I used to appraise old cars for insurance purposes. About ten years ago, I appraised a 1981 Cadillac Dedan De Ville, one of those big old gunboats. It was white, mint condtion and it was owned by an older Italian gentleman who said he only used it to drive his grandkids around. When I was done he insisted that I have several glasses of his home made wine. His garage was decorated with Italian soccer posters.
A few months later, I appraised an identical car, only this was owed by an older Greek gentleman who could have been the Italian guy’s brother. Same stocky build, same white hair. The garage was decorated with Greek soccer posters and I couldn’t leave until I had several glasses of his home made wine.
My only experience with the Cadillac diesel was changing the oil on one when it came to the garage where I worked. It took 7 quarts of oil and the filter was a tiny thing. The old oil was full of ash and didn’t wash out of my skin for several days. I should have worn gloves, I know. But, the owner said it was totally reliable and got 30 MPG.
The complaint I continually heard about the GM ‘automobile diesel’ was that the gasolene sourced engine block was not really up to the stresses that diesel’s compression iginition created through the entire engine structure. With the gas form of the engine operating at 10:1 compression versus 16:1 or higher in the diesel. While the diesel would last through the warranty period it did not deliver the long service life people expected from diesels.
A acquaintance of mine bought a station wagon with the Old’s version which had numerous admonisions on the dashboard and iconography on the trim to use diesel as fuel. I had to borrow the car and its attached trailer at a competive event when my competition/street car broke to tow the broken car back home. Being one to give borrowed equipment back to the owner in as good or better condition than I received it - I stopped to fill the tank with diesel. I got a mile or so from the fuel station and the engine sputtered and died. The owner had changed the engine from diesel to gas, but didn’t changed any of the signage on th
The blocks were fine. It was the cams that were the big point of failure. As I recall they were flat-tappet and had inadequate cross-section for the heavier spring pressure. There might have been chain stretch and wear in there, too, if I remember right (it has been a long time…)
Perhaps roller cam and a small turbo (the one on the 6.5TD was wastegated to some pathetic overpressure like 3 psi, essentially for stoich operation at altitude and acceleration overfueling, and not “boost” in the normal performance sense) would have made more of a difference. Even oversquare, a 5.7 diesel would be capable in those first-generation downsize cars.
Now if only someone could figure out how to stop the foaming and get the smell out of fabric… [:O]