone yard, as I came around a corner there was a large lot with nothing in it but hundreds of G.M. diesel engines sitting side by side, row after row. I realized this was the Perris graveyard for the infamous GM diesel us Ford lovers had been laughing about for the last few years. Part of my job was to get photos of the vehicles I checked out and get photos I did with those old push the button, pull 3 levers and the picture would roll out of the front, cameras. Someone came running out of a building screaming I wasn't supposed to see this area and demanded the photos back. No way. I had too much fun flashing the pictures anytime someone started in on how great GM was.

Josh, I had a 1980s Audi. It was a diesal and got 45 to 50 miles to the gallon. The main problem absolutely no power. Great in town car sucked on the highway.

I worked on that Olds diesel back in the day. Replaced the head gaskets and head bolts. The exhaust valves were just packed full of soot also.

Your analysis is spot on. I'm 66 and I remember everyone with these engines having failures. Virtually no one wanted to own a diesel can after that. At the time I pointed out that small diesel engines for delivery trucks cost twice what these diesel engines cost (with similar power). That was of course because the delivery truck diesel engines were designed to be a diesel from the start and everything was far more robust - and they did not have unusual failure issues.

They went back to the drawing board and redesigned this engine. They changed the injector design, made the bottom end a 4 bolt main, and increased the head bolt size. We had three of them that we got dirt cheap because people hated them so badly. I learned how to turn a wrench on these cars and came to appreciate them for what they were once i understood their failure points and how to correct them. Keep good hot batteries, good terminal connections, keep glow plug system woking correctly, and NEVER use ether to start one that didn't want to start (almost always was a simple reason they wouldnt start and an easy fix) most of the time it was a loose battery connection.

I have always been a fan of diesel power for passenger vehicles. When Oldsmobile came out with a diesel, I really wanted one. Until the reports came out about all the failures due to poor engine design. It made no sense since diesels had been around for many years. Mercedes made the 240D sedan which was an excellent reliable car, but it sold for $10500 which was a lot of money in the 70’s. It wasn’t until Ford started putting the 6.9 IH diesel in pickup trucks that I finally owned a diesel vehicle. That truck went over 250,000 miles with only a head gasket replacement. Sold it to a friend who drove it for another 250,000 miles. I owned three other Ford diesels with IH engines and loved them. In 2013 I bought a VW Passat TDI with the 2 liter turbocharged diesel. I got 45-50 mpg on the highway and it paid for itself as I did over 39,000 miles annually. Unfortunately this was the engine that cause the big issue with falsified emissions tests that cost VW billions. I still have that car and love it. The only problems I’ve had were emissions related; a failed EGR cooler which VW paid for along with new radiator, heater core and coolant surge tank. Total cost was over $4,000 but VW picked up the whole tab. It’s a shame that diesel automobiles have gotten a bad reputation in the American market. They will reliability run thousands of miles with just normal maintenance. Although my diesel VW has 170,000 miles, there is no smoke, no odor when it runs. It’s only slightly noisier than a gas powered car but still gets over 45 mpg. Most people don’t know it’s a diesel unless I tell them.

My dad had a diesel olds 98 that he drove in the early 90's commuting from monroe to detroit. I loved the plush interior. Some of my favorite childhood memories were going to pick him up when in broke down😊

@Joe-Mamasixtyninefourtwenty

3 ай бұрын

My dad is from monroe mi. Small world. My aunt and uncle still live there today. Not far off dixie highway. Wont share much more than that for their privacys sake.

@giggiddy

3 ай бұрын

​@@Joe-Mamasixtyninefourtwentybuddy if they still live that close to Detroit. Nothing said here can be a bigger threat than where they live.

I have a 14 Chevy Cruze diesel with the 2.0. Emissions fell off approx 20k ago in a tragic pothole accident. When emissions were stock it was getting approx 48 highway (best) and now it gets nearly 56 highway (best). Besides it being in a pos Chevy Cruze, the motor itself has been great. Did all the recommended timing belt, water pump, idler pulleys etc at 100k and it’s been flawless since. 👍

@erik_dk842

3 ай бұрын

Did you lose all your guns in a tragic boat accident aswell? LOL

Worst then the maxforce? What worst then the 6.4? My mind is blown just like most the above units

@ChevyConQueso

3 ай бұрын

These were a LOT worse.

