5.7 GM, Oldsmobile Diesel 

I don't know what blows my mind more - the condition of the truck, the lovely olds diesel noises, or the factory air?!

I had the 4.3 V8 diesel in an Olds Cutlass--it died at 60K miles. GM warranted the engine and replaced it with the 5.7 (350 CID) Mr. Goodwrench diesel in 1984. Most of the problems of the original GM 260/350 V8 diesels had been solved. I sold the car at around 100K because it had other problems besides the engine. The new owner drove it for at least another 60K and it would have lasted longer, but was totaled in an accident. My neighbor at that time was a traveling salesman. He had an '84 Buick Riviera with the newer version of the 5.7 diesel and he put over 300K miles on the car and the engine was still running strong and getting 30 mpg+ on the highway. Sadly, GM had ruined the diesel engine's reputation with the early models and the later versions of the engine never overcame that bad reputation.

We had a grip of these early diesel GMs process through my folks’ little car lot. They were relatively reliable but extremely slow… cold starts were a real challenge in the winter. This is an excellent example - love the vehicle.

I love those full-size GMC JIMMY’s! Beautiful Truck!

I've owned 4 cars with the 350N engine. 2 had Target replacement blocks and 2 had Goodwrench crate engines. 81 Fleetwood, 81 Pontiac Safari wagon, 82 Buick Regal and 83 Buick Estate Wagon. I bought all 4 with blown head gaskets. I had the heads rewelded, reinforced the alternator brackets, added a water separator and drove them all over 100k before selling them. I wish that I had them back. Used Rotella every 4k and never had a problem. Because I lived in Florida, I disconnected the glow plugs. Ether starting fluid is a definite no-no. I always used WD-40 when temperatures got below 50°.

Wow, what a gem! I had an 81 Olds Delta 88 with the 5.7 diesel and sold it 18 years ago or so. I still miss that old car! Wish I hadn’t sold it! The 45 mph 1/4 mile trap speed wasn’t so wonderful for merging onto short on ramps!

Dig those crazy seats!! I had a 78 c10 silverado with those same wheels, those were classically good looking on those trucks

My very first diesel vehicle was a 1977 Chevy Blazer 2Wd that I swapped in a 5.7L diesel! I performed the swap in 1995. Great platform, excellent fuel economy, but low on power. After blowing the headgaskets twice, I swapped in a 6.2L diesel that was a much better engine, but I still have fond memories of the old Olds diesel.

My Dad had a 1979 white custom deluxe with this engine. It had around 350,000 miles on it before selling it in the early 90s. Lots of stories. Thanks for posting wanted to hear that sound again.

Well, there's something you hardly see anymore !

I’m surprised. In 1982 GM only offered a 6.2L diesel. Its amazing someone got a 5.7L out of an olds and got it to function in a truck platform. They didn’t put out a lot of power.

People hate on the 5.7 diesel and most of the negativity is deserved BUT I had 3 5.7L diesels ( Two Buicks and one Olds) all gave me really great service over the years. Start right up no matter how cold outside, GREAT fuel mileage and they ran very smooth. The 1983 Olds 98 5.7L diesel blew up at 200,000 miles without ANY prior engine repairs so not too bad overall.

Main bearing cap and headbolt upgrades are available to make this engine quite reliable.

My dad had one and it’s still parked! I’m planning on a restoration

Wow, didn't expect it to be a 5.7 diesel and not a 6.2. Very clean, thanks for sharing

Due too under sized rod bearings the high psi loading on the rod bearing prevents using the vehicles they were put in any heavy towing, they need to be used lightly.

Id drive that everyday. I wouldn't care what anyone says. This is the beauty of GM

Sounds a lot like 6.2 and 6.5. Love that sound.

A diesel, TWO-wheel drive JIMMY Blazer? I didnt even know they made these! NICE ride!!

Thats a nice diesel truck pal. It seems to run very good. Thats a rare gem.

They have main bearing stud upgrades and heat treated stud and nut head bolt upgrades for these engines to make them more reliable.

