Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire GMc diesel pickups?

My uncle’s dad had one in an old Chevy pickup. If run up against something like a steep ditch or curb without enough momentum to go over or up it would just sit an smoke. Not the tires, it wouldn’t spin them on wet grass, it would just lug and puff smoke out the back without going anywhere.

Yeah I worked w a guy that had one of those diesel POSs in an early 80s 98 Oldsmobile

70s era 5.7 olds gas engine converted to diesel. They put them in a bunch of Oldsmobile autos, and a few light duty pickups. We had three or four in the extended family. The autos averaged close to forty miles per gallon on extended 55 mph freeway trips. But they were geared so high it took a half mile to get them to freeway speeds. I never saw one break 200k before replacement. Usually with a gasser.

Amoco Service station I worked at in the late 80's made a small fortune working on the Olds diesel. From what I recall vacuum pumps were notorious for failure. Head bolts/gaskets were also an issue. In addition to the 5.7, I think there was a 4.3 liter version that had even less power.

I had a diesel Fleetwood at the #2 full serve diesel pump one night in a snow storm. An Amoco tanker truck was busy filling up the main diesel tank with 10,000 gallons of Amoco silver at the same time. The Fleetwood drove off, and the tanker driver came in and broke the bad news. I sniffed the end of the diesel nozzle and yup, gasoline. We never heard from the Fleetwood owner, so I surmise he didn't get more than a couple of gallons of gas in his diesel tank. Amoco came back the next day and pumped out the diesel tank.

I remember a couple of ½ ton GMC pickups with 350 Olds Rocket Gas conversion that had the diesel fail.

My FIL had a 6.5 that he really liked. He finally upgraded to a LB7.

It’s been 20 plus years now. I just remember giving an Airman a list of what l needed and if they didn’t have this, ask for that. I got their swamped humvee back in operational order for them. Since we were AF on an Army base with what we did the Army had to fund us and supply vehicles. When they saw the AC Delco filters and clean oil they knew we had done something.

You mean the old 5.7L pos diesel (nothing more than a converted gas block) that wouldn't start at any temp below about 35F?? That pos diesel literally ruined diesel sales for YEARS at GM... Probably the worst diesel ever.....

Really??? That was back in the late 1970,s.Time you got updated ..

The GM' had a Roosa master injector pump that very easy to work on.

I had a 1995 Chevy 6.5 diesel and loved that engine. At the time powerstrokes were all the rage and my boss asked what kind of new truck I wanted, I told him a powerstroke, that was 1997, that Ford was a dog, my Chevy would run circles around it. My next new work truck was a 2000 Dodge 5.9 Cummins, now that was a workhorse. The Chevy was still smoother , quieter and faster , the Cummins would out pull it though.
Kinda goes against conventional wisdom but fanboys do tend to exaggerate.

Nice going Wabi. You rolled a big stink bomb in here.

With all due respect, this place, is, a stinker all to much of the time.

Been busy, driving Miss Daisy. She wanted her bimonthly drive inn treat. Sonic.

1980s saw the 6.2 L Chevy diesel. I had one in a 83 3/4 ton 4x4 with a turbo 400 3 spd auto. It was bullet proof. I had about 250 K on it when I sold it and the 10.5 foot camper on the back. It was slow in July and August at 100 degrees . But ran really well when it was ten below zero.

My buddy, for S and G pulled a high compression 396 out of a 76 Chevy 3/4 4x4. He replaced it with a 6.2 diesel. The 6.2 had a couple tweaks, such as a bigger injection pump from a 1 ton.

At the same time I owned a 75 Dodge 3/4 ton 4x4. I had replaced the Dodge engine with a 440 from a 71 New Yorker, and put a 650 Quadrajet on it. The Dodge was dueled out with 36 inch glass pacs.

He had a turbo 400 in the diesel, I had a 727 in the Dodge, we both had 4.10 gears and 255-85-16 tires. The trucks could not have been more evenly matched.

We went to town and bought some Redi-mix cement. We each had a 4000 lb trailer load of wet cement on the trailer hitch. We were sitting there side by side at a red light. The light turned green and we both floored our truck. They stayed neck and neck until we hit the 55 mph speed limit.

So a 6.2 naturally aspirated Chevy will run right with a '71 Dodge 440. Not a bad endorsement.

But nothing compared to a modern diesel with an air pump.

As to tyranny problems. That was a universal problem with the early 700R4 4 speed tranny. The gas engines were also afflicted.

The diesel trucks intended for heavier service were equipped with the bullet proof 3 speed turbo 400.

Both of the trucks mentioned would get better than 20 mpg, as long as you ran them under 45 mph. By this time, Idaho had moved our speed limit back to 65. At 65 mph or above, the trucks were pushing up against red line and milage dropped to about ten.

You could not find a better engine in that time frame for putting around in the hills.

I have never been in a 6.5 turbo, or a Duramax. But I do love me some 5.9 Cummins.

POS, Military had the CUT-V, CUC-V, Under powered, and not that reliable. Now the DuraMax is another story. Have owned three of them. All good to go.