@gordonborsboom7460

3 ай бұрын

They made about a million diesels, I think.

@Bloodcurling

3 ай бұрын

Ford forced the order wrong. Even Navistar didn't build their own engines the way Ford ordered them.

In the UK , a heavy recovery guy I used to know had a Chevy pickup with the 5.7 diesel, he really rated it and used it with a trailer for recovering cars. This was early eighties. We’d be comparing it to Landrover 2.5 diesel which used to throw cambelts, fracture/snap piston cooling jets, blow rear main seals,

My mother in law has a Chevy Equinox with diesel engine. It was only offered 2018-2019 so they do keep trying.

Always enjoy your videos. Something ive noticed and inparticular on your haul truck C18 is you dislike silicone like using it on the whole plate. Something i use and always have rather than silicone in cases like that is gasket Eliminator such as loctite 515 or Yamabond. Both work exceptionally well and ive never had anything leak with it on. It also has the benefit of unlike silicone in that it releases easily when having to disassemble. Ive used it on headgaskets and everything else for years. I highly recommend you try it. Im a agco mechanic but also done cummins and cat, it is agco's recommended sealant over silicone except on cut to length seals. Also I'm a local Idaho boy in the Southern end of the state.

*I replaced as 350 diesel with a 350 gas in an Oldsmobile when I was 17* (1987) at the first shop I worked in before becoming an HVAC tech. I did that conversion myself. I believe I was involved in at least one other conversion over the next few years. Through the 80's into the 90's pretty much everyone I knew in that small town who had one would swap in a gas engine.

I was very much aware of the diesel Oldsmobile. Most people I knew at the time thought it was a farce and would have nothing to do with it. One of my bosses at the time thought it was great. He soon found out otherwise after he purchased a new POS. The other boss bought a Volkswagen diesel and was happy happy...

*GM, circa 1938:* creates the two-stroke 71 series Detroit Diesel engines for literally every application - generators, boats, trains, trucks, farm equipment, even military equipment - design lasts well through WWII and as far ahead as the 1990's. *GM, circa 1978:* effectively kills the market for diesel powered passenger cars in the US with the Oldsmobile 350 diesel.

The GMC Yukon has an available Duramax diesel. Not the abundance of diesel vehicles like back in the Olds years but not entirely gone either.

Dad had an '81 Olds Delta 88 diesel 5.7 ran like a top. Used it on a rural mail route 71 miles 400+ stops a day. Just needed to run good oil and change it often we did 3k miles for a change. Front brakes were today after 3 months. I got really quick on front pass changes. Kept the car for 5 years never opened the engine or trans.

Hey I worked for Olds as a tech in the early 80’s. The first gen not only had head gasket issues also main bearing webbing was a real problem. It is sad because by the end of its production the blocks and heads were greatly improved not perfected but improved. They were fairly reliable. The injection pumps was also a real issue as well as being under powered.

I believe the 6.5 detroits and the international 7.3 idis both had 21:1 compression ratios also

The Oldsmobile 5.7 diesel was not just a 350 cubic inch small block chevy v8 that had been "dieselized". It had larger diameter main and rod journals with thicker, stronger connecting rods. There were two versions of this engine produced. Both were precombustion diesels. The early engines had flat "slip-n-slide" hydraulic lifters. GM solved the problems with lifters around 1980 by going to a roller lifter design. The other big problem with those engines was the fuel system. GM used a 4-hole Roosamaster "pencil nozzle" similar to the 4 hole pencil nozzles used in the Caterpillar 3208. A multihole injection nozzle should never be used in a precombustion diesel design. Precombustion diesel engines use an open, pintle nozzle. The other problem with the Olds diesel fuel system was the injection pump. They used a Roosamaster rotary injection pump. The Roosamaster rotary injection pump was a great pump for four cylinder engines, and even six cylinder engines. But when they tried to produce eight cylinder injection pumps for the Olds diesel V8, they ran into problems with injection beginning for one cylinder before injection ended in the previous cylinder. These were called "phasing overlap problems". I should point out that Roosamaster solved the phasing problems in the eight-cylinder rotary pumps, and those pumps were highly successful in the Ford/Navistar 7.3 liter IDI pickup truck engines. The main message from the Oldsmobile 5.7 diesel engine is that a diesel design should be started with a clean, blank drawing board. GM never should have tried to cobble together a bunch of off-the-shelf parts for a quick and easy diesel engine design.

