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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / May 2007Oldsmobile Diesel
I got this vintage oldsmobile diesel float from ebay without googling it first. There are a lot of heels in my area and it heats up badly on my road home(elevation 2200ft). I am a trucker and the diesel trucks have high speed elctric fans for doing heavy lifting on grades. How can I retrofit my float to perform better in my area? I would imagine that the current fan which is attached to the crakshaft would run at engine speed and not on load. Is that similar to one of those parade floats? Those old Oldsmobile diesel engines,mainly,they are beefed up gasoline engines.They are not as tough as regular diesel engines. cuhulin On Apr 28, 4:07 pm, cuhu...@webtv.net wrote: > Is that similar to one of those parade floats? Those old Oldsmobile > diesel engines,mainly,they are beefed up gasoline engines.They are not > as tough as regular diesel engines. > cuhulin It's a 82 98 regency diesel. They are bad I know now. I am hoping to cook some bio diesel to run on it. The water in the radiator mysteriously dissapear after 1/2 hour. It could be a blown headgasket. It is still running and I want to take it easy with it and use it for a while. > It's a 82 98 regency diesel. They are bad I know now. I am hoping to > cook some bio diesel to run on it. The water in the radiator > mysteriously dissapear after 1/2 hour. It could be a blown > headgasket. It is still running and I want to take it easy with it > and use it for a while. If you are losing coolant and don't see it on the ground somewhere then yes, it could very well be a blown head gasket. Best thing to do is to get a radiator pressure tester and pump the system up with the engine cold and see where the leak is. Chris Maybe you can convert the engine into a steam engine by removing the fuel injection and replace that with a steam pipe,you would need some kind of a lubricant to mix with the water/steam.Only joking,of course. cuhulin On Apr 28, 9:00 pm, cuhu...@webtv.net wrote: > Maybe you can convert the engine into a steam engine by removing the > fuel injection and replace that with a steam pipe,you would need some > kind of a lubricant to mix with the water/steam.Only joking,of course. > cuhulin If I could find some electric motors for the rear wheels would be neat as well. I could run the engine at a constant load. AS a former owner of a Cadillac Eldorado diesel (they used the Oldsmobile engine) I would turn it into a boat anchor. I had two injector pump failures and blown main bearing seals. Finally GM replaced the engine, and it was a fair car for about 50000 miles. I think at that point a head gasket had blown, and I got rid of it. Roy > On Apr 28, 9:00 pm, cuhu...@webtv.net wrote: >> Maybe you can convert the engine into a steam engine by removing the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > If I could find some electric motors for the rear wheels would be neat > as well. I could run the engine at a constant load. >AS a former owner of a Cadillac Eldorado diesel (they used the Oldsmobile >engine) I would turn it into a boat anchor. I had two injector pump >failures and blown main bearing seals. Finally GM replaced the engine, and >it was a fair car for about 50000 miles. I think at that point a head >gasket had blown, and I got rid of it. As I recall, there was a standard retrofit to turn these back into gasoline engines, and when this was done they actually ran well and were pretty reliable. --scott  Signature"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." Back in the 1970's,I bought a Mercedes Benz four cylinder diesel engine from J.C.Whitney Company,I think I paid about $350.00 for my diesel engine,I know where my papers are on the engine are,it wouldn't take me more than a few minutes to find them.At the time,I owned a small 1967 International Step Van.I had the idea I would replace the worn out International slant four cylender engine in the van with the diesel engine,but I never did get around to doing it.(that old song,I Am Forever Blowing Bubbles,they must have named that song after me) I bought a new starter motor and bell houshing and clutch disk and pressure plate and throw out fork and some other new thingys for my diesel engine.The old International van got to rusting out so bad,I got rid of it.I still have the diesel engine here. There is no serial number (serious number) on my diesel engine,so I guess it is a replacement engine with no serial number.As soon as my diesel engine showed up here,I used an old Chevrolet radiator and a one or two gallon fuel tank I rigged up so I could get the engine running to see if it runs ok.I haven't cranked my diesel engine up since after that. It would need a new fuel filter and new oil filter and fresh oil and fresh diesel fuel just to be on the safe side to get it running again.I guess to really be on the safe side, (since it's been sitting up since the 1970's) my diesel engine would need somebody who knows how to work on those engines,to really check the engine out. cuhulin > As I recall, there was a standard retrofit to turn these back into > gasoline engines, and when this was done they actually ran well and > were pretty reliable. I've never heard of a "retrofit" to "turn these back into gasoline" engines! That would be quite the retrofit...lowering compression ratio, figuring out where to put the spark plugs.....etc,etc. The retrofit was to yank out the diesel and install a gas Olds engine in it's place. Other then a few minor inconveniences....everything from the diesel engine fits on the gas engine. Ian That was the fix, the Oldsmobile 350 gas engine was well proven to be reliable since it had been around since 1968. Roy >> As I recall, there was a standard retrofit to turn these back into >> gasoline engines, and when this was done they actually ran well and [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Ian >> As I recall, there was a standard retrofit to turn these back into >> gasoline engines, and when this was done they actually ran well and [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >engines! That would be quite the retrofit...lowering compression >ratio, figuring out where to put the spark plugs.....etc,etc. What Olds did was to take an existing gasoline engine block, put on a slightly different head, and different pistons