I would HIGHLY recommend running a fuel supplement. Diesel fuels today are low sulfur compared to when your engine was made. That sulfur was the lubricity for that pump. A supplement will ensure lubrication plus aid with fuel gelling in cold weather and boost the cetane for better starts
Diesel works!! What next?
- Thread starter Carson L W
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Biodiesel is supposed to be high on the lubricity scale. Not sure of it's availability in your area.
Yeah, the 2.29 gears suck *ss. You probably have a TH350C. You need a TH2004R overdrive, a junkyard trans with a Transgo shift kit should be plenty. Definitely don't use the green line bias spring in the kit, raises full throttle shift points. Factory most 2004R's shift at 3000 to 4000 rpm full throttle, what is the diesel's redline? Add a 3.42 gear, TCI gear calculator to figure out which speedo gears are needed. Your highway rpm will stay the same with overdrive but your acceleration will improve a lot. Why they equipped them with the 3spd with super tall gears is beyond me, it made them feel even more gutless. Between more air in, headers with duals and better gearing it will be much better in every way. Plus mileage might actually improve.
I'm curious if the cams for the diesel and gas 350's are interchangeable, just out of curiosity...
Actually they are. The 80 and down are flat tappet and 81 and up are roller cam. I believe the end drive is removed on the diesel cam. I would only run a custom cam from a knowledgeable builder.
Oldsmobile basically strengthened the bottom end with much thicker main webbing and added 3" mains from the 455 but still has the same 3.385" stroke as all other SBO. This is how a 4" stroke forged 400/425 BBO crank fits once the bigger counter weights are cut down. Other than minor differences like the injector pump boss and the bottom end, it is basically a gas 350 and an Olds V8. The big problem is the early ones didn't have the main bolts tapped deep enough and they left gas 4 head bolts per cylinder with 22.5 to 1 compression. Olds added a head bolt with the 4.3 V6 diesel. International did this with the Ford 6L, 25 years later with same terrible result, what were they thinking? Oldsmobile could claim ignorance on diesels, International cannot. There is also the even stronger Nascar SBO block was used with Batten heads which are still king other than billet heads. Now Rocket Racing makes an aftermarket 455 block with 4 bolt mains with 600 ci potential.
There was testing done up here, Biodiesel was superior even in -40. I personally believe with the whole debacle with emissions unreliability and cheating, the diesel motor will not survive without Biodiesel. A supplement and a water fuel separator should be ran.
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