This Engine is the Reason You Don't Have Diesel Cars in America!!!

In this video we are discussing the very controversial Oldsmobile Diesel Engines produced from 1978-1985. Thanks for watching. @AdeptApe on Venmo or [e-mail] on PayPal for donations, thank you so much for supporting the channel!
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[@AdeptApe]

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[@fastinradfordable]

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]

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]

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

[@partrickstowman8039]

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]

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 😂

[@rollawy]

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

[@johnfitbyfaithnet]

Nice

[@DrPowerElectronics]

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

[@paulgunnersen268]

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 😂

[@daynejordan6783]

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

[@Comm0ut]

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

[@engineerinhickorystripehat]

​@@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 "

[@stevecrane1125]

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.

[@davidfleishman2275]

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.

[@minnesotatomcat]

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]

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]

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

[@cbmech2563]

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]

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

[@scottlott251]

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

[@jefffikes4716]

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]

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

[@lsswappedcessna]

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]

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]

@@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.

[@TruckerChick]

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 😂😂.

[@Ratkill9000]

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]

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]

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

[@patrickday4206]

6.2 21:1 in some models 6.9 19:1

[@brianschneir2158]

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.

[@junktionfet]

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]

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]

@@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.

[@Softpeddler]

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. :)

[@goodmanboattransport3441]

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]

Quoted for truth.

[@danhammond8406]

Even after all the fixes the fords are still boat anchors

[@perryallan3524]

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.

[@philipchesley9615]

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!

[@pootthatbak2578]

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]

Yea we have we got one now thanks to Obiden

[@kwmiked]

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]

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!

[@truracer20]

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]

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.

[@nspro931]

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]

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]

Lol, the stories here.....

[@Iceaxehikes]

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.

[@Oddman1980]

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.

[@hopingforthebest1.9]

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]

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.

[@peteengard9966]

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.

[@frankmcelroy3792]

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.

[@davidwestern2605]

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.

[@compactc9]

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.

[@joshshuster2916]

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]

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]

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

[@mikenicholson2548]

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.

[@jaarryifleshblood315]

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

[@MichaelTJD60]

*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.

[@cash2.0]

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.

[@joemcmillan2089]

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...

[@hackfreehvac]

*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.

[@kg4muc]

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 😅

[@Thomas63r2]

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.

[@gentrest6421]

You forgot to mention about broken crankshafts. Absolutely hilarious

[@honkie247]

IIRC, they ran a stock cast iron crank.

[@eeengineer8851]

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.

[@gerhardbraatz6305]

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

[@ethrwilj]

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.

[@charlesb4267]

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.

[@davidferris4563]

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.

[@jayphillips4058]

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.

[@rovhalgrencparselstedt8343]

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.

[@richardc7721]

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.

[@SteveM0732]

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

[@marinablueGS]

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.

[@hafcanadiana318]

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.

[@steveg8337]

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.

[@normanott644]

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]

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

[@schadenfreude2555]

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]

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.

[@shaneshane1379]

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.

[@joesfamilyfarm]

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.

[@andrelam9898]

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.

[@thetowndrunk988]

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.

[@Bigmike3406E]

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 .

[@hunterhillebrand4153]

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

[@tenthousanddays2103]

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.

[@Scott-sb1xi]

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.

[@bjawolf12]

I rebuilt a lot of these engines in the late 80’s and early 90’s I had a cam made for them from Engle camshaft and shaved the pistons to get it down to 18 to 1 ratio ! Studded the mains and ARP head bolts, my engines after that went to 250,000 miles with out an issue and got 28 mpg all day long, oh I also o-ringed the block!! The majority of engines I tore apart were pulling down the block because the compression was so high and warped the block!!

[@pistolchamp5000]

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!

[@minnesotatomcat]

Isn’t it funny how diesel was ALWAYS cheaper than gas as it should be because it’s a biproduct of making gasoline, right up until the 5.9 Cummins and 7.3 powerstrokes really got popular and the government realized they should be cashing in on this.

[@Joe-Mamasixtyninefourtwenty]

I only remember one time diesel being cheaper than gasoline, and it was for 3 days. During the trump administration. I also remember gas being less than a 1.50 during trumps term too. Im too young to remember the 90s. Being born in late 98. I always wondered why diesel is more expensive than gas, as you mentioned it is one of the first (if not the first) biproducts produced during the production of gasoline, interesting that when the average pickup truck owner actually got a solidly reliable diesel engines the price hiked up.

