Diesel Dart/Duster/Valiant/Cordoba Conversions

Tony Capana in California put Nissan Diesels (they were sold by
Chrysler back then) in the above cars fairly extensively. Are any
still out there? Anyone seen one?

 

Extensively? Well...no. Not very extensively at all.

There was a review of one of these in a Popular Science of the day. It was
generally regarded as a poor conversion.

Barreiros, the Spanish builder-marketer of Chrysler products until the
'70s, put 2-litre diesel engines in Dodge Darts from '65 through '69 or
so. Zero to 100 km/h in...oh, I donno, 45 minutes?

 

The SD33 (a/k/a CN6-33)was the engine used by Capana in the Mopars.
The tech writers I read liked it a lot. Who thought it was poor and
why?

It's interesting that though GM had EMD and Detroit Diesel and Ford
built many ag diesels and several truck diesels in England, Chrysler
Corporation never built a diesel of its own until it merged with DB.
They used Nissans in marine and other nonautomotive apps, Mits in a
few vans, and Cumminses in the ram pickups, but never built a diesel
of their own. Wonder why?

 

Possibly because they bought the technology. They bought large shares
in Mitsu to get "inhouse" access to some of their technology, and also
own a substantial share of Cummins, IIRC.
Freightliner is effectively the heavy truck division of Chrysler, like
Sinclair is of Ford.

As for GM, up untill the current crop, in automotive and light truck
apps you could say they never built a deisel of their own too. Isuzu
deisels in the Chevette, and that excuse for a deisel they made from
an Olds 350 their engineers even want to forget. Their FC trucks were
also Isuzu. No more GM than Mitsu was Chrysler

Untill Ford redesigned the International S Series and made the
Powerstroke, they also used Nissan and Mazda deisel engines for their
light duty stuff in North America.

 

They bought the engines because they're good and cheap. If any of the "big
3" had designed car diesels for the U.S. market, they'd never sell enough of
them to get any good at it. The oldsmobile is a great illustration. Other
people are already good at it, and they make a lot, so the economy of scale
is there. It's an effective way to get a quality product. Instant
gratification.

I agree with Ted that there are some strange outcomes. GM is the only one of
the three that has large diesel engine manufacturing companies inhouse (two
of them, as he pointed out). In spite of this, GM's diesels sold in the U.S.
have always been the worst. They might be pretty good now, don't know, but
they've got 25 years of lousyness to live down. Nobody I know uses one. Once
in a while I'll see one on the interstate, and I always think "there goes a
diehard chevy man".

 

"Had," not "has." GM sold Detroit Diesel to Penske years and years ago,
and EMD is up for sale right now (and has been for a long time). And the
2-stroke diesel technology that Detroit Diesel had back when GM owned
them is not at all suitible for an automotive-sized engine. EMD finally
developed a big 4-stroke diesel (the H-series engine of roughly 6000
horsepower) but it hasn't broken any records for reliability yet. Not as
bad as the Oldsmobile diesel, but not good either...

 

The irony is that the 5.7 Olds finally became a halfway decent diesel
engine at the end of its production life. And even the early ones
usually ran when the car went to the junkyards. It was never the
diesel the Nissans, Benzes, Mits were, but it enabled 4000 lb cars to
get 27 mpg, and you could use the diesel block, crank, rods, et al to
build a great hot rod gas engine.

The 6.2 and 6.5 aren't terrible engines either-most problems occur
because of poor accessory choices or the fast-start glow plug
system-or people overtaxing them. They are not a 3208 Cat, but they
don't weigh 1200 lbs or cost $4000 for a replacement injection pump
either.

Dodge made the right choice in using the Cummins, but the four
cylinder version of the B in a Dakota sized truck would make a lot
more sense for me than the 3/4 ton.

My fondest hope is that someone will make a kit to put the common OM
617 diesel in a TJ or YJ Jeep. A new oil paan, mounts, and bellhousing
are needed.