Alternative 80s luxury

[walyfd]

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/07/mi ... -sale/amp/

Here's a beautiful car that is basically bulletproof and truly a luxury car. Cadillac was still kinda in the game but introduced the 864 engine in 81. Here's a real v8 barge with fender skirts and a plush, elegant interior. The Cadillac dash was really the best but I'd take this car over the Cadillac. The olds dash seemed to push itself in your face. When cadillac totally messed up with that 4100, Oldsmobile engines saved the day. (The 307 was a pig but that's a different story).

The buick park avenue was another gorgeous and reliable example. My neighbor's in laws had a dark blue Electra with blue velvet interior and the full wheel disks. It was so elegant. Reminded me of a late 30s Packard with its understated look.

[electra225]

Other than having chronically leaky valve covers that could cause an engine fire, along with miles of vacuum hoses, my personal feeling is the Olds 307 got a bad rap. It was not designed to be a hotrod engine. It was not a rubber burner by any means, but it was smooth and dependable and was not crabby about the heat out here in the desert Southwest. I still have the tools to set the "authority" in the electronic Quadra-Jet carburetors on these engines. The Chevy 305 was not as reliable as the Olds 307. The good old 307 bailed out Cadillac on more than one occasion. The junky 4100 was part of Cadillac's undoing. The V8-6-4 was easily disabled, giving a fairly competent 368 cubic inch V-8 powerplant. The '81-'84 Olds 88, 98 and the Buick Electra, LeSabre arguably had the best climate control systems ever installed in a motor vehicle. Even the smaller R4 Frigidaire compressor performed fairly well if you kept the system properly oiled and serviced. The fake plastic woodgraining on the instrument panels of that era of Olds and Buick vehicles had a hard life out here in the desert heat.....

[Ken Doyle]

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/07/mi ... -sale/amp/

Here's a beautiful car that is basically bulletproof and truly a luxury car.

It's got the Oldsmobile diesel engine!

[electra225]

The diesel was an option. Cab drivers out here in the desert liked the diesel for cab use because it was hard to overheat. IIRC, the 3.8 liter V-6 was standard in the big Olds and Buick, maybe even some Cadillacs in that era.

[Ken Doyle]

It's a shame they dropped the Olds 403 engine after 1979, they ran rather well. The 403 was also a popular bolt-in replacement for blown diesel engines.

The base V6 for the 1981 Olds 98 Regency was the 4.1 version of the Buick V6 with a 4-barrel carburetor.

[electra225]

When I had my auto repair shop, I got a contract with the local GM truck dealer to replace the Olds diesels and some of the early Fuel Pinchers they put in Chevy/GMC trucks. Olds 350/403/455 were the most popular since the transmission already there would work. But you could swap in almost any GM engine/trans combo you wanted. Buick 430/455 was a popular swap, along with the Cadillac 500 and 472. Ironically, I don't remember ever swapping in a big block Chevy, even though those were optional powerplants in those trucks. You could buy the whole parts car cheaper than just the engine and transmission. We did engine swaps in perfectly good running diesel pickups. The resale value on a diesel pickup with the Olds diesel was nothing. It would actually pay to swap to a gas engine, then put the truck on the lot. The dealer would put on fancy wheels and some stripes to give them some sizzle. Sold like hotcakes.....

[walyfd]

I had a 90 cadillac brougham with the olds engine. It developed a porous block. Oil was literally seeping from the engine. Until then. It was decent but not the confident power you'd expect of a cadillac. Mind you, this car replaced my 82 4100 car so...

I replaced the engine and it was never the same. Then I found the 91 with the 305 Chevy with FI. Well, I wouldn't go back to a 307 for anything.

I can't understand why gm was investing in FI from 1975 (the 350 Seville. 500s, 425s and the 4100) and, when the 4100 bombed, they went back to the quadrajet. Couldn't they take that 307 and FI it and make it exclusive to cadillac?

Overall, the 305 is a very adequate engine. The 5.7 is still the best of the era. And I've driven 93+ broughams with the LT1 and OMG. But I just hate those bathtub cars...

[electra225]

I hear you. I wanted a Roadmaster in the worst way, until I drove one. You'd think they could have executed that series a bit better. They had the mechanicals right for the most part, but the trim and body styling wasn't all that hot. Lincoln built a similar car, styled like a bathtub. The lowrider guys like those to put juice suspension on.

[Firedome]

Porous blocks in 307s were a very rare problem, and corrected fairly quickly. For the most part they were very reliable and durable engines, albeit slow, but that could be corrected. A friend bought a new '87 Brougham in a pretty dark blue metallic and it was quite satisfactory in service. Still, it was not up to '77 and '79 standards in quality of materials and performance imo. The weight reduction regime of 1980 was evident.

The 403 Olds in my '79 Electra was excellent. The sometimes stated problem of "siamesing" the cylinders causing cooling problems and weak crank webs were for the most part a myth, problems arose only in extreme racing use, normally driven there were no problems, and it gave excellent ooomph.

[19&41]

I worked in a small 2 way radio shop in Kalamazoo and my boss drove a 98 and a wagon, both diesels. seeing how well he was doing with them, the other tech there found an 88 diesel. Both of them liked them so much, when I found an '81 Toronado diesel, I got it. That was the nicest riding, best driving car I ever owned. they were all stingy on fuel and we'd bring them over to the boss' house for the routine maintenance. The car had 2 achilles heels, one being the level ride system Without paying a premium price, it was hard to keep up the air dryer in the compressor. The moisture would damage the shocks during the winter. the other was the vacuum pump. All the cabin systems operated from the manifols vacuum, which the diesel engine lacked. The engines' distributor drive operated a diaphragm pump on a distributor base. They would fail as by that time they were getting old and replacements were only on junk cars. Otherwise they were reliable, thrifty cars. Mine suffered a shattered head bolt after having it for 5 years. I sold it for nearly as much as I paid for it.