That's a nice 5.7 you have there.:) Not many of those running down the road.

I had a really nice one, but was swapped to the olds gas engine. The hydroboost brakes can be a pita but I really liked that pickup and never had to deal with that crappy diesel

My dad bought one of those trucks brand new with the 5.7 diesel. It blew up nearly immediately and the dealership put in a new 350 gas motor instead.

That is the best sound early GM diesel I have heard in a LONG time, and its a 5.7 Oldsmobile diesel?! That is nuts! And I bet that Jimmy was a nice cruiser with that diesel. Don't need to go fast, just need torque and putter around in comfort.

The sound when the door is shut.. so nice

I remember neighbor had one brand new. The correct original exhaust was oval at the right and had a wire mesh inside the tip that resembled a spark arrestor.

It was a thing to find the ex diesel cars with the good wrench swap. Got a killer mint Riviera that way. Remember popping the hood saw the valve covers voila. Drove the car over a 100k and sold it for more than I paid for it six years later. You also didn’t have to do emissions tests because diesels were exempt.

I would have liked to have seen the Chevy 292 converted to a diesel or the Ford 300 six. Would have been slow, but speed isn't everything! Chrysler dieselized the slant six and reportedly made it reliable, but decided to not produce it. It was probably pretty low on horsepower and they ended the F body so didn't really have a lighter car for it.

I don't like how people keep saying the 350 Olds was just a converted 350 gas. It wasn't. It was a reinforced block design, but the two engines (gas and diesel) shared common tooling to help keep costs down. The diesel had a much thicker block to hold up to the higher pressures. Some have converted the 350 olds to gas for using nitrous oxide for drag racing.

I had a 1/2 t0n jimmy with the 5.7 diesel . It was a old j.d. service any way I was the second owner (got it worth the money ha ha)had good luck with it for then the glow plugs went bad and the parts store wanted a hundred bucks each for them and I decided a can of starting fluid was a lot cheaper and when you got the looks when it was nintey -five outside lifting the hood and watching the people thinking i LOST MY MINDwas worth it .The rear main went out and was getting oil all over it and went and put a olds. gas engine in and run it three more years .Had to be a olds. engine in it because the starter wires are on the left and chevys were on the right.WHAT A GOOD TIME I HAD.HA HA

Head bolt studs apparently are available from ARP fasteners. Maybe as a kit through one of the Oldsmobile specialty machine shops in the USA

I had the pleasure and honor of being the 5.7 guy at a shop in Fbx, late 80’s. Such turds ! It paid good, so, polished turds to me 😂

I loved this engine in a military 5/4 Chev pickup. No turbo but tuns of grunt. Great on fuel too.

Oldsmobile. GM's experimental division. Olds engineering with GM research were tasked with new stuff to come out with and test run on the car brand after having run through the proving grounds tests.

Freakin' cool! Original 5.7 diesel trucks are rare as f*&#! I've been driving a 81 Olds 98 5.7 DX block for 11 years as my daily driver, not one single problem with it so far.

I had one of these in a 79 Seville. Change oil every 3,000 miles. Change head bolts every 60K miles. Change injector pump and head bolts at 120K miles. Drive the Seville from 1988 to 1996. About 300K miles on the speedo actual miles. Only damn thing that ever went wrong was head bolts and injector pump, except that the analog Climate Control crapped out at 300K. Loved it, but decided to get a new car instead of fixing an old one. (Towed a ‘69 Vette on a car trailer from Monterey, CA to LA over Tejon Summit in July and it was slow, but never overheated. Towed 2-axle Uhaul FULL of stuff from Provo to Idyllwid over the hump outside of Vegas by Whiskey Pete’s and up to 6000 feet if the San Berdo mountains in August, 1978. If they had just given that engine stronger head bolts, it would have been damn near bulletproof! Had a ‘79 Eldo diesel too (NOT the ugly one from 1980 onward) bought in 1996. It had an extra fuel tank, so I could go from Monterey, CA to OC and back without needing fuel. My mother drove a Sedan de Ville diesel-30 mpg in a Caddy is nothing to sneeze at! (Of course, I had been a truck driver and knew how to take care of a diesel!) In my PhD dissertation I cited the contribution of the Cadillac MotorDivision of GM-without those able (if aging) Cadillacs, I could not have complete semi-weekly round trips from Provo, UT to Idyllwild, CA (1988-89, Master’s degree) and Monterey, CA to Westminster, CA (1991-1996, PhD at UCLA.) *Very* comfy to sleep in. If anyone asked where I lived, I just replied “Somewhere on Hwy 101.” 😉

