Sorry, you're correct it was the Olds 350.

Still, it was a DERIVED engine -- the bock was "redesigned" as a diesel, not an original and was WAY understressed (to say nothing of WAY underpowered). Same deal on the "new" Dodge Hemi -- this is a 1951 engine design tarted up with EFI. Nothing else has changed -- splayed pushrods sitting crooked on the lifters, 6" rocker arms, undersized crank, and all. Should be run to watch people over-rev it and send the pushrods out the valve cover, just like in 1958!

It was not a happy design, by any stretch of the imagination. It should have produced at least as nuch horsepower as the 617 non turbo on a displacement basis, and it didn't. Spun mains, bad rods, broken cranks (from rod bearing failures, if I remember correctly), oil pump failures, injection pump problems, severe head gasket and head bolt problems (and not enough head bolts, either!), serious head cracking problems, cold start problems, cracked blocks, etc.

Good idea, and if GM had taken a good look at European designs of similar vintage instead of taking a short cut, they could have done very well.

As I said, there are a large number of these engines in use in gensets, pumping appliations, etc, where they do just fine. I personally suspect the problem is "underengineering" to save money -- smaller bearings (narrower, as usuall GM practice, diameter is fine), lighter castings, cheaper pushrods (why not a OHC engine?), too long a stroke and too low compression, etc.

A 5 L diesel with a turbo should have made those cars fly!

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!