From its debut in 1958, the Impala was one of Chevrolet’s top-selling cars for more than 60 years. In 1965 alone, more than one million of them found new homes. But during 1981 and 1982 (as best we can tell), there was a rarer version of the car produced, one with a diesel-powered V8 engine. We don’t know how many of these were built, but it’s doubtful that the 1965 record was challenged. Located in Hudson, Florida, this one-owner Impala is available here on eBay where the current bid is $4,250 (nor reserve).
General Motors began downsizing its cars in 1977 to be more fuel-efficient. The full-size automobiles came first (like the Chevy Impala), and the intermediates followed suit the next year. But with the emphasis on getting more miles per gallon, one solution Chevrolet came up with was to borrow Oldsmobile’s 350 cubic-inch diesel engine. When installed in a 1981 Impala like the seller’s car, it was capable of 40 mpg! But as is often the case with diesels, they were slow as snails in acceleration and buyers probably figured that out after a while.
This 1977 Impala has seen nearly 100,000 miles of use, so the diesel has no doubt done its job. A single-owner vehicle, it’s recently been treated to new batteries (the diesel requires its own) and a steam-cleaned fuel tank. So, it runs well now, but out of 24 photos provided by the seller, none of them feature the engine compartment. The tires and brakes are rather old, though, and the seller suggests the buyer address them shortly, along with the headlights.
The body and paint seem to be okay as is the interior, although there are some splits in the front seat bottom. If you can find matching material, that should be easy to rectify. This rather ordinary-looking Chevrolet might be quite the conversation piece at Cars & Coffee – once you pop the hood release.
I’m an old school truckie, diesels belong in trucks (over here a truck is something that requires a truck licence) and 4WD’s (what you guys call trucks).
This is screaming for an LS1 transplant.
Hell LS7 transplant.
One of my car’s is a Merc dual cab ute, with the legendary 5cyl diesel. It will never win a traffic light drag, but it’ll tow a freight train thru it.
Rather austier but then it is an Impala. Likely was ordered with the idea cheap operation. From what I’ve read GM had gotten the bugs out of the motor by this time. Must have been delightful to drive 😉
*austere
Yes. That. It’s bad when that’s what looked close…lol
One of my uncles drove a semi for a living. He “one upped” my dad’s 1977 Olds Delta 88 sedan by purchasing a loaded 1978 Olds Delta 88 Royale sedan with a diesel. He owned it for about 10 years and received at least one replacement engine from the General.
The one upmanship was the royal? I know no truckies that have a diesel “car” Diesel Ute’s, yes car no.
My late aunt Linda drove an ’81 Olds 98 Regency with the 350 Diesel. Her husband John worked for the Caterpillar dealer in Mississippi, and his service truck was a 3/4-ton GMC, with GM’s 6.2L diesel.
They were junk, most were gas motor swapped
Write about something you know about.
I did
Herr64,
Again I say no truckie I know has a diesel passenger car. 3/4 ton is still just a “ute” does not require a truck licence.
Back in the day the Olds diesel became available in Buicks, Chevies and Pontiacs. I might add that I worked on a lot of Cadillacs with the venerable Olds diesel. I’ve heard some negative comments about Cadillac using an Oldsmobile engine and reminded them that in 1941 Cadillac borrowed its automatic transmission from Olds, who actually originated the Hydramatic.
A little bit about the Diesel engine itself. By 1981 the diesel was using roller lifters. Some minor changes to the injection system made it a trifle quieter…
I really like this boxy 6th generation of Impala/Caprice (especially the 9C1s), had no idea they were offered with that 5.7l diesel. My recollection of that engine is vague, but I don’t recall anyone ever saying anything positive about them. I wonder if a Duramax swap could be made to fit under the hood? Seems a shame to break up such an uncommon combo.
My mom owned a ’83 Oldsmobile 98 with the 350 diesel. It rode like a dream and would cruise on flat interstates all day. On highways and Interstates with hills, it almost felt like you needed to get out and push. Mom and dad didn’t have a garage, the car sat outside in Iowa winters. Even with a block heater and a new battery it wouldn’t start if temps were lower than 30°. Dad did at the cold weather additive to the fuel. Luckily mom was retired and didn’t need to go anywhere every day. Lol
Flat interstates says it all
..
I drove a ’79 Delta 88 Royale Brougham with the 350 V8 from Cleveland, OH to Sacramento, CA in three days one January about 9 years ago. Pulled the Rockies and the Sierras at 65 mph, no problems at all.
I find it interesting that you had problems with your diesel. I remember getting a delivery of (5) new vehicles in the middle of the winter of ’79. Two were diesels and the remaining (3) were gaspots. The temperature dropped to 15 below, with a bone-chilling NE wind. Both diesels started with no problems. One gaspot managed to start but the other two carbureted jobs had to be towed off the carrier and stashed inside the shop to thaw out. I do say that if you had more than (2) dead glowplugs, you would have cold starting issues. The 1983 version of the 350 was about as good as it got and I had several customers get well over the 200K mile mark with few problems…
@ geomechs, I don’t remember the glow plugs ever being checked or replaced. It was the 2nd car, never was treated well. It was bought in ’90. It was bought new in Arizona. The son of the original owner lived in Iowa and the car passed to him when his father died.
A new battery? What about the other battery? They had two. I never had a problem starting my 81 Caddy diesel, parked outside, in the coldest Michigan Winters. I just needed to make sure the block heater was plugged in.
@ACZ, you are correct, it had two batteries. I’m going to assume dad replaced both. I was not living in the same city as my parents but still in Iowa. My memory is getting fuzzy with each passing year.
