OT - General Motors to Cut 30,000 Jobs & Close Plants

[Cybrvanr]

Contrary to popular belief, the Diesel engine that GM built back in the 80's was not a converted gasoline engine. Below, I have a link that gives all sorts of information about this engine. My father had an Olds Cutlass Diesel he used for 8 years, then sold it to the local resuce squad, where it continued to run for another 10 years and a total of 250,000 miles. It's demise came when someone accidentally put gas in it and trashed the injector pump.

The Diesel block contained 4 bolt main bearings that were oversized. Totally different cylinder heads were used as well, along with many other differences. Okay, so why did the engine look like a gas engine, and even be built using the same dimensions? Well, in order to fit into the newly downsized vehicles that came out in 1977, the engine had to follow the dimensions of the gasoline engines that were originally designed for these vehicles. That way, minimal re-engineering needed to take place to install the Diesel versus that gas motor.

Unfortunatley, this engine got a bad reputation from forces outside of the design of the engine itself. One of these was poor quality diesel fuel that was avaliable at the time. Most people were not filling up at truck stops and other high-volume diesel outlets, but instead were filling up at low-volume neighborhood stations that had poor quality fuel. Water in the fuel could mess up the injector pump really bad, along with blow head gaskets, and other damage. Dad's car, a 1980 Cutlass was the first to inclued a "water in fuel" system. It had a water separator, and and a warning light on the dashboard if water was detected. I imagine this system was added to the vehicles because of all the warranty claims due to bad fuel.

When warranty service was made, most mechanics did not know how to properly work on the Diesel engine. They would pull the heads after a water issue blew the head gasket, and repair it. The problem was that the techs would re-use the old bolts, or they would use lower grade bolts that were OK for gas motors, but not the higher compression for the Diesels. It would not take many more miles before the head gasket would fail again, and a never ending saga of problems was set into motion that usually ended with the owner just getting a gas motor installed.

Another issue that cropped up was using the proper lubricating oil in the engines. Diesels, including this engine needed "SD" grade motor oil. SD grade motor oil has better detergents in it made to carry away the larger amounts of soot and particulates the engine would produce. It also has a different fomulation so that it cannot be "wiped" off the cylinder walls at the higher compression Diesels use. Owners, and technicians at the local "quick lubes" and such were using gasoline style motor oils in the engine, which of course, the crankshaft bearings and other components didn't like too much, and quickly repaid their owners with a catastrophic failure!

Another interesting note is that the 6.2 liter pickup truck engine that followed uses many of the same parts that the 5.7 liter car engine did. This motor however continued on until 1999 to serve faithfully in many vehicles. This may be attributed to the owners being mainly fleets and commercial users that know how to properly maintain the engines. GM also used Isusu diesels in the 70's and 80's for their compact vehicles. The Chevy Chevette used a small 2.2 liter Isusu diesel that was actually more powerful, and more efficient than the gas engined Chevettes. This engine was also used in some of the early S10 trucks as well.

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[whirlcool]

Interesting website about the Olds 350 Diesel. The media were the ones who were stating that the 350 Diesel was just a converted 350 gas engine. I guess since they saw the 350 in both gas and diesel versions they thought it was the same engine.
If you think they messed this up, you should see what the media does to airplanes!

 

[appnut]

My family was pretty much GM through the yeaers. We moved up the ladder as we could affford--Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, Buick. I had a Citation and two Olds, both of which totaled in wrecks. As time went on, I saw my parents & sister's cars decline in quality. In 1991 I was the family renegade and bought a Mazda 626. My sister bought a car-chassis-based small SUV Lexus in 2003 or 2004. She's not regretted. My parents 2002 or 2003 Buick Regal has already had many probs. A stupid design on their Buick, the battery is under the back seat--they didn't even know it was there until it wore out.

 

[super32]

I grew up with GM. My mother had them and so did many other family memebrs. Unfortunattly they were far from reliable. My moms 75' camaro lasted about 8-9 years. She washed and waxed and kept up on the service. It rusted to death and finaly at about 100,000 miles it went up in smoke. She later had a buick park avanue. That car was a joke. So when it was time for me to buy a car I ended up with fords/lincolns. Now i'm back to GM, but not with out some problems. The service and treatment we receive from the dealership is nothing less than superb. I suppose thats what keeps me going back for more. Lord only knows they know me by name and face.

Scott

 

[kenmore1978]

GM

I think it was a combo of Blandness AND quality control that did them in. GM was also bad about coming up with good ideas (diesel engines, V8-6-4) and then screwing up the execution of the idea.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I also remember around 1969 or so that the EPA forced the first auto emissions controls on the automakers. They put them on, but retaliated by knocking the fuel economy down by up to 5 miles per gallon. It was a factor that made the first energy crisis worse than it had to be, causing a lot of people to start looking at the little Japanese cars. The little Honda Civic CVCC worked so efficiently that it met the standards without the extra equipment and that big dark gasket around the rear hatch window made it look like a washing machine. Even people who were not appliance-focused said that. Automakers tried to get the rules changed instead of doing the R&D necessary to meet the standards. Diesel engine manufacturers did the same thing with the pollution standards for diesel powered farm machinery. They lobbied for a couple of years to overturn the legislation, spending untold millions on lobbying instead of spending the money to make the machines conform. Suddenly it was just a few months before they had to make the change so they went to court saying that they did not have enough time to comply and where, at least the first judge, told them, no, they had to comply. And it's because of attitudes like those that people are not buying domestic like they used to. Even today, these "big 3" still believe that they can force people to buy what they make, no matter how inefficient or behind the times while foreign brands anticipate what people will want.

 

[appnut]

And Tom, to a degree, that's the same with appliances.