As I believe I had mentioned on that prior video, my brother had bought a 1980 chev half ton with the 350 diesel at my dads push for him to do so simply because it would get better mileage and diesel was cheaper. He always plugged in the block heater and treated it well but it started to run rough and smoke and had to have the injectors replaced ( he had installed a racor fuel filter assembly on it right off the bat to combat any possible water etc and they filter extremely fine ) , then it was running like shit again after a time and since it was off warranty he decided to sell it ( more like almost give it away ) vs sinking any more money into it. No doubt it needed a fuel pump and injectors and who knows what else was about to go on it. Now I wish I could recall who it was whom my dad had a conversation with down in probably California in the early 80's, it was one of a very few independent automotive engine engineers ( he owned his own specialty engine shop ) that GM consulted with to get input on their idea of building these engines to begin with and after looking at their design proposal he warned them DO NOT BUILD IT as he could see it being a complete and utter disaster, and they ignored his professional input and built it anyway and proved what he told them in the first place that it would fail. Again I can't remember what exactly point by point this engineer had told my dad about the design flaws but they were many and had to do with the block strength and crank and bearing diameters that were never designed to withstand the compression pressures and forces of a diesel combustion engine, starting out with a completely under designed platform. Why GM was so bull headed and went ahead with something they knew was going to be a ticking time bomb, that is a good question as it didn't do them any favours at all. Look at Chrysler, when they started putting the Cummins engine in their trucks which was already a proven engine and soon proved that it was a great platform ( not very powerful though at the beginning ) , that is what sold a pile of Ram pickups as otherwise they were not a great truck. Ford went with International and they too gained a large market by their move.

Was a dealership GM Master tech toward the end of era and head gaskets injection pumps were the big deal with cam shaft related problems Plus a few with shorted wiring harness diodes that wouldn’t shut off. Imagine that starting was usually the hard part. Then they follow with the 6.5 and warranted injection pumps what seemed like forever wasn’t a lot of fun 😅

We had two oldsmobiles with the diesel. Not only was the engine design the same as Josh said, the engine was completely gutless. I remember it would only get above 80mph if you were going downhill with a wind at your back lol. The engine ruined an otherwise excellent car. The The larger bodied Oldsmobiles of the 80s looked good, very comfortable interior, and rode very nice. If a guy found a rust free one and put in an LS and a built transmission, it would be an incredible car.

I was a construction fleet mechanic back then. To Construction companies having another oil burner in the fleet made good sense. Supertendant had Olds car, foremen were given 1/2 ton pickups with the 5.7 version. I remember the pickups had notices on the glove box door stating Not for use over 4000 feet elevation, not for towing, or Slide in camper.What a waste. Early on we had trouble with the Roosa Master pumps, plastic governor retainer failing, we bought time by removing the brass fitting for the fuel return and knocking out the check valve which allowed the engine to run until we could get it in. Later i went independent and made so much money on that bastardized engine. Buddy of mine took out money on his house to buy fuel injection repair equipment. He then rebuild the pumps and injectors, doing only the Olds engine. He had been working at a shop that rebuilt the engines in house. They were findind cranks with different size journals and mains, some .10, some .20, on the same crank, those engines were just out of warranty and had not been worked on. Another buddy who worked at a large Chevy dealership said he had seen the same thing when working on those engines under warranty. The 6.2 was a breath of fresh air but none of us like working on them either, we were heavy equipment mechanics.

My dad's neighbor bought a station wagon with one of those diesels in it. He complained mostly of lack of power but only kept it a couple years if I remember right.

In the '80's I was working in a huge GM parts department that served all GM lines. One of my customers ran a diesel shop and he gained a reputation for doing super nice diesel to gas engine conversions. Most of the time he was doing 350 or 403 Oldsmobile gas engines, but at customer request and payment he would swap in Chevy small and big blocks.

My Dad was an IH diesel and drivetrain mechanic for most of his life..his overhauls were legendary amongst the farm crowd where I grew up. I can remember him saying that the 5.7 conversion was likely the worst idea that any vehicle manufacturer ever had.