[@latus-rectum45]

Not to mention the demand for diesel fuel exceeds that of gasoline.

[@sumduma55]

I think it was the late 1980s to somewhere in the mid 90s when diesel started costing more than gasoline regularly. Fuel taxes charged at the pump are higher for diesel on both the state and federal levels. Anyways, this is likely the reason this monstrosity of an engine became a thing in the early 80s. We were still feeling the oil embargo and diesel not only got more miles to the gallon but cost less to fill up at the time. People don't realize that $0.90 to $1.25 a gallon of gas was a lot of money in the 80s. Minimum wage was between $1.80 and $2.35 so filling up a 15-20 gallon tank of gas started costing a day or two of pay and at the fuel economy these cars got with gas engines, it would only last about a week or a little more.

[@jstaffordii]

It was the start of ULSD that the extra refining to remove sulfur from no refining to

[@johnkinsel5027]

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!

[@merfax0000]

I had an Olds Cutlass with the 350, with the right parts it was surprisingly powerful. I know at the time the 350 diesel block was a choice for a performance swap, because it was compatible with the gas version parts, but reinforced in key zones (like the crank bearings) to get more horsepower as a gasoline engine. For what it's worth, the gas version was also hard on head gaskets.

[@privatedata665]

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

[@brownwrench]

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

[@redmesa2975]

My son has a late 70’s Chevy truck and old farmer gave him. It originally had that diesel engine. The diesel engine failed, so the dealer installed an Oldsmobile gas engine. When I went to Diesel Tech school at UTI Phoenix-1987. They had a marketing car billed as the “ fastest diesel drag car” in the world. It was a modified Oldsmobile. Wasn’t that fast, according to some instructors lol .

[@dandan3643]

I had an Olds Toronado with that diesel and I loved the car. The first engine failed pretty quickly but I had bought it used and they put a new motor in for free and never had problems except with the injection pump. They failed due this rubber damper? I can't remember the name of it right now but I use to pull the pump replace the part and I was good to go for quite a while. I was in the Air Force at the time and newly married and when I was at Red Flag in Vegas my wife went to the movie theatre with a friend and someone stole it. They only drove it a block and abandoned it. They said nope, don't want this POS! lol My Dad owned at least 5 of them Olds and never had issues.

[@giggiddy]

are you serious about the theft story? Did they really abandon it and you got it back? Lolololokoo

[@steve197232]

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.

[@rvarsigfusson6163]

You got it all right..... the combusting engine pressure was a way too high and that`s the same in ALL GM diesel engine....But the biggest failure of 5,7 was it did not have a water filter for the diesel fuel. All trucks are running lower combusting pressure and using a turbo and then you can get more horses out. Thanks for pointing out the smaller 6 cyl. diesel engine and that it was a good one. But the 5,7 diesel used to be a good petrol engine and made some 800 horses with a big bore Olds crank and and many hours of labor and machining. Some guy I did read about did lower the combust pressure and run that engine for many years without any issue and he did also install water filter. Smelling a diesel in the morning smell like a victory.....

[@mattbrown5511]

In the mid- to late- 1980s I made a nice living buying junkyard engines and transmissions for Oldsmobile for replacement. I got to the point that I could do a transplant in 2 8-hour workdays.

[@ajgurney5811]

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.

[@warrenm374]

Had an Olds and a Pontiac diesels, never plugged them in for cold temps. Never failed to start, both had over a hundred thousand, both were great cars

[@gaetanbolduc8417]

I had in that time frame 86-94 two Volkswagen diesel the last being a turbo diesel…those engine were so good…manual trani…so good torque great fuel economy and easy starting even in Canadian cold winter.

[@TheJevrem]

What about the famous Mercedes OM617 diesel? Those things are still on the road doing millions of miles. They sold a lot those w123 e class cars in North America and elsewhere.

[@rudyjanes2530]

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

[@niveknospmoht8743]

Had a customer with an Olds 88 with one of these engines. It came to me with the problematic broken head bolt on the pass head which caused the heater to not work. I gave him an estimate for head gaskets and new bolts. He ended up selling me the car for 200.00. I put gaskets and bolts in and drove that car for 5 years before I tired of it and sold it. I also did a couple of gas conversions. My favorite was one where a customer located a 403. I had that rebuilt and hopped up a bit. That car would smoke the tires after that.

