Sort of like Rodney Dangerfield, Chevrolet’s Chevette (’76-’87) gets no respect. And even less has been bestowed upon the diesel-powered version, such as today’s feature, courtesy of Curvette, a 1982 oil burner edition. Having suffered through three years of Chevette ownership, admittedly, a gasoline-powered variant, I have some insight into the various foibles of the Bowtie’s familiar but not always loved subcompact. Portland, Oregon, is where you’ll find this forlorn-looking four-door, and it’s available here on craigslist for $2,500.
My Chevette should have been named the “Murphy’s Law Mobile” because if something could go wrong with it, it usually did. Once, while out with friends at a remote location that was a questionable and peculiar shooting range, I had to be talked down from plugging that incorrigible bleedin’ garden tractor with a .45 ACP after it had blown out its rear pinion seal and left a film of 80-weight all over the back half of the car. It was still fairly new, but this was on top of a dozen other things that had quickly gone wrong. Yeah, I know, it would have been extreme action on my part, but that’s the kind of reaction that uninspired dog cart engendered. Regardless of my travails, the Chevette sold well with 232K finding new owners in ’82, though only about 12K were diesel-fired four-door sedans. This example is rather forlorn-looking with its primer-like finish and overall dull presentation. It is straight, however, and doesn’t look like it has suffered any crash damage or other mobile mayhem. The blue-tinted wheels are an interesting touch and do brighten up the otherwise austere exterior. And those rear window slats? J.C. Whitney, maybe? They’d be a tough one to source today. Oh, and it wouldn’t be the eighties without the aftermarket pop-up sunroof – hopefully it doesn’t leak, though that seems to be their modus operandi.
Now, the seller tells us, “The car runs and drives great, and I get about 50 MPG,” and that’s thanks to its 65 net HP, 1.8-liter, Isuzu-sourced, in-line four-cylinder engine, which is coupled to a five-speed manual transmission. He also mentions that he’s experienced 116K miles of use, though by modern standards, that’s just gettin’ broken in. Continuing, he states, “Here’s a list of what’s been done in the last 5,000 miles. Timing belt done, fuel filter, coolant and flush, oil and engine flush, alternator, battery, glow plugs, master cylinder, shocks front and rear, brakes front and rear, clutch/pressure plate and throwout bearing, tires, and recently a new injection pump($950).” Clearly, he’s not concerned about having his invested dollar returned via this sale. Despite the repairs, don’t expect noteworthy performance; the 0-60 MPH dash for this model is about 20 seconds.
Oddly, there are no images of the front seat, just the rear and one of the dash/instrument panel. Where this Chevette has upholstery that is a combination of vinyl and woven material, the innards of my coupe were all vinyl. The dash toupee tells me the underlying pad is cracked, and I’d know that steering wheel anywhere. My Chevette was equipped with the same one, and the faux aluminum trim managed to pry itself off at about the two-year mark – I used weatherstripping cement to reattach it.
So, what’s next? I’m gonna layoff the snark and give this baby Bowtie a break. Someone will buy this diesel-powered mini rig; it’s cheap, and there always seems to be a bottom for every seat. My parting thought? I wish the seller GLWTS.
Lots of these passed through our service department throughout their time. I have to say that of the diesel-powered compacts these were amongst the best. About the only thing that I didn’t like was the fast-heating–fading glow plug system. They were supposed to light immediately then fade away as the engine warmed up instead of the 350 and 6.2 powered units whose glow plugs popped on and off again until the engine reached 120 degrees. We had a few of these heat up the first time but then fade out and quit.
I could start them with ether but it required (2) people; one to twist the key and the other to stand about five feet away from the air intake and direct a puff of ether toward the intake after I saw some smoke roll out the tailpipe. Bear in mind that it was only to get them started to drive them into the shop.
The engines were good. Having worked on nearly everything that could come from the Rising Sun I had a lot less head gasket failures/head failures with these than the most popular cars over there. Everything from Japan used a fuel system that was essentially a Bosch VE injection pump built under license by Diesel Kiki (later Zexel) or Nippondenso. Don’t knock it; they were the same as the pumps used on VW and the first versions of the Cummins 5.9 in the Dodge trucks. The injectors were the Bosch (licensed) differential pressure KCA type similar to the ones in the VW and Mercedes Benz diesel.
With the exception of them tending to wear out the throttle shaft bushings they gave very little trouble unless you ran out of fuel or tried to burn water. That VE pump wasn’t nearly as tolerant of water as was the good ol’ Roosa Master.
The last ones made used a Lucas DPC pump which actually worked fairly well but could be a bearcat to calibrate.
Overall, these cars served their purpose quite well. They were the last of the “Front Engine, Rear Wheel Drive” cars. I liked them because you didn’t have to turn your hands inside out to get at anything next to the firewall. With the exception of the glow plugs there was very little time spent on those engines if they were maintained properly. And I can safely say that poor maintenance of anything never paid…
Something that’s been on the news is the older Bosch pumps having premature failures because of the lack of sulphur for lubrication in US diesel fuels, akin to the low-lead problem of pre 70’s cars. Any knowledge or experiences with that, Geomechs?
Hi Nevada. Back in 1990, the Eternally Perverse Aristocracy decided that the sulphur in diesel fuel contributed to “Acid Rain. So, the decision was made the remove the sulphur. The move didn’t really hurt the energy or the viscosity of the fuel but it lost its “Lubricity,” its ability to lubricate.
