I was given a couple of these 350s in the early 90s. Both of them had blown head gaskets due to broken head bolts. I decided If I was ever going to use them, I'd go with studs. Never happened. By the time I had time to mess with them, parts availability was pretty much N/A or expensive. No thanks. To the scrapyard they went!
Oldsmobile diesel history
- Thread starter turbodieselfreak
- Start date
The 5.7 diesel was not diesel genesis. Diesel was already the dominant fuel in AG and transport. Americans didn't, and still don't, have an appetite for diesel vehicles because we are relatively smart and weren't influenced by propaganda like the auto oil programme.
I owned a Olds diesel in a '82 Monte Carlo. It got great gas mileage but I had to have it towed home 3 times in 5 years of ownership. My problems were mostly injection system related, despite buying 100% filtered fuel. I got rid of it before it had enough miles to blow head gaskets. Preferred oil was straight 30W with 10W30 acceptable during cold weather.
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He’s run out of clouds to yell at again …
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Farmers here used to put Racor’s on the Olds 88 (wife) and GMC trucks - it took a while to implement the fuel with dye
Ours had to be towed once for the fuel injection pump, when we bought diesel in Iowa it died near Sparta and the injection pump was gone and they had to dump the fuel as it had water in it and was a bit cruddy apparently .
Water in fuel killed 5.7’s because they lacked a fuel water separator and remember that diesel in the 70’s and 80’s in many areas was mediocre.
They actually did pass current emissions, even in Europe the low powered small diesel cars are becoming less popular and they quit selling them because of low demand.
That said it is possible that small foreign countries still use those mills (eastern, Europe, Asia) but I’ve never looked into that
There were some gas crunches (1979?) where they redirected tankers already underway to South America to NYC because the spot price of diesel was worth the hassle. They'd have people in the bowels of the tankers scraping the sludge off the sides and bottom to make sure the terminal "got it all." The fuel was completely wrong for the US market and the engines suffered for it.
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Think about an engine from an era - with today’s fuels - and today’s 6/8/10 speed AT’s …
I agree, other than the most successful small block V8s ever, there is that.
Owen Lucas
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Those same engineers could still be on a pension from 40 years ago.
That’s where your grade 8 bolts went, into the pension fund.
That's my recollection as well.
Used to have a neighbor who had a full-sized Olds wagon with the diesel. He also had a thing for French cars, so he wasn't necessarily a stranger to car issues.
Yes, those were a big block Olds to start with. Only being 350 ci left more material for strength. I worked at a shop where we pulled one partially down in the car and converted it to gas. The diesel bottom end including pistons were used. Gas cam installed, gas heads with the bolt holes enlarged for the larger diesel bolts, drain the fuel tank and plop a distributor in the vacuum pump hole and off you go. It had good power and being California smog exempt on paper it made for a decent car. The diesels weren't too bad in the later years when the General changed a few things. Driving sensibly helped a lot too.
The epa more or less killed the diesel option in the USA for passenger vehicles after dieselgate. What was irritating is that VW showed that with a little development and additional engineering that they could manufacture a passenger vehicle that would meet epa certification. Unfortunately at VW the corporate management had a "I don't care how you do it but make it happen" mentality I think that if VW had skipped a year and done it the right way and then came out with an "all new" diesel option they'd still be selling them today. I had just been hired on at a VW dealership four weeks before the dieselgate fiasco happened. We went from 8-20 people per day to some days we had not a single person come in to look or test drive. That was brutal. The lead sales associate went from 20ish cars per month to 5 overnight.
No it is not, not by a country mile. I can't tell you how many times we were on the side of the road in the 1970s and 1980s because I lost count. And my dad was good about maintenance.
Is it worse now than it was in the late 90s/early 00s? Yes.
Worse than the carburetor and points era? Absolutely not.
My father loved Mercedes Benz and General Motors vehicles in the 1950s, but was highly suspicious of anything new. He bought a 1952 Buick when he heard they were going to change from straight 8 engines to V8 engines. He always wanted a diesel Mercedes but they were out of his price range. He never bought an automatic transmission car, opting for the "three on the tree" that he knew.
And in late 1977, as soon as it could be ordered, he ordered a Oldsmobile diesel. It only came with an automatic transmission,, so it was to be his first automatic as well.