That alternator belt is singing "should I stay or should I go now"

Reducing the CR from 22:1 down to 18 or so helps to keep these running

Its mind-blowing to see a chevy pick up with an Oldsmobile diesel engine this is awesome great looking truck

That’s a nice untouched pickup 🔥

I have the same motor in my 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Coupe. Runs great, I drove over 20.000 miles with no problems. MPG is about 26-27, mixed, town, highway and so on. Driving on Highways I get 30 mpg. I live in Europe, and I use this car for long distances, Germany - Spain. The Olds is so comfortable to drive, I love US-cars! :) And a lot of people think that is a gasser motor. If the motor is warm, the sound is smooth, not like a lot 4 cylinder rattle diesel machines ;) . My motor has still the pencil injector. I have a second stack of 8 injectors, you can clean them and set the pressure to 1.800 psi.

Very Nice !! I’ve never had that nice but I’ve owned 4 or 5 of the GM 5,7 diesel cars and worked on some for other people . I got along with all of mine really well ! I miss them . The sound and the smells were awesome !

Pretty cool video. I had two of those engines YEARS ago. 1981 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham and a 1984 Olds 98 Regency, both with the 5.7. I've always loved the clatter of those engines. They just had a unique sound, compared to other diesels. I've driven 1980s Mercedes diesels for the past 27 years, and while they're superior by far, I still miss the sound of that Olds. Thanks for sharing!

Yes, some did survive and had a reasonable reliability. For the most part, they were a bad idea that was ill designed and marketed too quickly. Lots of dead engines and GM suffered a loss of loyalty, unmatched since the fiasco of their 'musical engines' of the 1970's.

The first shop I worked in when I was 16 we converted one of these trucks to a 455 olds because the owner blew a head gasket and kept driving the diesel which in turn overheated it and nuked the motor. We put a big cam and intake and carb on the 455 and used the diesel high flow manifolds.. can’t believe the condition of this truck. It’s beautiful

a two wheel drive Jimmy with an Oldsmobile diesel . You don't see too many of those around

Just found a 81 square body pickup with this engine for $1500.. I'm so tempted to get it!

I miss those old American classics same engine that was in my grandfathered's Oldsmobile Delta 88

Beautiful Jimmy and I love that power train !

We had an '81 Serra Classic w/ the Diesel, when it piles up, we bought a rolled truck out of the Oil industry and the local GM dealer swapped it over to gas.

One of the very few 2wd Jimmys/Blazers that I've ever seen. It's really surprising to see a 2wd where there's significant snow (Saskatchewan)!!! Was the 5.7 a factory option or was it originally a 6.2? I just watched a video the other day about a 1981 Buick Century with this engine.

That truck is amazing so clean

I worked on a lot of these years ago. The Oldsmobile diesel engine program was another example of GM doing their R and D work with their customers money! They took the best/ most durable gasoline engine they have ever made, and turned it into a terrible diesel. By the time they finally got most of it's problems sorted out, they had so poisoned the market nobody in their right mind would buy a GM diesel of any kind. The people that bought vehicles with this engine, and paid a premium for them at the time, really got screwed when the time came to sell or trade them in.

Sounds amazing, very healthy

i had one chevy land put 4 engines in it in 9 months. they begged me to let them put a gas in it free of charge and still give me the warranty. and they put a 454 in it. i drove the truck until 2007.

gotta love that " oldsmoNile " sound

Sounds wonderful!