We had a fair amount of 5.7 DX engines in Tech. Our first engines to disassemble and reassemble freshman year. The early ones were 85 HP and later models were around 100hp. My instructor had a couple with two hundred thousand miles. He said that it mattered as to maintenance and driving style as to how they lasted. Lots of people learned about diesel gelling with those engines too. Cranks breaking at the rear main was common. The 6.2 liter wasn't much better. Head gasket wise too.

Perhaps the only good thing that came from the Olds 350 diesel were the lifters... roller lifter that GM uses as well as the 6.9, 7.3, 6.0, and 6.4 IH/Navistar/Ford engines.

@gordonborsboom7460

3 ай бұрын

The first design had flat tappet lifters. Probably why they failed so much. The rollers were added in 1982

You forgot to mention about broken crankshafts. Absolutely hilarious

@honkie247

3 ай бұрын

IIRC, they ran a stock cast iron crank.

I'd heard reducing the ratio down to about 17:1 helped a lot with the gasket situation.

Back in the 80's we would (on chevy pick ups) pull the 350 Olds diesel and install 350 Olds Gas. The 24 volt starting system would be reused and those 8 to 1 compression engines would really spin over fast on start up.

I worked for Olds back then and can not remember the amount of short blocks and head gasketsI did. It was a nightmare.

These were initially pretty popular in some rural areas. Some farmers would fill up at their tractor tank (not legal, due to the taxes but some did it anyway). Same reason that propane conversions in that era for gas pickups were popular in farm areas as propane was available on the farm for grain dryers. Like the commenter highlighted in the video, for a few years there was a cottage industry of folks buying used cars in otherwise nice shape with a blown diesel and swapping in a gas engine. GM also had a V6 diesel available in the FWD Buick A body model as some folks in my area had one. The last time I encountered a GM diesel was a 1980s Chevy Impala 2dr with a diesel. A rare enough car (the 2dr) as it was but the diesel made it rarer. A coworker used it as a work commute beater. This was around 1993.

“Mid 1970s cars were huge , cars were hideous” Hey at least they look better then cars now days , they actually have character and color.

I worked in a starter shop in Colorado when these came out, can’t count how many 25MTs I overhauled. Diesel price was around 35 cents a gallon at that time gas was around 75 cents,then 🥴GM out with the 5.7 diesel , then wasn’t long diesel was same or more the gas. People bought these to save money.

@scottmcburney8938

3 ай бұрын

The government jacked up the diesel fuel tax, cause diesels were popular, and it was cheaper. Then the government made diesel more expensive than gas by taking out most of the sulphur. But they left the tax higher

The most common problem we saw at the dealership was No-Starts from having gasoline pumped in the tank

The only thing good about the Olds 350 Diesel was the block was reinforced that made an incredibly strong hot rod gasoline engine. My brother had a '79 Olds Cutlass Salon that originally came with a 260 V-8 that had a whopping 85 hp. It went at 35,000 miles, we put in a 350 Diesel. The Turbohydro 200 transmission couldn't take the strain-we put in a turbohydro 350 transmission which solved that problem. Then that 350 cracked the block, and another engine was put in. Then the fuel injection pump went (for the third time) and $850 to rebuild said no. I had to PAY $250 to have it hauled away.

I was working in the parts department of an Old/Cadillac dealer when the diesels came out. Tons of them had warped heads when the gaskets blew. They could not machine the heads flat again, throw them away and put new ones on!

I still remember the 5.7 my aunt and uncle had in their 78 Olds. Seemed like it was always in the shop for warranty work, mostly blown head gaskets. This engine definitely soured public opinion on diesels.

My brother-in-law was a highly respected Service Rep for Oldsmobile Division in the Northwest for decades. I remember how absolutely disgusted he was with that engine when it hit the market. Believe me, owners weren’t the only ones pulling their hair out over the thing! He was the sounding board for every ticked off customer. As excellent a mechanic, and affable, like-able, and convivial as he was (you don’t become a successful service rep otherwise), having to constantly deal with angry owners with essentially irreparable vehicles, often repeatedly the same ones, finally caught up with his patience. He quit GM. It was probably the best thing that could happen to him, because he had such a dealer following from so many years that he made a better, happier, more satisfying living thereafter as a private consultant. When a Northwest dealer had service dept. issues that frustrated in-house and other GM mechanics or administrators, they called Bob. I think they went to him also for service dept. organizational and remodeling advice. My sister did the financials, booking, and scheduling, etc., and Bob did the traveling and consulting; they were quite a team, perhaps themselves a bit surprised at how they no longer needed GM.