and rods. But an awful lot of the diesel engine parts were shared with the original gasoline design that they adapted. This, incidentally, is why the engine didn't work worth a damn. >The retrofit was to yank out the diesel and install a gas Olds engine >in it's place. Other then a few minor inconveniences....everything from >the diesel engine fits on the gas engine. Right, because it's the same engine. As I recall, to convert back to a gas engine you changed the head and the rods and kept the rest of the engine. Oh, and of course you put the carb back on.... --scott Signature"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." > What Olds did was to take an existing gasoline engine block, put on a > slightly different head, and different pistons and rods. But an awful > lot of the diesel engine parts were shared with the original gasoline > design that they adapted. You are unbelievably full of sh.t when it comes to this engine! Better go do some reading. > Right, because it's the same engine. As I recall, to convert back to > a gas engine you changed the head and the rods and kept the rest of > the engine. Oh, and of course you put the carb back on.... See above! It's not even close to the same engine, unless you mean, "I stand back about 5 feet, and gosh it looks like an Olds engine"! I worked on these engines day in, day out for five years when they came out. The fix for these engines was to stick in the gasoline version of the Olds 350. Ian >> What Olds did was to take an existing gasoline engine block, put on a >> slightly different head, and different pistons and rods. But an awful [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >You are unbelievably full of sh.t when it comes to this engine! >Better go do some reading. Entirely possible. I'm only passing on what the dealer explained to me many, many years ago. It wouldn't be the first piece of sh.t I have passed on from Oldsmobile. --scott Signature"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." >>>What Olds did was to take an existing gasoline engine block, put on a >>>slightly different head, and different pistons and rods. But an awful [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > on from Oldsmobile. > --scott But you're more or less right. There were a lot of differences, but the basic architecture is that of a gasoline Olds 350. nate Signaturereplace "roosters" with "cox" to reply. http://members.cox.net/njnagel > What Olds did was to take an existing gasoline engine block, put on a > slightly different head, and different pistons and rods. But an awful > lot of the diesel engine parts were shared with the original gasoline > design that they adapted. > > This, incidentally, is why the engine didn't work worth a damn. Navistar (International) did pretty much the same thing to come up with what later became the Ford Powerstroke and Navistar T444E, and no one says those "aren't worth a damn" (except Cummins Dodge Ram drivers maybe) ;-) GM just did a typical late-70s GM half-a.s job instead of doing it right, and (as I said in another post) probably the biggest screw up was not completely revising the fuel system in the vehicles that got the 350 diesel to incorporate enough filtration and water separation. I don't remember which year it was,but at one time Oldsmobile was installing some Chevrolet gasoline engines in some models of Odsmobile cars.Some of the customers complained about that too. cuhulin > I don't remember which year it was,but at one time Oldsmobile was > installing some Chevrolet gasoline engines in some models of Odsmobile > cars.Some of the customers complained about that too. > cuhulin Wasn't just Oldsmobile, eventually they started using the 350 Chevy across the board. I've even seen a few Cadillacs with 350s in them. nate Signaturereplace "roosters" with "cox" to reply. http://members.cox.net/njnagel Nate Nagel <njnagel@roosters.net> wrote in news:f1dsvg11449 @news3.newsguy.com: >> I don't remember which year it was,but at one time Oldsmobile was >> installing some Chevrolet gasoline engines in some models of Odsmobile [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Wasn't just Oldsmobile, eventually they started using the 350 Chevy > across the board. I've even seen a few Cadillacs with 350s in them. My understanding is that it had to do with '70s emissions regs. It got way too expensive for each division to certify its own engines, so the automakers began shrinking their engine lineups, and commonizing where they could, so there would be only one cost for any given engine class. SignatureTegger >> Wasn't just Oldsmobile, eventually they started using the 350 Chevy >> across the board. I've even seen a few Cadillacs with 350s in them. > My understanding is that it had to do with '70s emissions regs. It got way > too expensive for each division to certify its own engines, so the > automakers began shrinking their engine lineups, and commonizing where they > could, so there would be only one cost for any given engine class. And GM picked the worst V8 engine they had at the time, at least according to every olds/buick/caddy/pontiac person I've ever come across in any medium voicing an opinion on the subject ;) > As I recall, there was a standard retrofit to turn these back into gasoline > engines, and when this was done they actually ran well and were pretty > reliable. > --scott There were LOTS of retrofit possibilities. Pretty much any GM gasoline engine with a B-O-P bolt pattern (translation: anything but a Chivvy) would bolt up to the trans. Things were generally easier with an Olds gasoline engine, and the 350 and 403 were both common swaps. As for the engine itself, the later versions really didn't suck quite as badly as you might be led to believe. After they strengthened the head clamping, the major problems came from the fact that they tried to stick with basically a gas engine fuel delivery system, not the added filters and water separators that diesels really needed. Combine that with a fairly low-end Roosa injection pump that didn't tolerate abuse from dirty fuel and you got lots of uneven fuelling that blew up the one cylinder that was trying to haul the load at full throttle while the other 7 were idling :-p But if you kept the fuel filters changed obsessively and didn't just flog the engine, the later models held up pretty well. |
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