[@ludditeneaderthal]

Your initial premise is wrong. The only real similarity between the olds "rocket 350" (gasser) and the olds 350 oil motor was package size, and mount placements. The 350 diesel was a clean sheet design, and actually fairly well designed and engineered (as opposed to the fuel pincher). Look, the REAL problem with the 350 diesel was manufacturing. The old method of block casting required "seasoning". An iron casting experiences "dimensional creep" for a period of time after it emerges from the sand/die. You can take the raw castings, pile them up for 6 to 8 months, and all the internal stresses equalize. You can accelerate that by subjecting them to artificial seasoning, a series of heating/cooling cycles over a few weeks, same result. The standard at the time was cast, artificial season, then begin production machining. Result: nice dimensionally stable castings that became dimensionally stable machines/parts. Ok, mid 70s, GM was looking to streamline production, lean out inventory, and cut energy costs. In a biz where you replace a steel stamping with an injection molded plastic bit to save 2 cents per unit, the idea of eliminating a costly operation like artificial seasoning would be manna from heaven. Well, their iron supplier sold them those magic beans. A new "space age" iron alloy. A little more expensive, but, according to R&D testing, fresh from cast stable. Unfortunately, the testing was fairly simple shapes, geometric webs like triangles, ls, circles, notched bars kinda thing. GM was setting up a brand new line to produce the 350 diesel, so setting it up for "magic bean metallurgy" made sense, as all the other lines still had service life left, and tooling wear was being used for piecemeal conversion to metric fasteners. So, model rollout was brand new design, brand new alloy, brand new production method. BRILLIANT, it was gonna flagship a new era. Well, reality reared it's ugly head, and bit them, HARD. The new motor was seasoning in service. Sure, less creep than the old alloy would have, but enough to kill alignment. Lifter shelfs wandered, cam bearing bores lost alignment, mains doe see doed right, left, fore, aft... basic catastrophe. Eventually, they kowtowed to reality, introduced seasoning on the oil burner line, and cured it. But it was too late. Sure, there were standard "new stuff" teething problems too, but the REAL problem was the casting production cycle. By the time everybody responsible admitted the ball was dropped, NOBODY on earth would buy an olds diesel. Hell, you couldn't give them away anymore, and they tried. Customers wouldn't even take a free trade to a properly built one, they switched to gas engines from the junkyards instead. THAT is the real story of the failure of the old diesel debacle.

[@USSBB62]

My Olds GM Diesel Pickup got 41 miles to the gallon. But it destroyed the camshaft, 3 head gaskets

[@willgallatin2802]

The ARMY bought an entire job lot of these engines in the Chevy Blazers in the early 80's. They had a different head gasket than factory though. The thicker gaskets lowered the compression ratio to something like 18.5 to 1. They were the most fun thing around, until the HMMWV hit the base.

[@linuxman0]

I managed to get my diesel fix in just before the government slammed its fist down on the auto industry. I had a 2013 VW Beetle TDI and it was about the nicest running car I've ever had. It drove like a dream, handled great and had cool features. I got 60 MPG on a slow drive (following a speed limited vehicle) from San Antonio to Phoenix. I'll probably never be able to get a diesel powered vehicle again, given these draconian emissions standards.

[@rhydianedwards3457]

In the UK/Europe its not uncommon for petrol/gas engine designs to be developed in to diesels successfully. Probably the best example is the Perkins Prima engine, its basically a 2.0 OHC Austin Rover gas engine that Perkins converted to diesels for cars and small vans. Its not exactly a refined engine, being a 1980s mechanical direct injection setup, but they are very reliable, robust units

[@ronaldmoravec2692]

had two in the family, I babied the Olds Royal. Burned oil at 15 K, replaced with 350 gas and failed 200 tranny at same time. State wanted to do visual check to see if diesel was still there. One day at work we got 6" of wet stow and I took the car for inspection parking way back in the lot. Manager came out in low Italian loafers and gave up 50 feet into the wet snow. He said it said diesel on the trunk and that was good enough for him. Drove the gas 4 more years.

[@randystrunk9774]

At the end of the run, those engines got decent. I personally know of friends had one that they drove for many years. They got very good fuel milage.

[@victorriceroni8455]

My cousin's dad had an Oldsmobile wagon that was originally equipped with a diesel engine, which blew up before they got it. So someone put in a 307 Olds petrol engine. Problem was they kept the diesel torque converter and shift points. Poor thing never could get into its happy RPM range.

[@dougcramer5454]

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

[@markspencer3612]

Outfit I worked for in the early 80s we swapped out a lot of 5.7 diesels for 403 Oldsmobile gas engines , probably one every couple of months .