Had a 1980 Olds Regency with the 350 diesel engine. Loved that car, great fuel mileage (30 mpg), but it smoked like a forest fire. It leaked oil (I replaced the rear main seal which helped) and we kept it for several years until the head bolts cracked and the exhaust was blowing through the radiator. I then bought a Pontiac with a Goodwrench diesel engine (supposed to be the good diesel) intending to swap motors but I never got around to doing it (I was working 7 days a week then). I gave up on it and got rid of both of them. One of my mechanic friends determined he was going to make his diesel Olds work. He bought ARP head bolts, followed the correct sequence and torque settings for the head bolts and it still cracked the bolts. He gave up too.

i find this kinda funny cause i have heard so many horror stories of the horrible olds 350 diesel , and have known quite a few people who had these cars and had problems with them ,,but my story is a bit different ,, i got my first car in 1988 when i was then 14 ,, this was a then 7 year old ,Olds cutlass LS 4 door , it had the 5.7 liter diesel and it ran great it had 70,000 original miles and 0 rust ,,living in the country i had my school license so i could drive to school and work ,i drove this car all through high school and for a long time afterward ,, in 1993 the year i finished school , my brother and I actually replaced the transmission and swapped it with a 5 speed out of a chevy half ton truck NV3500 i think it was ,,this helped the sort of under powered car not only get better fuel mileage , it wasn't really bad to start with , averaged about 25-28 with the automatic ,with the 5 speed that raised to 35 and on a long road trip could easily pass 40 ,a year or 2 after the manual trans swap i decided to try adding a turbo charger to it ,this was a success ,i used a turbo meant for a 5.9 liter cummins and it worked perfect ,,the exhaust was the hard part but i made it work ,,it increased my fuel mileage a little more but the big change was it no longer was such a dog in hills ,,i finally parked this old car in 2015 after having it for over 25 years ,it was very tired by this time ,the engine had passed 300,000 miles and i never had to take it apart ,,the car itself was pretty worn out and being over 30 years old was rusting away too

I've also heard of broken cranks on that "legendary" diesel 350. And if i'm not completely mistaken, there are still a few of these diesel 350 survivors left on the road to this day.

My neighbor managed the parts dept at the local Olds dealership. When I asked how the new diesels were doing he said they never stocked engines until that engine came out!

There were a ton of Mercedes diesels back then. But obviously that was a niche market. Some of the best passenger diesels ever made, though.

The biggest detriment to diesel powered cars in the US is the EPA and their ludicrous standards...Every year they raise the bar on their standards...Maintaining a modern emissions diesel is so expensive its not even worth buying one anymore...What a damn shame...I'd love to be driving a 4 cyl turbo diesel 4x4 pickup or station wagon that gets 30-40 mpg...But not when the dpf system costs thousands to keep clear...

In high school 1986 I worked for a used car dealer. He only sold good quality used cars. The guy was extremely smart business man also. He would buy cheep low mile non running 350 olds diesels and we would convert them to gas. Sold a bunch of them to guys for second cars never had a comeback

Drove diesels for years and years. Modern diesels for passenger cars (the ones we do not get in North America, and, thanks to manufacturers for emissions cheating) are plenty powerful for daily use.

I have worked on lots.of those. The 5.7 was a converted gas to diesel engine that was popular in trucks. The great this about them is you could have a pick up truck or blazer that got nearly 30 mpg. The bad thing was the lack of power. Most of the time when they failed, I put 455 of 350 Oldsmobile gad engines in the diesel trucks.

We moved to the US and we needed an extra car. My dad knew about diesels in Europe and their reputation for excellent fuel economy. He bought a slightly used '81 Delta 88 with the diesel engine. Surprisingly we never had serious engine issues and we drove it for 8 years 150,000 miles. Back then cars were pretty much toast after 8 years of winter use. Rust everywhere. We did blow through 2 transmissions. We never got more than 60,000 out of the automatic. On long car trips (we explored all over the New England area) we got close to 28 mpg. Absolutely shocking for a big heavy car. It was slow to accelerate. It needed 2 batteries to start since the batteries just didn't have that much power back then. On really cold days it could take two additional batteries to get enough energy to get it to crank over quickly enough to get started. One of the more annoying issues later in life was the dumb mid tank fuel pickup. Under the "right" conditions, if the tank was below 1/2 full, you could suck in an air bubble through that mid tank pickup. At that point you were doomed to need a tow as the system was not self priming. At one point there was a class action lawsuit. My dad met up with the GM rep to see what they would do for us. The rep was shocked that we hadn't had all the actual engine issues... just transmissions that would not go for more than 60K. He got a small payout towards some of our repairs. I think there was a diesel pump that failed at one point. It was long ago and I was in my early teens.

