Re: Wow; you have a *flame suit on*
 

How many clones do you have of yourself?

I woulden't mind a Gremlin or two...

there are a lot worse cars then gremlins and pintos. Walk into a GM dealer tomorrow and see for yourself.. :p


In all seriousness, the GM diesels had the immediate strike aganst them of being operated and largely worked on by people who had no earthly idea how a diesel worked. Can you imagine a local yokal monkeying around with your 617? I bet a lot of them would be pronounced "pieces of crap" as well. Heck, we all go looking for buy's like that, some dirt cheap car that somebody can't get working right because they don't know how, then they sell it dirt cheap. I know there at least a few people on this board alone that think every VW diesel warps heads and blows gaskets constantly, and it just is not even remotly true. Father and I have well, well over a million miles on VW IDI diesels and have NEVER replaced a head gasket other than on initial engine assembly. Now I don't doubt the GM diesel had a few flaws, but evidently people found out how to fix them. Beware sweeping, popular opinions. I've never owned one, but one day I will, just to see for myself.

:)

no clones, just heavy driving and luck
 

Hello Everyone
I do not have any clones.
In my younger days, I would pick up what everyone called a POS.
I lived on the road, traveled 28 states and only stopped to make more money.
I never found a garage that did not have a basket case, European or Asian generally.

Re: no clones, just heavy driving and luck
 

Must have been overwhelming opportunity in Detroit through the 70s. <duck and run>

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

"YES", remember the Chevy Vega and the Yugo
 

Hello sixto
:D "YES", remember the Chevy Vega and the Yugo.
I passed up about seventy of them.
There are limits to what even I can repair; Michigan road salt you know. LOL

Detroit DDC engines good? Ha, not in boats. Some were good maybe, the 6V-92TIB's if you could make them last 1,000 hours before majors you were lucky. The 71 series were a good engine, th 12V-71TI's seem to run up the hours in old Hats. The new Detroit aren't that good for the money I would rather get Cats, or now Yanmar's coming out with there new 900bhp V8 so I'd take that. Can you hear the knees of the American diesel manufactures knocking? :D

I own a 1994 6.5TD Chevy Silverado 4X4 Ex Cab. My truck has 247,000 mile on it. Even though I love my truck it's just to expensive for me to own. My truck has the electronic injection pump and the cost of a rebuilt injection pump is $1000. The injection pump is the weak link on these trucks.

My plan is to get rid of my big truck as soon as I put a Mercedes 5 cyl in a 4-wheel drive Ext. Cab S10. I already have an engine out a donor car; I'm just waiting for the right truck to come along with a blown engine. I plan on matching the Mercedes 3.0 TD up to a 5 speed Manual transmission. I have a friend that can make adapter plates to match any engine up to any transmission. He looked at what I wanted to do and said it would not be that difficult. My friend builds special drag cars and making adapter plates is a common occurrence to him.

One day I plan on having every auto/truck at my house powered by the Mercedes 3.0TD. All of them will be running on veggie:)

I've always found American diesel engines strange.

The Detroit 2-stroke sounds like its screaming because it has a gear driven scavanging blower on it -- otherwise you wouldn't get enough clean air in there to produce ANY power. They appear to be an adaptation of the old marine dual opposed piston twostroke, where 350 rpm was really getting it. Ancient design, in my opinion streched way beyond the useful point. Way too much fuel and weight for the horsepower developed.

Cummins makes great, if very noisy, engines -- a buddy of my brothers has a newish Dodge pickup (for towing) with the new Cummins six in it. Talk about a horse! Louder than all getout, though.

Low compression engines, long stroke, excessive boost, and direct injection are the hallmarks of American diesel engines. They make great constant speed engines -- I've heard stories of GM 350s lasting forever as pump engines -- but disasters for over-the-road use. The lastest ones are finally getting up to world standards, but still suffer from "heritage" -- "Great Grandpappy always make and engine with a three foot stroke and a three inch bore, that's how it's done". Works fine for steam, but not very useful for an internal combustion engine......

MB engines last forever (gas ones, too!) because they are designed to have decent life on the Autobahn, where foot to the floor at redline driving for hour after hour is normal. Do that with Detroit iron, and the engines blow at 50,000 miles.

Peter

Well, I also own a 94 Chevy - 6.5L TD and although I worry about it more than the Merc Diesels, it really hasn't given me reason to. It hauls about 13,000 lbs CGVW when towing my 5th wheel and although I don't scream up hills it has been very reliable the past 40K miles I've owned it. Using GM Diesel websites similar to this one has been a big help. I guess it is similar to the 350 SDL/SD mercedes engine - some love'em, some hate'em!

I really really do like mine, but I lost a injector pump and transmission less than 1 year after I bought mine. My wife calls it a money pit.

She love the Mercedes though.

I've heard all sorts of things about various pickup diesels. Ford Powerstroke and anything made by Cummins seem to be most favored, while I've heard stories of cracked heads being common, along with IP problems, on GM diesels.

I'd bet they are very sensitive to overheating, and driving one too hard with too large a load with the temp gauge flirting with the red mark will probably do it in. Not that anyone would ever slap a 20,000 lb Sundowner on the back of a 3/4 ton fake dually, stuff a couple tons of tack in it and three or four 1500 lb horses and drive 90 in it...... that three tons on the rear axle is something!

I was nearly run off the road by someone doing just this about 5 years ago -- smelled something burning, thought my engine was on fire until I saw the smoke from the right side tires on the trailer. They made is about five more miles -- all six right side tires flat, a smoking tire carcass in the middle of the interstate, and one left dually on fire, all the left tires on the trailer smoking.....

Peter