I have 3 Olds built with the diesel, got a lot of experience with them
before eventually changing over to an Olds 403. The most useful
info was that the diesel best be used with a switch pitch TH400 trans.
The 200 trans my cars came with very soon failed, the lockup clutch
drove me crazy. There was some kind of vacuum control on the
throttle linkage, and running vacuum thru that to the vacuum modulator
seemed to work just fine. The cars had a reputation as slugs, but I
found out why. The diesel had plenty of horsepower to launch a car,
but geared just like a gas car, the engine could not get into its power
range until something like 40mph. Using an electronically controlled
switch pitch converter set to high stall allowed the engine to rev
immediately with extra torque conversion.
In low stall for cruising it was nearly as economical as the lockup.
On a long trip with limited top speed due to weather, my 4 door
Cutlass got 30mpg. There was no issue keeping up with traffic
in the city.
There is a low miles 1980 diesel 5.7L sitting here from decades ago,
it was running but had an injector problem when replaced.
Bruce Roe.
bcroe@juno.com
These were found in Toronado's for a time, and I'm looking for the 81-85 "DX" block version. Preferably a known running engine, but I'll take whatever I can get. If it happens to come with a complete car, so much the better! As I'll need to use some of its other parts to make modifications... 
