Better Off Dead and Forgotten

[John - K5AWO]

Better Off Dead



The story behind some engines that shouldn't have been.



OLDSMOBILE 350 DIESEL



and other stories the makers of which would rather we had forgotten about.



http://www.popularhotrodding.com/features/0408phr_worst/

 

[swexlin]

Great article. Some real DOGS in there. :--)

 

[lil red cummins]

my dad had a 1980 chevy wagon with the diesel. with its amazing 100 hp, it was fun driving through PA on the hills. had to turn the air off just to maintain 45 mph on the big hills. yup it made 20 mpg, but it better for the low power.

that engine is also responsible for teaching me how to rebuild the roosa-master injection pump ($15 rebuild kit), and replace those cheapo injectors.



and by the way, don't run straight 30 weight in winter. (found that out in NY)



thank you GM

 

[SGibson]

I'm no Ford guy, but if it wasn't for the flathead Ford Popular Hot Rodding probably wouldn't exist.

 

[rbattelle]

I wonder which engines being made today will someday end up in a similar article 30 years from now? Hmmmm... .

 

[Hohn]

a certain 6. 0L diesel comes to mind.....

 

[Jdonoghue]

Oldsmobile diesels

Sure, they had more than their share of lemons, but there were lots of them floating around for cheap back when I was a broke high school kid, if you had a couple hundred bucks and knew how to turn a wrench, it was a cheap way to drive something that burned the oily stuff I had my share of 350 diesels, and a bunch of the 4. 3L V-6 diesels too, I put tons of miles on those cars, but I took care of them and did not drive them hard. That was many years ago, and was what got me interested in diesels.

 

[Joe G.]

The flathead Ford that was the hot rod favorite was NOT the first model. There were some changes made to it with Ford bought the patends owned by Cord. The original had 60 HP. The newer one had 85 HP. There was a later model of the 60 that was different. Some of them had aluminum blocks.

 

[RustyJC]

HERE is an interesting flathead Ford website.



Rusty

 

[NPloysa]

The '6. 0h no' comes to my mind too! I see more and more everyday. Most of them driven by business men who couldn't tell you how a diesel worked if he wanted to.

 

[MrWinkey]

I raced the 2. 2L dodges for quite a while and I did not have any trouble with them other than the operator caused type. (too much boost not enough fuel)



Infact I found them to be one of the more reliable cars I've owned. I drove my car to vegas and numerous trips to seattle. I even drove it back from Kentuckey. As the article mentions if you just keep up the maitence they are fine.



My friend with one of the GLHS Omni's keeps having people come up to him at the gas pump and say how they missed their old Omni or Dodge FWD and how they wish they had gotten the shelby as it would be worth keeping.



Oh well... . just a lil dissapointed they put the 2. 2L Dodge in there.....

 

[Tcolesanti]

I read that Popular Hotrodding article too, I thought it was really good ( how about those cadillac 8-6-4's) But I did'nt understand why the flathead was in there. It was the forefather to american v-8's and the aftermarket following. (as SGibson said)

 

[Scot]

The Olds diesels were strange. I knew people who drove them 100K miles with minimal maintenance while others literally could not get it out of the parking lot at the dealer. One thing that blew me away is that some of the engines used cast cranks. Who came up with that brilliant idea?