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Need Help Planning a Project!

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Old 05-01-2009, 01:25 AM
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Staging Lane
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Hey all, heres the deal:

I just found out that my grandpa will be giving me his 1980 Chevy truck. Reg cab, long box, 2wd, in great shape yada yada. Anyway I'm pretty excited to do some work and make this truck my baby. Plans include to drop in a carbed/cammed 350 with a high stall converter and TH3500 for the rest of the season, and do a sprayed 383 over the winter along with some cosmetic stuff. I'll make a build thread when the time comes. Here is my problem:

As the truck sits, its a diesel. The diesel in it is a 350 cu engine, and is externally identical to a gas 350, so my plans will drop right in. To run it on gas, will i have to run all new fuel lines in addition to a new pump? I know ill have to remove the air/water separator and all that ****, but is it necessary to put in all new lines? And will I have to do anything else to convert it to gas? I tried Googling but found nothing.

Thanks for your help!!

Where I got the identical part:

Diesel Differences; The Oldsmobile diesel is believed by some to be a converted gasoline engine. While they share the same bore and stroke and some external bolt patterns (transmission and exhaust manifolds) they are quite different.

GM began with a substantially different bottom end when compared with its gasoline cousin. * Diesel Blocks o 3" diameter injection pump mounts are cast into the top of the lifter valley o Camshaft nose modified to incorporate injection pump drive gear o Block castings are much thicker and heavier. It's possible to overbore the cylinders by 0.125in without sonic testing. o Solid heavy cast main webs were used. o Reputedly GM used a higher nickel cast iron alloy for the block and heads. * Diesel crankshafts o Nodular Iron used in all Diesel cranks o Main bearing journals increased to 3.000" o Vibration damper modified to allow eccentric for crank-driven fuel lift pump * Diesel Pistons and Rods o Diesel rods are shorter at 5.886" long. o Diesel pistons have large valve reliefs and steel inserts behind the first compression ring. Fuel Systems; * No OEM fuel/water separator was factory installed on any Olds Diesel. * Crank eccentric driven fuel lift pump mounted in same location as gasoline fuel pump. * Fuel line heater between lift pump and filter. * Intake mounted 10 micrometre fuel filter. * Stanadyne Roosamaster DB2 Mechanical Diesel Injection Pump. * 1978-79 Pencil Injectors held in by clamp. * 1980-85 Poppet injectors screw into head. Heads; * The same 10 head bolt pattern as their smallblock gasoline cousins. * The same exhaust manifold bolt pattern as their smallblock gasoline cousins. * Have injector pre-chambers and glowplug bosses. * Valve springs contained a vibration dampener with rotators. * Head variations; * Very early castings were stamped D3 and used 5/16" injector hold down retaining bolts and clamps. * D3A castings were created a little later and used 3/8" injector hold down bolts and clamps. * Both D3 and D3A heads accepted external EGR and Pencil Injectors. * Some D3A heads accepted poppet injectors as well. o D3B Later heads + All had Internal EGR + Pencil or Poppet Injectors + 1 or 2 locating dowels The Oldsmobile diesel engines gained a reputation for unreliability and anemic performance that badly damaged the North American passenger diesel market for the next 20 years
Old 05-01-2009, 07:46 AM
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I would not reuse the diesel tank and lines my self. I would either find a scrap yard and rob them or order new from LMC, YearOne, etc.

Your 350 can have a pump on the engine. I thought that those diesels where modeled from Olds 350 blocks? But I could be mistaken. Never messed with one.
Old 05-01-2009, 08:09 AM
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Staging Lane
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Originally Posted by bowtieguy79
I would not reuse the diesel tank and lines my self. I would either find a scrap yard and rob them or order new from LMC, YearOne, etc.

Your 350 can have a pump on the engine. I thought that those diesels where modeled from Olds 350 blocks? But I could be mistaken. Never messed with one.
Thanks. whats the reason behind not reusing them.

I think they are externally identical to the Olds block. Do those use different mounts etc than a regular SBC?
Old 05-05-2009, 09:52 PM
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Originally Posted by 89-5.7Chevy
Thanks. whats the reason behind not reusing them.

I think they are externally identical to the Olds block. Do those use different mounts etc than a regular SBC?
I guess as long as they routed close to the same, just flush the fuel really well out of the lines.

Ya the block is going to sit in different mounting holes in the frame.
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