Can I switch my 350 Chevy engine to a 6.2 diesel?

Sorry, folks, I missed the whole second page before I replied. Looked like a 6.2 hate mail page when I started writing. Thank you all very much for your opinions. I do appreciate them! Sorry if I sounded like a cranky old fart (even though I probably am).

Thanks for those comments. To answer the question of "why would I want to?", The answer would be that I had one in my old Suburban, and it was a great little engine, when maintained. I was told when I bought it that they were known for 80k on the heads (warped heads, cracked heads, blown gaskets, etc.). Sort of like an older jeep. I was also told that this was caused by GM using substandard head bolts that were brought over from the v-8 gassers. The solution to this is to install new head bolts that are of a better alloy (won't stretch and contract due to the high heat and pressure that diesels suffer), before the heads are ruined by the old type bolt less-than-good-enough metallurgy. I've talked to many people who found this swear it's worth the $70 for the new bolts and the resurfacing and/or new heads. Secondly, the Detroit 6.2 is a tough little engine and so does well running on WVO or anything comparable. Others who have run it in most other American engines have not faired as well. The 6.2 is as good with it as Mercedes Benz' 300 and 240 diesels. They are also easy to find parts for and cheap. The U.S. government used them in military and USPS vehicles, and a lot of them are still going strong. Per the Cummins, I've seen and heard about all the trouble my Dodge/Chrysler buddies have had with them, and the exhorbitant prices for parts and repairs. I'd say "No offense...", but that didn't seem to be a lead in in any of the 6.2 bad mouthing that I just read, so I won't bother with that. Per the 454, it was this very forum who led me to the knowledge of buying a diesel (my former '95 GMC 6.5 dually to pull our 36' HR), that convinced me hands down that it would break the bank as a gas guzzler. "You'll be able to watch the fuel gauge needle drop as you pull up hills!! (No thanks!) This is going into an '82 one-ton dually that has a fiberglass service bed and a welder, so I won't be pulling anything with it. I would have kept my old'90 GMC with it's 6.2 but I needed a truck, not a passenger vehicle, and since it would have cost as much to have someone else rebuild the heads as I paid for it (I had a back injury at the time), I chose to sell it. Wish I would have kept it now. OK, then. Now that I know lots of people hate 6.2's, does anybody anybody have an answer to my question? Thanks!

If you want a diesel consider a 5.9L B-series Cummins swap. Guys do it all the time, there are examples all over the interwebs. There are Cummins OE adapters that mate the B-series to a GM bell housing so you don't have to use an odd ball transmission.

The B-series Cummins seems to way out last the chassis that they come in so a donor engine should be easy to find.

Whats wrong with the 350? Honestly, unless you were pulling a 15k fiver I would just purchase a Goodwrench 350 if you need a new motor, add some headers, maybe swap out the Cam, possibly the carb and You should be able to get pretty decent power numbers and great reliability.

If you are pulling a bigger load and have high rear axle gear ratio I would look into replacing the rear axle with a lower gear ratio before diving into a full on engine transplant.

I love that body style dually.. btw..

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Know a guy who went the other way with a 5.7 diesel in a Cadillac. Took the diesel out and put in a crate 350. Then he stuck the diesel in a boat.

If the OP is looking for the best fuel economy and very little towing capability the 6.2 is the ticket.

I remember a family member had an '82 and that engine wouldn't die.

BTW it sounded like******at idle!

Best bang for the buck - swap in a big block gasser.

A 6.2 - is just not worth the grief -vs- the results.

A 5.9 Cummins would be worth the effort - but still more work (and $) than the gas engine.

~

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
The 6.2 is all mechanical so you just hook up the fuel line, return line and electrical things like starter ect and you're good to go.

This is true. The afore-mentioned 6.2 Suburban broke an alternator belt on our trip at about 3 am between Lakeview, Oregon and Winnemucca, NV, which is 212 miles of nothing! The battery eventually died, lights and radio went out, etc, but the diesel kept on chugging. We couldn't stop, because we knew we couldn't start it up again, and one can wait for hours on that road for someone to pass by. So we just drove the 150 miles to Winnemucca to get a new belt. Fortunately we had a full moon that night!

**sorry to get off topic, just good memories of that trip!**

showme wrote:
I've just purchased a 1982 Chevy 1 ton dually, and I"m wondering how much trouble, if possible, to change out the 350 gas engine to a 6.2 (or any, for that matter), diesel. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

You could build a blown, injected big block gasser for a lot less than you'd pay for a Duramax/Allison combination. One advantage is that you still get to register as an '82 vehicle, and have '82 emissions (if necessary), no matter what's under the hood. After I win the lottery, I'm building a 2007 3500 Duramax. No emissions garbage and I can build the undercarriage as heavy as I want. Still registered as an '07. :-)

Lyle

blt2ski wrote:
But to put a basic 6.2 in your truck, no thanks. The HP/torque specs were on par with a 305 V8 from the time, and it was ment to be a high mpg305 equal, "IT DID" that very well, but with a 120/240 hp/torque amount, no its not going to tow anything big at a reasonable speed per say.

Yep, that is about right. Just out of high school, I drove a 6.2 diesel Suburban on a 2100 mile road trip with some friends. It got good mpg -- we averaged 20 mpg at speeds of about 60 mph (it didn't like to go much faster!), and it was kinda crazy being able to drive from Medford, Oregon to SLC, Utah on one tank of fuel, with a few gallons to spare (good thing, because diesel was a little harder to find then -- at least, we weren't used to looking for it in the right places, and drove around for about 45 minutes trying to find fuel once we got to SLC). That said, it was not powerful by any stretch of the imagination, and it was not very exciting to drive -- if anything, more gutless than the 305 Suburban my family had at the time. I would hate to have towed anything with it.

Kinda funny, now that I think about it -- that 6.2 and my grandpa's Ford 6.9 diesel were the first diesels I ever drove, and they turned me off to diesels for a long time! Those engines were dogs compared to the gas small block V8's of the same vintage. Times have changed!