Toward the end of the tumultuous 1970s, GM began a two-pronged effort to both capture sales of diesel passenger car sales from the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Peugeot, and to prepare for the impending Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations that went into effect for the 1978 model year. Oldsmobile was tapped for a diesel powertrain that would proliferate through GM’s entire passenger car portfolio, as this was still of the era when GM’s various branches developed proprietary engines.
In classic GM-at-its-worst fashion, cost-cutting was top priority. To reduce development time and keep the budget as small as possible, engineers essentially dieselized the existing Oldsmobile 5.7-liter (350 ci) small-block gasoline V-8 with the intention of keeping shared tooling between the diesel and gasoline versions. The block was strengthened for the diesel variant, but the head bolt pattern carried over from the gas V-8, resulting in common head bolt failures across the board thanks to the diesel’s much higher-compression nature. GM also left a fuel-water separator out of the final design, leading to corroded injector pumps and ruined fuel system componentry… read more >
