old cadillac diesel

[GregCrabb]

Not a chevy/gmc question, but just wondering from some fellow diesel geeks...I've seen a couple diesel Cadillac Devilles on Ebay with 4.3's in them...anyone familiar with them and how well they held up? I didn't even know Caddy made that car in a Diesel.

[Tatraplan]

The 4.3 is usually a 6 cylinder version
of the Olds 5.7 litre V8, produced 82-85.

There is also a very rare 4.3 V8 that
was made 79-80, but only put in Olds cars.

Most info about these engines is found at:
http://www.olds-diesel.com/

/Robert

[catmandoo]

i have one in an 84 celebrity wagon,the caddy devilles and 98 olds in 85 could come with the 4.3 i actually feel they are a better engine then the 5.7,but you have to watch out,some of them came with aluminum heads and they cracked if you just looked at em wrong,mine will get me 35 mpg anyday and it actually has somewhat decent power.mine doesn't have an overdrive trans,but the guy that used to rebuild my 5.7 pumps had a 1985 98 and he said he could pull 40+mpg out of it.and they did make 2 variations,one for the front wheel and one for the rear wheel drive.i believe the only major differences were the oil pan,exhaust manifolds,and,the fwd models had a motor mount under the crank.the bolt pattern for the trans could also be different.

[GregCrabb]

Thanks...I was just wondering. if I found one in decent shape I would be interested in the Cadillac Deville FWD diesel.

[ZZ]

Originally posted by Tatraplan:
The 4.3 is usually a 6 cylinder version
of the Olds 5.7 litre V8, produced 82-85.

There is also a very rare 4.3 V8 that
was made 79-80, but only put in Olds cars.

Most info about these engines is found at:
http://www.olds-diesel.com/

/Robert The 5.7L Diesel was actually introduced in 1978. They were the weak ones as they were converted gas burners. They even used a few of them in 1/2 ton pickups till the 6.2L came out. By 1985 they had the 5.7L fully perfected, but people were already burned out and unfortunately GM ended it.

I had the 4.3L Diesel in a 1983 Cutlass Calais.

[Tatraplan]

My 82-85 was just referring to the 4.3 engine.

The 5.7 was the first one from olds and the D-
model(introduced '78) had a couple of problems.
The main issue was too short bolts for the main bearings in the block, which made the crank flex
and finally break.

The DX-model that came '81 was a far more reliable
engine and seems to be as good as the Chevy 6.2. I
think that all 4.3 engines was based on the
revised 5.7 DX-technology.

By the way, does anyone know why the diesels was
named with metric volumes insted of cubic inches?
Where they mainly made to be sold in Europe and
not in the US?

/Robert