Just wondering if anybody has tried swapping an early to mid 80's 5.7 diesel into a 70-2 GS, and what kind of problems a person would run into. I think it would be so cool to have one of them in my 72 Stage 1. They sound so mean and belch out all of that cool blue smoke. Everybody would be sucking it in from my N-25 tips and doing a double take. :shock: I bet if a person had Gessler do an intake, heads and exaust manifolds and add a turbo, there aren't too many cars on the road that would hang with it. : :3gears: Just kidding ! :laugh: I was without v8 so long I got bored and just wanted to have a little fun. Tim
Even better, you could get a hold of a couple old Saab 2 stroke v4's and link them together and put that in your car. You want to talk about sound and smell. This mod would probly be best saved for someone with a Saturn yellow GSX though so it would be really special. ou:
Tim, you maybe onto something. u know the truck guys are getting tons of power out of their turbo diesels with propane injection and other mods. throw that into a smaller car, and get it to hook up, it would be a serious contender. -nate
My uncle had an Olds wagon w/diesel eng. Most important accessory for that engine is a phone to call a cab.
I Had One! The reason you called a cab and not a tow truck is that you always hoped you could come back to where you left the POS and find it......GONE! :rant: Unfortunately, nobody ever stole it, or if they did, they brought it right back. That car and a tow truck went together like Stink and a Skunk!
Isn't it the Olds guys who take the diesel blocks and build them up with gas internals and have some monster hp?
what do you mean by that? o No: I know diesels run astronomical static compression(not sure when the intake valveopens and shuts -- actual compression time). my dad had a rabbit diesel (vw). it had somthing like 21:1. as the rings when bad. it took a very fast and hard push start(pop the clutch)to get it to run until it was rebuilt. to much blow by to start.
The early 350 diesels were 350 gas engines converted to diesel. My grandfather has an Olds diesel that has been sitting for a while because of all of the problems with it. I can't remember exactly what he said it did but I think he said it would actually push the heads off and when he fixed that it would break the valve train. Once they switched to a roller valve train they were good. It would go though. When they were out in it once a bicycleist was being obnoxious so they got in front of him and held it in 1st and filled the streets with black smoke :beer We have considered getting it and switching it to a later power tuned diesel and having a nice sleeper( the car is a Olds 98)
They can get monster hp out of that block w/ gas. The Olds guys look for them Cuz they had a forged crank and the block has a higher nickel content. p Idle thought....... If you have one of those cars lying around W/ a diesel vin code, can you throw a big block in it and not worry about emissions because technically, it is a diesel :Brow:
There are rotating assy kits available to make 454ci out of that block. Super strong and make tons of power. The 350 diesel blocks weren't meant for 21.5:1 compression, like most non turbo diesels. Turbo diesels are 18.0:1. The funny thing is, when I ran my 350 Olds motor in my Regal with 200hp shot of nitrous, I had trouble keeping head gaskets in it. I put a set of GM factory head gaskets in it and never had a problem again. The diesel gasket has built in orange sealant rings around the cylinders and each coolant opening. Once torqued properly, it was done.
Having owned one of these monsters, I got a lot of experience digging around inside of one. Here is what I found out (More than you ever wanted to know, I'm sure.) The Olds diesel V8 was based on the gasoline 350 engine. The external dimensions were identical. The blocks were very different inside however. For example, there is an extra web across the front of the lifter gallery. It's purpose was to provide mounting and oiling for the injection pump. That pump mounted through the intake manifold and was driven by a gear on the diesel specific cam. These cams had very small lobes. Another big difference were the cylinder heads. Basically flat with very little in the way of a combustion chamber, there was just enough room for the valves. Interestingly, there was sort of a 'pre-chamber' pressed into the head for each cylinder. The glow plugs screwed in much like spark plugs and went into these small chambers. The injectors squirted into these same chambers. There was a small vent that allowed the flame to travel into the cylinder. These small chambers plugged with soot though once pressed out were fairly simple to clean. Sure made a big mess cleaning them though. The back side of intake valves would get caked with soot until they barely fit in the intake runner. Conversion of a diesel engine to gas using the original block was a fairly straight forward process. The cylinder heads, intake manifold, timing chain, cam, carb and distributor were required from a donor gas engine. A freeze plug needed to be installed in the extra lifter valley web to prevent a major internal oil leak due to the oil feed for the injector pump. There were several problems with the diesel version of this engine, particularly the earlier versions. The injection pump was basically crap. At first, rebuilt units were not available and replacements were very pricey from GM. Later on, rebuilt units became available at much more reasonable prices. Glow plugs typically didn't last more than 30k-40k miles, if that. Again, early replacements were expensive. The first design of the headbolts was just a normal style head bolt, much like those found