These original “downsized” B body Chevys were nice cars. I had a wagon version of this same car (though with a gas V-8) and it made a great daily driver (and tow car). I too never knew the diesel was available in a Chevy though. I’d be more kind with the diesel, and guess that by 1981, GM may have done what they could to fix the bugs. I’d be tempted, but I’d want to find someone who was familiar with the GM diesel (other than a Chevy dealer) before I bought it.
Time makes memories fonder. That’s for sure. These engines were a disaster for GM.
That’s because they weren’t true Diesel engines, they were gasoline engines converted to run on Diesel fuel. GM tried to go the cheap route & it bit ’em in the a$$. As mentioned above, most vehicles so equipped were swapped back to gas engines.
RD, they were NOT reworked gas engines. The only parts that interchanged were the pan gaskets and the rocker arm supports. I worked on both gas and diesel engines and I KNOW…
The 350/5.9 was somewhat of a disaster but they weren’t anything near what the media said it was. I worked on hundreds of them and for the most part, they held up quite well. Any major failures could be attributed directly to overloading, improper maintenance or people just not running them properly.
Stopping and starting is the worst thing anyone can do with even a gaspot. Diesel engines are more prone to expansion and retraction mainly because of the extra pressures that are ensued. Believe me I saw many failures that were a direct result of that. Those that bought them and ran them as they were designed had few problems.
I might add that I worked on lots of Mercedes diesels and they had just as many problems. The problem there was it seemed politically incorrect to say anything, but they broke, sometimes quite spectacularly…
The Olds diesel was bad news! If this car has close to 100,000 miles- it has probably had 5 different engines.
Wrong! The 81 and up were damned good. My 81 Caddy was completely reliable. 270,000 miles on the original engine when I sold it. The only reason I sold it was because I was plain tired of driving the same car all those miles. I went to a diesel Eldorado.
Here we go again, some of the Olds diesel bashers. I own 6 of these, one did have a replacement engine, but the others have the original engine with mileage of 150-250 thousand miles, all run quite well. The high mile units do use some oil. If you look at any news, the bad news gets all the press, so the negative news about this engine got all the press, while the majority of owners quietly had good service and never made the news. GM made mistakes, there should have been a dedicated fuel-water separator from the start. They had a fuel tank reservoir to collect the water with a warning light, must have been a cheaper way to go.
There is no secret to making them last other than making sure you do the maintenance.
Lovely looking car. 1981 was my favourite year for this generation Impala. While I’ve nothing against the diesel engine powering a car like this, I would’ve preferred a turbo diesel engine and a compatible drivetrain.
I have been a fan of the 1977 and up, “downsized” Chevys ever since they came out in mid-late ’76. July ’77, my folks traded in our 427 ’69 Kingswood Estate wagon on a new 4-barrel 350 Impala wagon. When detailing the car a few years later, I came across the build sheet under the front passenger seat, and one line of it really intrigued me. It read: “9C1 Police job”. Don’t ask me how that happened, but that would account for the carpet showing up as optional on the sticker. And the big ol’ sway bars front and rear. All I know is, after I got my license a couple of years later, it performed like no station wagon had any business performing! I drove it to school a few times and the guys with (supposedly) fast cars would want to show off . . . So I gave them a burnout with a Chevy wagon! Then proceeded to outrun a few of them: ’65 Impala SS396, ’67 Firebird 400, 340 Dart, cars like that. Yes, they were kinda embarrassed the next day.
Now as for this diesel ’81 sedan, an LS swap would be tempting but predictable. I have to wonder how well it would react to turbocharging? Nothing big, just enough to get it to do 0-60 in around 8 seconds, to make everyday driving more pleasant. Just a thought. OK, let’s go big then! Let’s take that 0-60 down into the 4-second range! Bwa ha ha ha ha!
Wow, I’ve heard some fish tales in my life but, this one may take the cake…
“’65 Impala SS396, ’67 Firebird 400, 340 Dart, cars like that.”
…Jim, I’m sorry but, all three of the cars you claimed to have “outrun” had twice the horsepower and torque so, pardon me if I find that very hard to believe.
Yeah…if those cars were outrun by a ‘77 Chevy wagon they either had serious mechanical problems, REALLY crappy drivers or both!!
Not sure who would believe that story…
Ah the much maligned diesel engine, loved in the west and criticized in the east were they want 40 mpg but big block performance. If you don’t know what you are talking about, don’t.
Everyone wants a 40 mpg car. Nobody wants to drive a 40 mpg car.
I had an Olds 98 diesel. Beautiful car, padded vinyl top, pillow top seats. I had to replace the glow plugs once. The engine did blow up but I had it fixed. I liked that car.
I worked at the Chevy plant in Saint Louis from 76 until 80 & then followed my job to Bowling Green, KY. were I retired from Corvette Plant While working at St. Louis plant I worked in the Company Garage. We took care of upper mgt cars. We had several mgt drive the Diesel & we had nothing but problems with the 78/79 engine. Glow plugs was the biggest issue. GM never got it right until about 2 decades later.
My first car was a used 1982 Ols Delta 88 Royale with the 5.7L Diesel VIN N.
It said 92,000 on the odometer but could have rolled over in 10 years. I added 75,000 miles.
I slid on the ice and wrecked the car. Many times since then, I wish I had kept the engine, glow plug controller, and wire harnesses.
24 mpg city, 30 mpg highway. I think it would do better with a different drivetrain. And, it could be set up to take advantage of the Diesel torque with a different drivetrain. Sure it was 90hp, but I liked it.