🚀 go-pugleaf

Re: the Olds diesel that wouldn't start:  We had the same problem
(randomly wouldn't start when conditions should be ideal, lots of
white smoke.)  It was the head gasket.  In fact we put lots of
head gaskets in the thing before we traded it in.  (Not all at once,
of course.  :-)  The car was a '79 rabbit diesel.  The only thing the
mechanic and we could figure out was that there was a tolerance problem
in the design.  That is, if the tolerances of the block maxed out one
direction and the tolerances of the head maxed out the other direction,
it'd eat head gaskets.  This is more important than with most engines
considering the large compression ratio of the diesel.  We actually
solved the problem by replacing the head.  But, a couple of months later
it exhibited a different characteristic:  It'd start all right if it had
been run recently, but was a *bitch* to start in the morning.  Like, you
needed two batteries in parallel to turn it over enough times to finally
get it to catch.  We thought it was the battery and put another one in,
but the problem was finally traced down to engine oil getting into the
cylinders if the car sat long.  (Like overnight.)  You know something?
Diesels will burn engine oil as fuel.  But they don't start very well.
That was about when we traded it in.  I suspect the actual culprit at that
point was bad rings.

I don't know what the deal is with the Olds, but my opinion, arrived at
by experiance, is to stay away from diesels.

I know that doesn't help if you already own one.  The only useful experiance
I can pass along is when you get the head gaskets replaced, find someone
who knows diesels to do it.  You have to get those mating surfaces *really*
clean, and be *very* careful torqing down the head bolts.


				Ron
-- 
--
		Ronald O. Christian (Fujitsu America Inc., San Jose, Calf.)
		ihnp4!{pesnta,qubix}!wjvax!fai!ronc

Oliver's law of assumed responsibility:
	"If you are seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it."