I believe Diesel and V8 is the best combination for a Motor with good low end Torque. I mean a V8 is known for torque. A Diesel is also known for Torque. V8 Diesel will always perfect for hauling stuff

Had one of those in an 81 or 82 Pontiac bonneville. It was such a lemon that GM replaced the motor at 50K. We put around 50k on the second engine and it was leaking oil so bad we finally traded it off.

Nice truck for what the olds diesel was I think they still sound better than a 6.5

Not sure if you're on there or not, but there's a lot of square body groups on Facebook that would love to see this truck. Never seen or heard a 350 diesel before so this is a rather cool treat for me. Wonder if this engine was an option for the duallies...

Nice to see one of those nice old survivors in good old Saskatchewan !

They even had cop cars with this diesel engine

They were ok motors, as long as you didn't pull with them. They were great on fuel.

What a sharp Jimmy!

I had a 82 impala wagon that came with a diesel 5.7L in high school, it excites the heck outa me seeing them in prime condition. Thanks for keeping an underrated historical piece of GM history on the road that nobody anymore really would know existed. I aim to source a few cheap rebuilders for experimental but good purposes, and put some more power into them. Could you offer any advice? Id love have one with more power in an 81-84 c10 custom deluxe LWB mated with a SM-465. Or 79-80 c10 with 81-7 front clip.

He doesnt sound Like a diesel. Fantastic

Love that interior

My 81 bonneville has that same fuel/water separator on it. The original owner installed it with 3000 miles on the clock

Amazing it still looks completely stock all the oem accessories and everything, is this the last version of the olds diesel ⛽, a whopping 90 hp , some were a 110 I think . Make 30 mpg though.

The best running 5.7 diesel on planet earth 👍

Nice. Surprised it looks n runs that good living in da great white north. Usually they’re rusted out n used for scrap

And a short bed. Great truck!!!!!

Fellow Saskatchewan 👍

Very interesting what the orig owner did. That's Pure Passion.

All it's missing is a manual transmission,then you can make the most of engine torque,boy.

beautiful jimmy man, wish i had one

Awesome! Nice 4th Gen in the garage too ;)

That's a healthy girl there. Exhaust tips look great too.

I am a simple man. I see a 5,7 diesel video I press like. End of story.

I remember when that motor came out. One of Oldsmobile's goals was a short-stroke V8 diesel, something that hadn't been tried before. The prototypes would only run a short time before failing. Olds should have given up on having such a short stroke and instead based it in their big block with smaller bores. A long stroke 350.

Super cool truck!

Perhaps GM’s greatest mistake along with the crappy Cadillac 4-6-8 engines HT 4100’s and the Northstar. What were they thinking?

Wow what a gem ! Beautiful

In person then sound like a John deer tractor with the oldsmobile exhaust note it's pretty cool if you're a oldsmobile person 😎

Hello from Alberta this must be super rare 81 was last year the 5.7l diesel was used in trucks. I have never seen one in a jimmy is this aftermarket maybe special order. .

Nice truck she is a beauty! Sounds great too! Enjoy!

The greatest engine ever made they should put this in the new trucks and get rid of that awful duramax

That is more rare 5'7 in a blazer. They were in the Chevrolet pickup half tons till 81

love when you flip the drivers visor down it says not for towing ...genius engine from gm to put in a truck

Im kinda floored this truck is in saskatchewan

Is that a light hitch on a Sask. truck? Lol i'm just very jealous. Love those old two doors.

It looks like a vegi oil heater and high pressure lines on the passenger side inner wheel well.

Looks and sounds beautiful. Curious why the 5.7 liter Oldsmobile duesel in a truck ? I can see it in a car but guven the power ir rather lack of power for a truck why this choice ? Dont get me wrong this is an epic swap .

Some of the few survivor Olds Diesel has milage must be real good. Drivers of one must get looks.

Classic GM.

Cool truck 😊

Wow! Awesome Jimmy!

What happened to the 82 Jimmy, since you took out the 350 diesel?