It arrived in November 1977, a 1978 model. The first problem was his unfamiliarity with power assisted brakes and automatic transmissions. When he wanted to come to a complete stop, say, at the end of an exit ramp with a stop sign, by reflex, he pushed down with his left foot on the clutch pedal. But there was no clutch pedal, only a double wide brake pedal. So from 15 miles per hour, he would lock up the brakes, and everyone in the car would lurch forward, especially if their seat belt was not fastened. He wanted to cut off the left side of the brake pedal with a hacksaw. I finally convinced him that, with time, he would forget about the need to depress a clutch pedal.
Then winter came to his western Massachusetts home, with overnight temperatures near 0F. Without any water separators and poor quality diesel fuel that easily gelled, he would sometimes have to go out early and place a charcoal hibachi under his fuel tank to warm the fuel.
He did like the fuel economy when it did run. But then came the head bolt problems.
Finally, GM made some improvements to the engine, and offered the early "pioneers' like my father an updated diesel engine that addressed many of the shortcomings of the earliest engine. i think it was about $1500 to upgrade, which he did.
The end of the car came when it needed a new exhaust system. Midas muffler wanted nothing to do with it, because there was a motor oil line that would have to be detached, then reattached, to replace the forward exhaust pipe. They said to take it to "Mr Goodwrench" at the Olds dealer. Well, Mr Goodwrench turned out to be Mr Badwrench. My father picked up the car at the dealer, and took it for a ride. The oil line had not been reinstalled properly, and all the oil pumped out onto the ground until the oil warning light came on. He had the car towed back to the dealer. All they did was refill it with oil and reattach the oil line, making sure it didn't leak. But the damage was done, and the engine threw a rod through the block, and the 1978 Oldsmobile went to the junkyard.
His replacement was a Ford Taurus. Its automatic transmission had an overdrive. But when you got to a long hill, it would downshift out of the overdrive gear. My father never liked this downshift, so he would let up on the gas pedal to avoid it from happening. Meaning he would be crawling up long hills in the right hand lane, crawling with the overloaded 18 wheelers.
And in late 1977, as soon as it could be ordered, he ordered a Oldsmobile diesel. It only came with an automatic transmission,, so it was to be his first automatic as well.
It arrived in November 1977, a 1978 model. The first problem was his unfamiliarity with power assisted brakes and automatic transmissions. When he wanted to come to a complete stop, say, at the end of an exit ramp with a stop sign, by reflex, he pushed down with his left foot on the clutch pedal. But there was no clutch pedal, only a double wide brake pedal. So from 15 miles per hour, he would lock up the brakes, and everyone in the car would lurch forward, especially if their seat belt was not fastened. He wanted to cut off the left side of the brake pedal with a hacksaw. I finally convinced him that, with time, he would forget about the need to depress a clutch pedal.
Then winter came to his western Massachusetts home, with overnight temperatures near 0F. Without any water separators and poor quality diesel fuel that easily gelled, he would sometimes have to go out early and place a charcoal hibachi under his fuel tank to warm the fuel.
He did like the fuel economy when it did run. But then came the head bolt problems.
Finally, GM made some improvements to the engine, and offered the early "pioneers' like my father an updated diesel engine that addressed many of the shortcomings of the earliest engine. i think it was about $1500 to upgrade, which he did.
The end of the car came when it needed a new exhaust system. Midas muffler wanted nothing to do with it, because there was a motor oil line that would have to be detached, then reattached, to replace the forward exhaust pipe. They said to take it to "Mr Goodwrench" at the Olds dealer. Well, Mr Goodwrench turned out to be Mr Badwrench. My father picked up the car at the dealer, and took it for a ride. The oil line had not been reinstalled properly, and all the oil pumped out onto the ground until the oil warning light came on. He had the car towed back to the dealer. All they did was refill it with oil and reattach the oil line, making sure it didn't leak. But the damage was done, and the engine threw a rod through the block, and the 1978 Oldsmobile went to the junkyard.
His replacement was a Ford Taurus. Its automatic transmission had an overdrive. But when you got to a long hill, it would downshift out of the overdrive gear. My father never liked this downshift, so he would let up on the gas pedal to avoid it from happening. Meaning he would be crawling up long hills in the right hand lane, crawling with the overloaded 18 wheelers.
Diesels were abysmal in early 80s all around slow, smelly and more expensive. Also gasoline was relatively cheap.
Yeah but now the garbage can read my texts to me.
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