Yes, the confusion comes that The Olds diesel used as many gas engine design features as possible to cut costs, as GM was on a fools errand , trying to build a cheap diesel engine to justify it when diesel fuel or gas was little or any over $1 per gallon. The Oldsmobile diesel used the 5.7 displacement, but the block crank, rods heads were much heavier built. I remember that it used the 455 olds main bearing size to beef that up a bit. Seems I remember the diesel 350 using the gas 350 head bolt pattern and number of bolts, which was one of the failings. Hard to hold 20/1 compression plus diesel detonation whth that little clamping force. The tall gearing and Roosamaster(Standine) diesel pump did not help either, the governor design would tip the fuel metering valve wide open with only 1/2 throttle applied at idle.
That wide open injection system on a cold, weak built(cast iron crankshaft) diesel could not live long. Most died by 50,000 miles. It did not help that GM would not market them as a diesel engine that needed a little warm up / cool down and special care compared to gas, they marketed them as an oldsmobile that burned diesel fuel and got good mpg.
My first impression of the Olds 5.7 diesel turned out to be correct. I was walking down the sidewalk in winter 1978 ?. I saw a fellow come out of a store and jump in his new GM car with the diesel emblem. I just stopped and watched him, as i had never seen one run and I wanted to hear him start / drive it from cold(hood was covered with fresh unmelted snow, so it was cold. The drives in his thin jacket shivered while waiting for the glowplugs to heat, he cranked it and it lit off like a typical cold diesel, black smoke and lots of diesel clatter. Immediatly after it lit off the guy tossed it into reverse and rattled his way into the street, he tossed it in drive and took off down the street in a cloud of rattle rattle black smoke.
My thought at the moment was" how can you treat a diesel engine like that and have it live very long ??" History proved he could not.
The 6.2 / 6.5 were a partial Detroit Diesel design. ( the setup looked to me like it was loosly based on the Detriot 8.2 fuel pincher). They were a better engine, but still had block and head cracking problems and were low on power for their size. Adding another lubrication passage and bolting on a turbocharger made the 6.5 block even less reliable than the 6.2.
GM pickups really never had a decent diesel until they swallowed their pride and got in bed with Isuzu to build the Duramax diesels.
A lot of that converted gas engine story comes from the use of some gas engine design features, although their were few if any parts the same on the Olds gas and diesel engines. Also adding to the confusion was that every GM division had their own 350-400-450 CI gas V8's with no interchange between them.
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Today's Featured Article - History of the Nuffield Tractor - by Anthony West. The Nuffield tractor story started in early 1945. The British government still reeling from the effects of the war on the economy, approached the Nuffield organization to see if they would design and build an "ALL NEW" British built wheeled tractor, suitable for both British and world farming.
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