Origin of power stroke engine

[batavia02]

Heard a comment at work, today, that the powerstroke diesel, is a gas engine reworked as a diesel. Have not heard or read this before so I thought to ask here .

[N-Trouble]

Converting a gas to diesel would be more work than building a diesel from the ground up as they really have nothing in common. To many water cooler discussions here leading to bad rumors...

[RCMAN46]

tvman44 wrote:
GM is the only one I know of that ever converted a gas engine to diesel and all I ever heard about them was bad.

You need to get your facts straight.

Here is a good article explaining the problems Oldsmobile had with their 350 Diesel. It was not a converted gas to diesel

[tvman44]

GM is the only one I know of that ever converted a gas engine to diesel and all I ever heard about them was bad.

[blt2ski]

Ithe T444e PSD WAS a turbo diesel from get go.

The IDI 6.9/7.3 were but still had gas equals, different heads and crank. MV404/443 per international. Most if not all V8 diesels from International had gas equals before about 1985 or so, when they quit using gas motors in there MDT trucks. They used the same block to make both the gas and diesel motors back in the day.

Reality, a smart move on there part from a supply side of things. Also made one heck of a strong gas block.

Toyota IIRC also had some gas/diesel 4 banger blocks back in the 50's/60's also.

marty

[Sport45]

batavia02 wrote:
Heard a comment at work, today, that the powerstroke diesel, is a gas engine reworked as a diesel. Have not heard or read this before so I thought to ask here .

No, the Powerstroke replaced the 7.3L International Harvester IDI engine. They shared the same displacement, but that was about it.

The 7.3 IDI and 7.3 PS were diesels from the get-go.

[kaz442]

The D and DX blocks were made by Oldsmobile. They are same size and dimension as an Olds gas small block. They definitly had there issues as a diesel. But convert them to gas with Olds gas block parts ( heads intake etc) they will run well. They D and DX blocks are very popular with the high performance Oldsmobile crowd because the blocks are very strong. Can easily handel 1200+ HP.

[Jerrybo66]

ChooChooMan74 wrote:

Trackrig wrote:
No. Chevy / GM did convert the old Chevy 350 to a diesel which is what gave diesels such a bad name for so many years in US vehicles. The 6.0 was not a gas engine.

Bill

That is urban legend. The 350 diesel was NOT a coverted gas motor. It did share the same bore and stroke for tooling, bit that is all.

I had one in an Oldsmobile, forgot the year. I don't know it's pedigree but it was a leaker..........Back in the 60's I had a GMC "cracker box" diesel in an eighteen wheeler that a guy told me the Army used the engine for an air compressor. Half of the cylinders for power, half to pump air.. Urban legend ??

[ChooChooMan74]

Trackrig wrote:
No. Chevy / GM did convert the old Chevy 350 to a diesel which is what gave diesels such a bad name for so many years in US vehicles. The 6.0 was not a gas engine.

Bill

That is urban legend. The 350 diesel was NOT a coverted gas motor. It did share the same bore and stroke for tooling, bit that is all.

Webz wrote:
no, sorry, they werent that...learn more about them before just repeating/spewing off what everyone else on the internet says.

They are based on the oldsmobile 350 (not directly 'converted')....which....was NOT a chevy 350. The diesel blocks are different than the gas 350 blocks

There were two blocks, the D and DX block. The later DX blocks were better. The original problems initiated from only having 4 head bolts per cylinder. It was a stupid design flaw and resulted in lots of blown head gaskets. Compounding the issue was mechanics who didnt know jack diddly about working on diesels. They would all reuse the head bolts (because hey, thats what you do on most gassers, so a diesel is pretty much the same right???) which was NOT acceptable because they were torque to yield bolts. So then this resulted in the head gaskets blowing again soon after the original head gaskets were replaced. This just propogated the bad reputation/name that the old 350 diesels had. That, and they were underpowered and grumpy in the cold.

Another big problem was the lack of water separator and poor fuel filtration setup on the early 350's. All of this added together into an engine that the public despised and didnt want anything to do with because of its poor reputation. Diesels need special care and maintenance techniques, and the simple fact was no one knew that back then, not even mechanics.

[Trackrig]

No. Chevy / GM did convert the old Chevy 350 to a diesel which is what gave diesels such a bad name for so many years in US vehicles. The 6.0 was not a gas engine.

Bill