olds v8

[66pnl]

I know the olds diesel was available in the late 70's trucks but was the gas version also an option. I was told by a couple differant guys that their trucks came from the factory with the gas motors. Were they bs'n me or was it an option. I did some searching but didn't come up with any thing.

[Old Truck Man]

As far as I know there where not any factory gas oldsmobile engines factory installed in the square cabs. Now in the late fifties there where Pontiac ,Buick & a few Oldsmobile engines installed in GM trucks. I once installed a 260 gas olds into a 77 GMC Pk. it got good fuel economy but didn't have much power.

[naphtali5725]

I don't think there were ever gas olds engines in them...
but you can put olds engines in them pretty easy... i'm putting a 455 in my 86...

[Corts60]

It didn't come from the factory that way, but it did come from the dealer that way. What happened very often was that the original Olds diesel was so troublesome, dealers would replace them under warranty with an Olds gas engine because it was a direct replacement.

[mrolds88]

Externally the Olds diesel was identical to the Olds small block gas engines. None of the trucks were Olds gas from the factory. The good part is that everything from the 260 to the 455 will bolt in.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by Corts60

It didn't come from the factory that way, but it did come from the dealer that way. What happened very often was that the original Olds diesel was so troublesome, dealers would replace them under warranty with an Olds gas engine because it was a direct replacement.

Exactly. There's a pile of trucks running around with 307 Olds engines due to diesel failures back down the line.

[mrolds88]

The Olds diesels started in 78 or 79. If they were replaced under warranty they had to be replaced with a 260, 350 or 403. It would have probably been a 350. Because the only Olds engine with less power than the 350 diesel could have only been the 260. The later 350 diesels were better. They were marked DX on the side of the block and had less failures. They could have been replaced with the 307's under warranty.

[66pnl]

Right on, thanks for all the info guys.

[S10Fan]

I had an Olds 98 with a diesel in the late 70's, you don't want one of those motors. I believe those era diesel motors would fail as a boat anchor.

As mentioned above though, I've seen a couple squares with Olds (gas) motors, none were factory according to the owners.