[@michelleshaw337]

VW’s Dieselgate scandal quite firmly put the final nail in the coffin of diesel passenger cars here. Even if you can make them, regulators aren’t going to approve them without a ridiculous amount of scrutiny. The Olds Diesel debacle mostly killed diesel in passenger cars, VW finished the idea off for good.

[@snoman003]

GM also had the "diesel" 350 in some of their pick-up market as well at that time. They were basically almost as horrible. Pretty much a 350 passes converted and it was junk. We have progresses leaps and bounds being the tech of the 80's, but some of the actions of the car companies, lives on in consumer reluctance.

[@oldcatmech]

Parents bought one, a couple years went by and they sold it to me cheep! We drove it and the fuel injection went out, I fixed it, then the trans went out, rebuilt it. Saw so many that the center main cap failures, they used a two bolt main not a four bolt main, so you got a lead footed person high rpm and torque and the main would brake lose, as I saw it. We got rid of it, no fun!

[@JLA1911A1]

Chevrolet has a couple of diesel options for small cars and an SUV. The Cruze TD 4D and Hatchbacks as well as the traverses. They come with a dinky little 1.6L ecotec 4 banger. I bought my wife a 2017 TD Cruze with the 9 speed automatic and its been a pretty awesome trouble free little car. Averages mid 30s and has been as high as 42 mpg. Has just over 100K miles on it so far with no major repairs yet (knock on wood) I’ve only had to replace 1 NOx sensor since we’ve owned it.

[@edwardhawran9406]

Had 3: 1982 Olds Delta 88 5.7, 1981 Olds Delta 88 5.7 and 1984 Cutlass Ciera 4.3. Swapped the two 5.7s for early 70s 350 gasoline engines. The 4.3 V6 diesel was amazing. 29 mpg city and highway with the lock-up torque converter not working. The engine was so tight that it took a month of driving for the engine oil to go from completely clear to faint gray-clear and be visible on the dipstick. These were indirect-injected engines with a swirl chamber. They needed the very high compression to overcome the heat loss due to the high surface-to-volume ratio. The 5.7s were NOT converted gasoline engines. The blocks and internal parts were different, heavier than the gasoline engine components. Popular Science claimed the diesel 5.7 ended up being only 50 pounds heavier than the gas engine. Compare the weights of industrial diesel engines to comparable displacement gasoline ones: Chrysler 3.8 V6 weighs 413 pounds, Cummins 3.9 I4 weighs 679 pounds. The automotive and light truck application needs a light-duty, high-revving, lower-cost diesel engine. Basing such on a gasoline engine production system just made good sense. More testing was needed to uncover head clamping and water-in-fuel problems and correct them. Ever seen a 1985 5.7 diesel V8?

[@RodHinman-zr6ps]

Your right on the money my dad had a 78 Chevy pickup with a 5.7 he replaced the bearings a couple times in a very short time and swapped to a 454 the 5.7 was a bad idea from the hit go

[@kenmohler4081]

I had an Oldsmobile with the 350 diesel. I never had any trouble with it until time to trade it in. The best I could get was $6,000 under what the gas version would get.

[@dave.shakawe]

The 350 gm diesels survived better in warmer climates. The olds diesel come from North Carolina and didn’t survive in Syracuse NY.

[@Jdigger4130]

I was always told that turbo tech was why Europe was a few "steps" ahead and when the US tried incorporating diesel they were cooking the turbos cuz they wouldn't warm em down... Learn new stuff all the time! Cheers from Santa Cruz ca

[@JackScott-m8v]

I had a 1984 Chevy van with a 6.2 diesel the motor had 655000 miles on it when I sold it, lost the injection pump once on it but I should have swapped out the 70r transmission for a turbo 350...as I had to rebuild the transmission 6 times In 10 years that I drove it.

[@stevewagner2552]

In 81 they made major changes in the engine which improved reliability. I know of some that people did not want to give up after that redesign.

[@garyradtke3252]

The biggest problem I saw with them is the power band was too narrow for the 3 speed with lock up converters. Driving on flat land wasn't too bad but in hilly country the car would loose a lot of speed before downshift was possible. The Chevy diesel trucks where also horrible for towing in hilly country. We had to loose way too much road speed before we could down shift. I don't think they had the transmissions beefed up enough for the low speed pounding either.

[@johnorourke5529]

I worked on these engines in a private garage and my private garage. I have the timing injection tool, and I’ve only ever used twice from snap on. I should sell it

[@adambauman8044]

My dad had an Olds station wagon with the 350 diesel. We had it for a while with no problems. I guess we got lucky.