At 03:58 PM 9/6/05 -0400, ScottGee1 wrote:
>
>As I recall, one of the primary reasons folks in the U.S. avoid diesel
>technology is that during a gas availability 'crisis' in the '80s, GM
>'converted' standard gas engines to diesel, promoted them as The
>Solution to The Problem and those engines (predictably) had major,
>expensive service issues. Lawsuits ensued, PR flacks bailed and lots
>of folks decided to forever stay with regular gas engines, thank you
>very much.
>
Ahem,, this is perhaps the biggest fallacy about the GM diesels around. The
biggest problem was getting the sales people to explain to the consumer how
to properly operate them. The dealerships/salespeople blew this one
bigtime. The consumer --- never one to actually read the owner's manual --
treated the engine just like a conventional gas engine with the appropriate
results.
The interesting thing to note was that many GM mechanics picked the cars up
used, rebuilt the engines and then proceeded to get many hundreds of
thousands of miles out of them -- amazing for bad engines. Have also seen
them used in marine applications where, if they were converted properly,
they again gave years and years of service.
Barry H
PS I actually saw the engines being run to destruction in Detroit at the
test cells at the Detroit Diesel Plant in 1977 -- some time before they
went into production.
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