Oldsmobile Diesel engine

The Oldsmobile Diesel was a series of V6 and V8 diesel engines produced by General Motors from 1978 to 1985, designed around the architecture of the Olds 350 gasoline V8. A 350 cubic inch (5.7 litre) V8 came first in 1978, followed by a 261 cubic inch (4.3 litre) V8 for the 1979 model year only, and in 1982 by a 263 cubic inch (4.3 litre) V6 offered for both front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive cars. Sales peaked in 1981 at about 310,000 units, some 60 percent of the US passenger-car diesel market. The V8 then suffered severe reliability problems, notably head bolt failures because the gasoline engine's bolt design was kept despite far higher diesel compression, and a reinforced DX block arrived for 1981. The damage to its reputation was done, and the engine was dropped after 1985; the later V6 did not share the V8's faults. The episode hurt American light diesel sales for years afterward.