Who had a small GM diesel?

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OVERKILL

OVERKILL

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A post by IndyIan earlier today about a small diesel reminded me of the car my BIL's parents had and that I spent a fair amount of time in when I was in my teens.

They had a Pontiac 6000 with the 4.3L diesel in it. Looking it up on Wikipedia indicates that this was the LT7 engine which produced 85bhp and 165lb-ft of torque (wow that's low!).

We made numerous long trips in this car and I remember other than it sounding well, like a diesel, the bloody thing constantly reeked of diesel fuel. I'm not sure if his dad always got some on him, it had a leak or what but it always had a very strong diesel fuel smell to it.

I always thought it was a "neat" car, primarily just because it was a diesel and was subsequently different. I don't recall them having any real issues with it either
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Somewhat OT, but I also learned to drive stick on a GM 3/4 ton diesel (late 80's) that showed me that there are a surprising number of people that have no idea what glow plugs are or what they do. As a 16 year old kid this surprised the socks off of me.
 
The diesels I grew up driving didn't have glow plugs. Those were old 18 wheelers where my father worked.

I wish there were more, or they were made longer. But that is not the case
frown.gif
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
A post by IndyIan earlier today about a small diesel reminded me of the car my BIL's parents had and that I spent a fair amount of time in when I was in my teens.

They had a Pontiac 6000 with the 4.3L diesel in it. Looking it up on Wikipedia indicates that this was the LT7 engine which produced 85bhp and 165lb-ft of torque (wow that's low!).

We made numerous long trips in this car and I remember other than it sounding well, like a diesel, the bloody thing constantly reeked of diesel fuel. I'm not sure if his dad always got some on him, it had a leak or what but it always had a very strong diesel fuel smell to it.

I always thought it was a "neat" car, primarily just because it was a diesel and was subsequently different. I don't recall them having any real issues with it either
21.gif


Somewhat OT, but I also learned to drive stick on a GM 3/4 ton diesel (late 80's) that showed me that there are a surprising number of people that have no idea what glow plugs are or what they do. As a 16 year old kid this surprised the socks off of me.
I never knew those Pontiac 6000's had a diesel option! I do kbow they sold alot of those cars though, they were everywhere like the Cruzes are today.
 
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Not GM diesels but I owned two Ford cars(94 Tempo and 95 Escort wagon) with the 2.0 diesel 5 sp stick. The Fords had glow plugs, which I learned how to trouble shoot. They also had block heaters in one of the freeze plug holes.
 
Lots of the old GM and Ford stuff had Diesel options in the 80's...

Tempo/Topaz, Escort/Lynx, I think maybe the Ranger, lots of the FWD Olds/Chevy/Buick, the RWD Olds/Chevy/Buick and a few others.

Never turbocharged, always gutless but got great fuel economy.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
Not GM diesels but I owned two Ford cars(94 Tempo and 95 Escort wagon) with the 2.0 diesel 5 sp stick. The Fords had glow plugs, which I learned how to trouble shoot. They also had block heaters in one of the freeze plug holes.


What amused me (keep in mind, I was like 16) was that the guys were always going on about how hard to start the plow truck was. When I was asked to take it out I was told, by my manager, that I might not get it going because it was REALLY hard to start when it was cold.

I went out, turned the key, waited for the glow plug light to go out, and then fired it up. It started up no problem. I was like WTH??? This things starts no problem. I did what I needed to do and parked it. Went back inside and the comment was "wow, you got it going, didn't think it would start" to which my reply was "yeah, I waited for the glow plug light to go out and then rolled it over and it fired right up" to which the response was "the what?" and i was like ohhhhh....... Which then resulted in a quick tutorial on the glow plug light and what glow plugs were. The guys were quite appreciative of this, they had no idea. I knew about them from the Ford diesel tractor my grandfather was using at the cottage which had glow plugs and very clear instructions on the bonnet regarding their use.
 