on any other Olds small block. The engine generating so much vibration along with serious compression would lift the heads, allowing them to actually move around on the block, blow head gaskets and actually break head bolts. Later engines and replacement bolt kits from GM were actually manufactured with a shoulder that had a slight press fit through the head. It didn't take much effort to press them in, usually a rubber mallet and wood block along with a couple of drops of engine oil were all that was required. This new style bolt helped tremendously to keep the heads from walking around on the block. One interesting note was that the pistons came in standard, .010 and .030 sizes. The interesting thing was that for each of these sizes, there were A,B,C,D,E and F variations. The difference was that each of these letter designations were oversize by (if my memory is working Standard, .001, .002, .003, .004 and .005. That means there were actually six possible sizes of piston for each bore size. These engines had revised maintenance schedules from their gasoline counterparts. The recommended oil change interval from GM was a MAX of 3000 miles. The diesel and gas engines had pretty much the same valve train parts. The bearings in the lower end, rockers and rocker stands were notorious for wearing out if the oil wasn't changed on a pretty much rigorous routine. The stands are made out of aluminum and the rockers of course, are steel. The aluminum wears out pretty quickly if the oil breaks down. As I understand it, diesel byproducts can make oil slightly corrosive. Not good for bearings and such. Air filters had to be kept clean or both power and miliage suffered terribly. The fuel filter was a mess to change and did nothing to separate water. Water getting to the injection pump was instant death for it. All in all, the Olds-based diesel V8 was a great idea that was badly executed. It seemed like GM wanted a diesel option and rather than buying one or taking the time to properly engineer one, they made this thing. My opinion is that they wanted to get to market quickly to respond to the gas crunch and expense of the time. The cars these were installed in actually did get pretty decent miliage. My full size Chevy wagon got about 30 MPG on the highway with A/C and a lock-up Turbo 350. The good news for diesel owners was that the engine could be easily and fairly inexpensively replaced with an Olds 350 or other displacment small block Olds. In fact, this swap became so poular that just finding a small block Olds in a wrecking yard became pretty difficult. Everything from the diesel bolted right on the gas engine. Exhaust manifolds, brackets, wiring, hoses, etc. The only two issues were properly venting the fuel tank and whether or not to run a ballast resistor. Yes with points, no with an HEI. The coolest thing about the diesel cars was the Hydro-Boost power brake system. I always wanted to see what was required to adapt that system to a car with a big cam. Now there is a kit you can buy to do just that!!! ou: Like I said, more than you ever wanted to know about an Olds diesel.
I know this was posted some time ago, but I need to clarify it. The SAAB V-4 was not a two stroke. It was a four stroke Ford engine. It was a comercial engine designed for continuous duty such as generators and water pumps. The original Mustang concept used this engine before they wanted the car to have a V8. The SAAB 3cyl was a 2 stroke. Sounds like a popcorn machine. And, the smell is bad. I was into SAABs for a little while, before cost of maintenance set in.
diesel into GS Hey guys don't laugh too hard.... I've seen strange things on this side of the Atlantic :a couple of mid to late 60's Mustang with inline Mercedes diesel engines (about 70 hp), and the last too date : a 1965 Pontiac GTO convertible with an inline 5 cylinder Mercedes diesel engine in it ....!!! And the guy was proud !!! :shock: Anyway strange things happen when gas cost more than $5 a gallon. I know a lot of cars here that are running LPgas specially in holland, even a 1967 GS400 was converted that I know of. But thats more "OK" as the engine stays the same , and basicly the modifications done are the same as if you were running nitrous oxide... :Smarty: I just hope you won't see this kind of things in the states....... Olivier
It's common practice to throw out the diesel crank and use an Olds 425 crank instead. Most of the DX block diesels had 3" mains like the BBO, and had .921 roller lifters. I say most because there are a few exceptions out there...
Those things were Junk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My dad had a Diesel Olds 88 when I was just a kid. It was the family car. Looked nice. It got about 30 mpg. but in the 8? years we had it we put on 200,000 miles and 4 new engines! Those diesel engines were good for boat anchors and that's it! Then... In 94 they bought a 1994 Buick Skylark that was totaled and fixed and they still drive it to this day. It has 200,000 miles on it with only minor things that have gone wrong. It runs as strong as new still. It has the 3100 engine and this thing really gets up and goes! One other idea to throw out there! I would like to see the new Duramax Diesel in a Buick! Duramax Diesel 6600 V8 Engine Horsepower and Torque With the Allison five-speed automatic transmission: 310 horsepower @ 3000 rpm. 605 lb.-ft. of torque @ 1600 rpm.!!!! yeah baby! add another 150hp and you would be cook'n! Mike
EWWWW a 5.7 diesel GEEZ!!!! :rant: :rant: :error: or at least use a b&s engine! better yet,why not use a buick 455 engine instead?? keep it all buick!! :3gears:
HEY! whats wrong with a B&S? some guys are tweaking our 35 hp engine and getting 65hp out of it. :beer :beer