[electra225]

The GM diesel cars were popular with cab drivers here in the desert. They had large radiators and would idle all day with the air conditioning on and not be crabby about overheating. There was a large auto repair facility locally that specialized in keeping diesel cabs running. Many of the bodies were beat up, but they still ran. The Prius took their place, for many of the same reasons. Economical to run and not prone to overheating, idling with the air conditioning on. The only feature on the GM diesels that I had problems with was the relay system for controlling the glow plugs. There really wasn't any factory documentation available to the aftermarket to troubleshoot the system.

[19&41]

My boss was mighty familiar with that system. I had to keep a spare thermostat interface for it. Fortunately I never had to use it.

[electra225]

If the glow plugs didn't work, you couldn't start the engine. No amount of ether would get it to fire and run. I sent no-start GM diesels to Blackwell right off the bat. They had a guy there who was an ace on them. He turbocharged one then claimed it was a beast. I don't understand how he held head bolts with turbocharging.

[walyfd]

I didn't realize this was a diesel when I originally posted. I was looking at the body and interior.

The guys I served my internship with bought a funeral home from a guy who bought an early diesel. The car was so loud and unreliable, he dumped it in less than a year. Families complained about the noise because he had to warm up the car while the services were going on.

GM really dropped the ball on this project. Again, had they worked on a bulletproof FI system, they'd have been onto something.

And FI was not new. Chevy offered a Rochester system in 1957. Cadillac was supposed to adapt it for the exclusive Eldorado Brougham but it was untested and, supposedly, they couldn't shrink it to fit under the hood. Those cars had dual-quad 57 and 6-pack 58 Q engines with exclusive short air cleaners.

Even the 70s systems were troubled. I know of club members who converted FI cars to carburetors because nobody knows how to work on them.

[electra225]

The early Cadillac FI systems were brought to market before they worked the bugs out. And, there was no information in the aftermarket for troubleshooting. Dealers wouldn't work on them after the warranty expired. GM obsoleted the FI parts after the cars were out of warranty. I've known several 1977-1979 Sevilles that got their FI Olds 350 engines replaced by carbureted 403's or 455's.....

[walyfd]

They also had FI on the 500 and 425s as an option. I think I know of maybe 3 or 4 fuelies still in "regular" show use.

I remember looking at a gorgeous green '78 Brougham d'elegance loaded to the gills with FI, sunroof and twin power recliner seats. Only thing missing was the wire wheels. Car ran beautifully and was way out of my price range. This was 1990... tri 7 cadillacs were selling for more than 82-84 4100s. Still do.

[Firedome]

No wonder they sold for more, the '77 to '79 C & B body cars were probably the best all-around driving (if perhaps not the best made) full sized GM cars ever made. A friend had a new '79 Olds 98 in dk blue and imo a better car than the '81 in the first post, though many prefer the '80's version's styling.

We had 4 tri-7 B & C bodies and I'd dearly love another mint '77 to 79 Electra or Olds 98. The '78 Electra Ltd. my wife drove 100 miles a day into and out of Baltimore was hands down the best car we've ever had as a driver. Comfortable, dependable, elegant. We bought it with 60k from our local Buick dealer Stan Hollinger in 1992 and it was his own MILs car, it had been driven little in 14 years and maintained to perfection. What a great car it was.

My Dad bought a '77 Park new and loved it also, it was so much better than his later '85 Collector's Edition LeSabre, which felt tinny in comparison.

[Motorola minion]

Speaking from a non-luxury perspective, my 1977 Impala was a fine riding and fair handling car. Literally, it was owned locally by a little old lady with 33K miles, awful paint but only surface rust for $1000. I got 3 trouble free years and 20,000 miles as it was one of four cars I had at the time. The AC quit, always consumed oil, so I sold it when I got my new Ranger. This scrutinizing and discriminating Youtuber Adam from Michigan gives these B-cars a decent review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpzmhR7_M9k I was so happy to find this video, it brought back memories of cruising with my dog LOL.

The police car in the video is that same color green but nothing else was the same on mine. The speedo went only to 85, which was never a Fed requirement, a stupid nod to a 55 mph national speed limit and the end of fun. Even though the drive train was sub-optimal using a gas-hoggy 305 2V and THm200 "metric trans", it could cruise at 100 and felt scary being smooth as glass and quiet at that speed. Buried the needle which I never had nerve to do on any other car. This would be one of few police cars I would own, besides any pre-79 MoPar with a 383, 400 or 440.

[electra225]

When I was in high school, a new kid moved into town. His dad was the town marshal. We called the kid "Granny" because he wore wire-rimmed "granny" glasses and because his blonde hair was so light, it was almost white, hence the name Granny stuck and he liked it. For his first car, his dad bought him a '62 Plymouth two-door sedan police car they had used up on the Toll Road. It was powered by a cross-ram 413 and was one of the more potent police cars I saw. The 429-powered Fords and Mercurys were no slouches, either.....

Granny's Plymouth was an ugly old black thing with moonie hubcaps and blackwall tires. I never knew of him getting outrun by anything back in the day. He"d take on all comers......