It affected anything that pumped diesel fuel, especially vane-type transfer pumps such as those used in VE/VA, Stanadyne/Roosa Master, and Lucas/CAV injection pumps.
The system manufacturers sprang into action, bringing out fuel additive that contained lubricity boosters. But an interesting tidbit of innovation was actually in use by a couple of end users long before the government agencies darkened our doorsteps.
Our DOD, with a plethora of diesel engines at its disposal had long since used jet fuel in its diesel engines. Energy content is about the same so it’s only practical to use JP on everything. Trouble is, jet fuel has got about as much lubricating quality as a urine specimen. In Desert Storm the HMMMWVs were seizing up injection pump hydraulic heads by the 24 pack. A quick fix was a quart of non-detergent hydraulic oil in the fuel tank during fillup and the problem disappeared.
The other problem solver was our force of ever-resourceful truck drivers. Sometime between the formation of the Teamsters and Cannonball, someone found out that the addition of ATF to the fuel system added tremendously to the lubricity of diesel fuel. And this all worked real well, except for one thing:
ATF is a great lubricant for shafts turning in bushings, and ball bearings but in a Cummins PT fuel pump there is a governor flyweight assembly that rotates on a bronze thrust pad. With another quality of ATF being that it aids in the adhesion of clutch and brake pads it tries to make that governor flyweight assembly adhere to the bronze thrust pad, causing the two to become matrimonial: get into one helluva argument.
It’s actually blistered the paint on the outside of the pump housing. Long story short, I have removed some governor assemblies that were cooked/barbecued/deep-fried/nuked. What I advised customers was to use ATF in the transmission and use the lubricity enhancer in the fuel system.
That’s kind of a long-winded answer to your question but I sometimes cannot help myself. Occupational hazard…
Thank you Geomechs for sharing your knowledge and experience with us. I truly enjoy reading (and learning from) your contributions.
I owned/drove one of these Isuzu-vettes, and had 3 or 4 for parts. I thought the engine was great, but mine were all auto trans (which I replaced at least once from a parts car).
The rest of the car was very low quality, IMO. I only achieved about 25 MPG with the slushboxes.
i use 2stroke oil ,meant to burn and if a 2stroke can run with no oil ,works for me
Ah, the old ether bottle, or “sweet oil of vitriol”, where would my life be without it? All but gone from Walmart shelves( makes a good pepper spray too) at one time, as can of ether was standard in a non-glow plug diesel. In trucking, saved my sorry, frozen aXX many times. I knew folks that used ether at 70 degrees.
This isn’t as “forlorn” as the author states, it’s actually one of the nicer Chevettes, as if. Diesels were very rare, and not sure about the 50 mpg hype. Generally, these would get MAYBE 40, if that, mainly because they were floored the entire time, to just keep up. The Chevette was a good car, always seemed to live in the shadow of the Vega, but was more Opel than Vega, and aside from the authors story, I don’t recall many that didn’t like their Chevette.
I had a very upset, mean & nasty, woman come in screaming that her salesman had told her she could get 50 MPG in her Isuzu. The service writer asked me what he should do so I went to the woman and asked what salesman had sold her the car. She screamed that was not important. Then I asked her what dealership sold her the car. She screamed that was not important. LOL. So I walked to the sales dept and brought back a sales brochure and showed her it said her car would get about 40mpg and she was pissed it only got 48mpg. Then she admitted she had bought it from a dealer about 50 miles away. So I told her in the future to never come into our store screaming like a madman(woman) to our people who had absolutely no responsibility for her pissiness.
50 MGP!
50 MPH!
🤣
In the factory manual under performance specs, 0-60 time is listed as “yes”.
Cute lil bucket. I hope it finds a good next caretaker.
I own several of these. This one a bargain considering all the investments made into it.
As counterpoint to the generally negative perception of the Chevette, my experience was completely positive. I bought a new 1978? Chevette Scooter (my first new car and the only one I could afford @ $3000, drove it for 3 years, put about 30k on it, and traded it in for exactly what I paid for it (admittedly, some inflation during that period). I had zero problems. It had the optional back seat. The biggest annoyance was the lack of a glove box door, which caused anything you foolishly put in it to fall on the floor upon acceleration.
No love lost, eh Jim? A friend’s dad worked for GM and brought one new back in the day. Had a 100 mile round trip to work every day and figured these were perfect. Of course, it was cheap to feed and I don’t know how long he kept it. I have to say that I’ve seen a lot of Chevettes but never with the rear louvers.
what’s up with the clown pipe?
Yes, there’s always someone with a 2-liter engine and a 4-liter exhaust…
I noticed that. You see how it’s aimed up? It’s so that when you give the car the beans, the enormous pressure from the exhaust pushes downward on the rear of the car to give it extra traction…
Duramax swap.
Its your chance to own a Che—-. ‘VETTE’ baby..
Ones date dig them at the dive bar closing time stumbling outside as the date reminds them of being a cool vette. 😎
Seriously good luck with a car sanctioned by many post offices as delivering for Yule…
Work friend had one of these way back in the day… probably the only car I’ve personally driven that was slower than my VW Rabbit PU diesel…
Lovely looking car. I can’t imagine that many Chevettes are still around, never mind the Chevette Diesel. It wasn’t popular for some reason back in the day. That being said, assuming everything on the car works and the car runs and drives, and it’s possible to service and maintain it, I’d buy it and drive it. Among the mechanical upgrades I’d have done to it, assuming it would fit, would be a Duramax 2.0-3.0 litre turbo diesel.