[Vwdiesel] Diesel Hagar the third person ??? .

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

  Hey, I can jump in on this one with a few opinions as well. :)
  Dad had a '79 5.7 pickup and other than weak rear springs, it was not only
the best winter and driving pickup either of us has ever driven, it gave most
cars a good run for the money as well.  It always made better than 20mpg,
would "burn rubber" empty and could still get out of it's own way loaded.
The
engine ran fairly flawlessly for nearly 70K miles.  The injector pumps are
INDEED a problem with them.  The "flex ring" was notorious for falling
apart at about 60K miles.  It was used regularly.  The other thing is the
timing advance mechanism.  Solid steel, sliding in an aluminum housing.
It's at the bottom where all water and dirt collect.  They grind into the
housing and damage it beyond repair frequently I was told by a regular
Spokane Diesel customer.
  The 5.7 used stretch bolts for the heads.  Does that answer questions
about breakage?  ;-)  Cracked heads was an issue but it's also an issue
with many of the Chevy gas engines and Dad's been told most 6.2 heads
will show cracks if magnafluxed.

  My 6.2 pump made it about 150K before the PO had to rebuild it.  The
filter is a joke at best, but it's better than the early 6.9 Fords had.  Mine
proceeded to rust POST filer medium and contaminate my pump with
rust.  I disassembled the pump and managed to get all the rust out
without damage but I think an injector or two have some in them.  No
matter now, as a "friend" of mine ran the engine out of oil for me.  :(

  Personally I think a lot of 5.7 problems came from people using the
wrong oil, trying to start with one battery, using a coolant heater
overnight,
etc.  Light diesels just don't like being low on coolant and many older
heaters boiled the water out.  Some cranks did break as well as block
main webbing.  I won't argue that it wasn't a weak/bad engine but with
the proper care they were very economical and had surprising power.
As I recall, they all had forged cranks and did use a stronger alloy than
the gas blocks.  (They tried NOT doing it at first but nearly all the test
blocks wouldn't pass tests!)  Dad still would like to have his old one
back with a new "Target" engine in it.
  Heck, our beloved VW diesels are a gas conversion engine.  They just
over engineered the original engine so much that they handled the extra
torque and compression pretty well.  We all know that head gaskets are
a weak point.  I sure wish they had just one more bolt per cylinder.  :(
     Loren