In 83 my dad bought a new olds custom cruiser wagon with the 5.7 conversion diesel. He recalls it being a great car till about 75000 miles. No power but fuel economy was excellent. After 75k miles I seem to remember injector pump issues and head gasket problems. The early 700R4 didn't hold up very well either. Once the problems occurred he began to look at trading it in. No one would touch as a trade.
In 2006 I spotted a an old GMC truck behind an old lady's house that looked like a good home for a big block that I had. The bed was full of junk and leaves and had obviously sitting up for a while. I knocked and the lady said she would sell. Her husband died several years before and she couldn't work the clutch with her bad hip. She quoted me a price and I told her it was more than I was looking to spend on a truck that didn't run. She quickly corrected me and told me if I were to jump the BATTERIES off it would run. I clarified " batteries??" She says "Yeah, It's a diesel". I told her if I could start it and drive it from her yard I would give her her asking price. The jump off idea was a no-go, but to my surprise, once I installed two brand new batteries she rumbled to life.
I had no faith in this 6.2 to hold together but she wouldnt die. For a 2500 truck it was great on fuel. I wasn't brave enough to coax more than about 65mph out of the 3.73/ sm465 combo so you weren't getting anywhere very fast but it pulled my boat and lawn trailer around just fine. I grew to love that old truck and even gained some respect for the gutless 6.2 diesels.
 
My dad had a couple of the 6.2 trucks. They weren't the most powerful, but they were great on fuel and lasted a very, very long time. The 1982 he had was one of my favorite trucks.
 
My grandparents bought a new Diesel Oldsmobile in about '83 or '84.

I would have been 10-11 at the time. The only thing I really remember is that it was a clunker and they didn't own it very long.
 
Still have my '93 C3500 6.2-the drivetrain will likely outlast the body, fortunately it has the 599 block (same block as the '92-'93 6.5 turbos) & a 4L80E transmission, along with the big FF GM rear axle (4.10s). It is not fast, but it will pull anything you put behind it (not quickly though). I have cracked 20 MPG empty on flat back roads @ 55 as well.
 
What really killed the 350/4.3 diesels was their lack of water separation.Water in a diesel combustion chamber is not good at all.
 
My college roommate/ski buddy had 84 Pontiac 6000 diesel. I thought it was decent and rarely broke down which was great because we attended college 90-94. Most American cars of that vintage were fragile but this diesel mustered on. I think it became too difficult finding parts and he got rid of in 1998.
 
A high school buddy's dad bought him an 82 VW rabbit diesel for his first car. He was too embarrassed to drive it. I thought it was pretty cool.
He eventually got the Pickup he wanted and the rabbit sat in his driveway untouched for years.
 
My dad had a Pontiac Parisianne (?) diesel around 1980. We took it on our honeymoon and I remember the funny looks we got pulling into the hotel entrance, it really rattled. He drove 50K a year then and loved the mileage but I recall it had problems the 2nd year he had it. Gutless.
 
A colleague of mine had a Chevette diesel, in the 80s, I believe. Drove it everywhere. Put a tach on it. It was an Isuzu 1.8L made diesel, I believe. Got between 40 and 50 MPG.
 
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
What really killed the 350/4.3 diesels was their lack of water separation.Water in a diesel combustion chamber is not good at all.
They had a lousy filtration system, & the Stanadyne IPs have very poor resistance to water in the fuel. The head bolts & crankshafts were flimsy as well, leading to blown head gaskets, hydrolocking, bent rods, & broken nodular iron crankshafts. My 6.2 has the same crank weakness issue-if I wanted to pull the engine & put a $1000 Peninsular Diesel forged crankshaft in it, I could fix it-truck's not really worth it. AFAIK there's no forged cranks for the 350 or 4.3s.
 
Originally Posted By: Soggydog
A high school buddy's dad bought him an 82 VW rabbit diesel for his first car. He was too embarrassed to drive it. I thought it was pretty cool.
He eventually got the Pickup he wanted and the rabbit sat in his driveway untouched for years.
My grandpa had a mid-'70s 1.6 NA diesel Rabbit too-50 MPG, but was UNBELIEVABLY slow!
 
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