I had two. Loved them ! Drove nice, 28 mpg .

The VW Rabbit had a fantastic diesel in it, it would get 52 miles per gallon and ran much longer than the body and suspension would ever last.

My Dad had a custom cruiser station wagon looked like the car on national lampoon vacation. It was a pile of junk. 3 target master engine's lol

I had an 82 Cutlass with the 350. The only problem was the injection pump. Between 40,000 and 80,000 miles, the injector pump was going to need to be overhauled. It want a cheap repair, and you had to swallow it as a maintenance item like changing spark plugs. I really like the car.

Thank you for another great video

I keep hearing the GM diesel issue at the beginning and made me worry my 6.5 was gonna get called out.

I had 3 pickups back in the day with those motors . All you do when you get it brand new is tighten all the deadbolts 30 more pounds over spec . I ran them 120,000 miles and never lost a head gasket . They weren’t power houses but it got good fuel mileage. These were short bed 1/2 ton Chevy pickups just for driving to grading jobs for work .

Hey, youtube unsubscribed me and I almost missed my own comment being featured! You know, after the failure of the 5.7 Olds diesel; GM went across the street to their Detroit Diesel division and had them design a new diesel engine from the ground up. It was the 6.2 Detroit diesel. Technically it is all GM and the engineers from Detroit just designed it. They specified a forged crankshaft but the bean counters at GM went with a cast crankshaft. Detroit engineers said there would be failures. GM said; "We can accept that if it saves a penny". The 6.2 was released in 1982 in a naturally aspirated format and actually is a far better engine than the 5.7; but not without problems. Main web cracking, crankshaft failures, and a very modest power (135 hp) output. But they did deliver incredible mileage for the time in some very heavy and large vehicles. Later the 6.2 became the 6.5 and eventually turbo charged. By todays light truck standards the 6.5 is a toad. But for the time; it was a decent engine for power, economy, and reliability.

I remember my dad telling me he used to make money swapping 350 diesels out for 350 gassers, then scrapping the diesel engines and that was money he used to buy non running vehicles to flip

I remember the Olds/GM/Cadillac diesel 350s for the incredible clatter the engines made. Even at idle they sounded like a room full of welders pounding away at slag on their weld beads. The auto news at that time featured stories of broken wrist pins, broken connecting rods, and blown head gaskets, and how inadequate the gas engine design was for diesel use. Their sluggish performance did not help their reputation as boat anchors. As I recall, GM was not alone in trying to modify a gas engine to use as a diesel - Ford produced a boat engine diesel from a gas engine design but the timing had to be retarded to make it survive, so the fuel economy was poor.

@ChevyConQueso

3 ай бұрын

I've never heard of a Ford diesel being made from a gas engine, but perhaps they had a team attempting one. Their first attempt on the market I'm pretty sure was the 1983 6.9 IDI in trucks, and then the Ranger got a Perkins 4 cylinder diesel for a couple of years as well. The dismal performance of the Perkins was what got it canceled, but we all know that the 6.9 IDI in the F Series was a success. Of course they also offered the GM 8.2 in medium duties which didn't have a great reputation. I still see those around occasionally these days though.

I am 72 years old and I remember the Oldsmobile Diesel engine for Oldsmobile cars. General Motors made the mistake of taking a perfectly good gasoline burning engine and made changes to convert it to diesel engine. That was a big mistake. This converted engine as we know had lots of problems. At the same time that the Oldsmobile Diesel car was on the market, Mercedes Benz had been making diesel powered cars for a number of years. The Mercedes Benz Diesel engine was designed from the beginning to be a Diesel engine. Even in the early 21st century many of these Mercedes Benz diesel cars from the early 1980s were still in use on the road.

Vocational school I went through in the in the late eighties had a pile of them donated by GM. It was the engine everyone had to use for their tear down and “rebuild “ project.