1987 Cutlass Build
- Thread starter 84dragcutlass
- Start date
Not much progress the past couple days, waiting to go out to a buddy's house to use his shop press for the control arms. However test fit the manifolds and sat the turbo on the engine to see how everything looks
It actually almost looks like an Olds V8 with a air gap intake, driver's exhaust manifold is very similar. The 6.5 is pretty much forgotten these days. I know the old 6.2 was fairly gutless but super reliable. Supposedly the early blocks were super beefy too.
Yeah the similarities between the olds engines and this one are pretty clear. I think its because after the 5.7 olds diesel flopped they came up with the 6.2 liter with Detroit diesel and from that diesel came the 6.5 turbo. As the engine evolved you can still see the hints of olds left behind like the exhaust manifold placement which on an olds is below the spark plugs on the 6.5 its below the injectors and glow plugs and the engine has the fill tube like an olds, even the valve covers look a little similar so it shouldn't be too difficult to make someone look twice. It'll be interesting to hear the first person to ask if there is a turbo on an olds engine. The engine has been forgotten in favor of the duramax but its a much simpler install than trying to get and wire up a duramax
So weekend update was mostly painting. Started with the tank. Since it will be a diesel conversion I'll have to modify the tank but for now I wanted to get it coated and looking good, so I stared with some sanding and a coating of POR 15
interestingly I found what looks like some original lead that they used on the filler neck
After the initial cleaning time for POR 15
Then sealed it all up with zinc gas tank coating which I think brought it back pretty much to new but now I can rest knowing it won't rust for a long time
After the tank was finished I moved on to the turbo heat shield and sanded it down and hammered out any dents and dings and got it ready for high temp primer, paint, and clear
Lastly for the weekend was wiring, the kid I got the car from had taken the heat and A.C. box out years ago and the wiring under the dash where it used to be was a mess. So I thinned out the original harness and removed any remaining wiring for the unit. Eventually a vintage air system will probably go in but for now it'll be plated off.
Removed
Cleaned up and reloomed wires
After the initial cleaning time for POR 15
Then sealed it all up with zinc gas tank coating which I think brought it back pretty much to new but now I can rest knowing it won't rust for a long time
After the tank was finished I moved on to the turbo heat shield and sanded it down and hammered out any dents and dings and got it ready for high temp primer, paint, and clear
Lastly for the weekend was wiring, the kid I got the car from had taken the heat and A.C. box out years ago and the wiring under the dash where it used to be was a mess. So I thinned out the original harness and removed any remaining wiring for the unit. Eventually a vintage air system will probably go in but for now it'll be plated off.
Removed
Cleaned up and reloomed wires
Other than the valley mounted electronic's, which failed all the time, the 6.5 turbo was a good motor. But between the electronic's and lift pump failures and the lousy 4L60E in the half tons, 4L80E should have been across the board, they had issues. They got ridiculed by 7.3 Ford guys which were pretty good for reliability but were 3/4 ton and up. Little did the Ford know their turn was coming with the 6L and 6.4L junk a few years later. You can fix all GM'S mistakes except the 700R4/4L60E, no really long term fix under power. Upgrade to later 5 pinion planet's, sun shell and as many clutches and steels as possible in the 3/4 pack, it might live. Just a neat idea, not many turbo diesel V8 G bodies, definitely something different, I like it.
As far as i have been able to find, besides my old wagon that didnt run, this is the first 6.5 turbo powered Gbody Cutlass.
Okay guys some small progress that i will update on later however i did have a question to put out there. Ive been looking into a junkyard 700r4 however i had a realization yesterday that the already built 200r4 that is in my Iroc Z currently will not be used in the build of that car as i am switching to a manual trans. So does anyone see any pitfalls in using that transmission that i already have in this build??
Torque kills transmissions, and you're building a turbo diesel.....
What could possibly go wrong?!
What could possibly go wrong?!
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