" Isn't it admited by all mechanics and most 350 diesel owners that it was the crapiest engine ever made by GM? We had a 84 olds diesel station wagon. Worst car we have ever owned. I'm not a olds hater though, I have restored my 81 Cutlass with the 3.8L. I love olds, but the 350 is the crazy relative of the Olds family that no one should ever speak of. " .....So In return I wrote the realistic History Of The 350 Diesel.....
Yes, In a way, you are somewhat right..everyone has there own opinion on them..but heres the way it actually is..The 350 Diesels came in different "stages"..The 78-79 model is actually the "origional" 5.7 Diesel, which was basically an overnight idea..sort of like "Diesels get good economy, lets throw one together tonight" type thing..So they did..looked at a 350 gas block and said..ok, lets add a little support to the mains, oh, call stanadyne /roosta master and have them build us a pump..and figure out a way to stuff the injection pump in there..and lets make some heads too...a while later a wierd Clattering, look alike of a gas engine was alive...being "odd" in cars, people saw the economy and said, wow..thats excellent!...I'll take one..so what they got was a huge luxury sedan, with toyota economy, that smelled like a bus..besides the fact that they knew nothing about what was under the hood since it was not your standard 350 gas engine..they had no idea about it so they drove it...thats all they knew..was to drive it..and that was Olds Intentions..knowing nothing about the harmfull affects of water in the fuel, which there was alot of back then due to crappy diesel fuel, injection systems would rust...local mechanics couldn't work on them..that was a reason for a dislike.."gas engines dont have this problem" people thought..so there went a few owners opinions right there...so after it was up and runniong again, most got the water in fuel thing again and gave up.."diesel cars suck!" basically was the opinion of yet some more owners..the ones that didn't rust away made it to around 65K miles, and blew a headgasket...into the shop it went...well after a lot of headgaskets blowing and constant problems that occured in the same areas, GM failed to do anything about it so then MORE people got bad impressions of the engines..SO then In 1980, GM changed the injection system around and made new heads..these pumps held up better..as the injection system problems faded, there was problems of Blown headgaskets,broken headbolts, worn cams and even broken crankshafts..so when these things broke, out with the whole engine "diesel cars suck!" put in a gas engine...some people said. Or others said..give me a replacement in which by 1983 included stronger cranks and mains, and hydrolic roller lifters to prevent cam wear along with updated headbolts...these where fair...as the other problems faded, there was still one thing left...blown headgakets."Diesel cars Suck!" put in a gas engine...well by this time GM worked a deal with fel-pro to make a good headgasket that will hold..but as soon as the engine was near perfect, they had such a bad rap that noone wanted them ever...so they Discontinued them in 1985, but MR.Goodwrench engines continued to be made and these where good...but noone wanted them except a few..So yeah, The 350 Diesel was just thrown together at first but we learn from our mistakes, eventhough there are perfect engines out here still running around getting 30 MPG, every Domestic Diesel manufacturer learned one thing..you cant just throw a Diesel together..cant just give them to anyone who will not maintain them..not just for the 350 Diesel but for the 6.2, 6.5, Fords 6.9 and 7.3, and 7.3 Powerstroke..even dodge's 5.9 cummins...The 350 Diesel was the First american DieselPowerplant to push an everyday family car..and because of it, we now have excellent Diesel Pickups today...hell, someone had to go first and make mistakes..