Who had a small GM diesel?

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I had an 81. 0-60 was measured by calendar.

Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
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!
 
Originally Posted By: TTK
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.


About 10 years ago, I purchased a 2-door/five speed diesel Chevette from California on ebay for $200. Why was I stupid enough to do that? Well, diesel and gas were going up about $.10 a week and I thought we would eventually have $10/gallon fuel. With them getting about 50 miles per gallon, I thought it would almost be a necessity. Diesel fuel and gas never got that high, so it still sits in the shed. Body is about perfect, no rust. Any takers? (crickets chirping....)
Maybe I'll drive it some day.
 
Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
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!


My grandparents handed me a 1979 VW Dasher wagon(basically Passat) diesel that got totaled within my first month of ownership by a runaway truck. The best part was they next handed me an early 80's Rabbit GTI as my grandfather could no longer drive a stick. What an incredible hoot that car was. Delicate and unreliable but so much fun. Diesels in the 1980's were abysmal.....
 
Originally Posted By: Soggydog
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.



Diesel fuel has a long shelf life. It may get some water and algae growth, but it doesn't evaporate the volatilizes like gasoline.

I have always liked the 6.2 just because they are mechanical injection. As long as you change out the crank pulley on a regular basis, they won't snap the crankshaft.
 
My brother in law worked at a shop where they were converting the GM V8 5.7 diesel vehicles to gas(lots of Caddies, 98 Olds etc).. Were so busy you'd have to make a appointment as much as a month in advance... Most of the conversions were due to blown engines, broken cranks, busted head bolts, blown head gaskets etc were common...

I had a '81 Olds Cutlass Cruiser wagon with the kero burner(and at $1.10 gal, sometimes it did get kerosene)... Bought it on a COLD Feb morning in '88 off the local Pontiac dealers back lot after no one else had been able to get it started... Paid $300 for a car that was almost showroom cond(how badly the diesel devalued those cars)... It apparently had been setting prior to trade in, as both batteries were stone cold dead and would not charge enough to more than burn the lights dimly... Using the dealers jump box I couldn't start it either but just as I'd given up, a buddy rolled in with his wrecker so we connected jumpers to both batteries and after five seconds or so for the glow plugs to heat, it fired off instantly... Of course it sounded like the pistons were swapping holes but after a couple minutes settled somewhat, so we took it for a ride and other than it pulled like a 6cyl, ran great...

We went back that night to get it and was like 15*F so I stuck the primary battery in, crossed my fingers and turned the key... Wait light cycled as expected and same as that morning, it fired instantly... Dayum other battery must be OK... We were in a cold snap so finally approx 10 days later I checked the second battery, totally dead... It had been starting every morning at 10-20*F on one battery with no issues... With good second battery it spun a little quicker but made almost no difference in how quickly it started... It started as easily as any modern FI gas vehicle I've owned... I owned it five years and other than when it'd get temperamental and not light the glow plugs(loose connections on glow plug temp sensor), always fired instantly...

It did puke the injector pump but with my brother in law swapping out the GM diesels, was no issue getting another... It's major problem was it busted a head bolt one morning on way to work... When I arrived it was smelling of coolant and dripping, still running fine... Called my buddy with wrecker and said "come get it"... Once back at the shop I drilled the broken bolt and used a Easyout on extensions to extract the threads... I cranked in another bolt and it was still fine a couple years later when I sold it(I figured it'd blow the gasket in a few days)... Oh yea it did develop a funny little knock at idle, I traced that to a loose flex plate... Diesels can shake loose any part you can name, basically was why the glow plug/temp sensor gave issue every couple years... If it got temperamental, all that was necessary was to jump the glow plug solenoid with a pair of pliers to light the plugs and it'd start right up... No glow plugs, it wasn't going to start, even in warm weather...
 
Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
Put 1 drop of diesel fuel on the sole of your shoe and walk around your car and house...

I'm not sure what smells worse longer - diesel or skunk


I'd rather smell diesel than gasoline.

Diesel, Maxlife ATF and gear lube don't bother me. Gasoline, nasty smelly stuff IMO.
 
My folks had an '83 GMC van with the 6.2 diesel. Great engine, that thing was still chugging along after some 220,000 miles. Only gripes I had were related to everything related to having the diesel option, the engine itself was darn near bulletproof. They must have been quite rare. Even GM dealerships couldn't always come up with the right parts for it. Some part stores didn't even show the 6.2 diesel for the 1983 model vans. Went through a few motor mounts, and the power steering system blew a couple of hoses and seals. Since the power steering system also had to power the power brakes, it made the system rather unique. Suspension components had to be sturdier, and it had a vacuum pump attached for the A/C controls and cruise control servo. Lots of specialized parts that were different from the gas engines, and sometimes hard to find. I still remember one part store guy laughing when I said we needed TWO replacement mufflers for a van, since vans don't have standard dual exhausts. Well, the diesel did.
 
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