gas to diesel swap

Hey guys! Hope everyone's trucks are running great...
I have an 89 2500 sierra and I was thinking about swapping out my 350 for a diesel engine. Has anyone done that or thought about it? Would it work out nice or be too much of a pain in the ***? I am going to school for diesel technology and feel like I need a diesel truck ha ha!
If any of you guys have any thoughts please let me know.
Hope to hear from you, thanks.

89' 2500s where available from the factory with a 6.2L Diesel so you could do this swap using moslty factory parts. Unless you have a different diesel in mind.

What transmission do you have now? and what transmission did you want to use? Is your truck a 4X4 or a 2WD?

And BTW, welcome to the site!

Welcome to the forum.

didnt chevy make a 350 desiel.. i beleive you could use the 350 bottom end and just get the heads and supporting mods to make it a desiel..

007jimmy wrote:

didnt chevy make a 350 desiel.. i beleive you could use the 350 bottom end and just get the heads and supporting mods to make it a desiel..

The 350 Diesel Chevy used for a while in the late 70's-early 80's was actually built by Oldsmobile and shares no components with the 350 Gasoline engine. It was phased out in favor of the 6.2L because of reliablilty concerns.

I would strongly recommend a 6.2L or a 6.5L, both would be bolt ins and could be done with factory parts.

The Oldsmobile 350 was horrible. It was essential a gasoline engine hastily designed for Diesel. It didn't work well. No water separator was installed, so if water got into the system (which it did, caused a lot of internal problems with rust) They also had weak head bolts that were not able to withstand the load imposed on some of the engines.

The HT-4100 wasn't much better. Although it was quite sophisticated in the day.


Rant over

the deseil world is unknown to me.. lol. i would love to learn about it but i have no desiel to work on yet.. soon enough i will though.. 04 6.2 duramaxx chevy 3500.. lol.. the guy wants my red quad plus 2k cash.. i just gotta work out the 2k cash.. the quad can go..

I hate to borrow a bad pun, but Diesel really is a whole other world. The Duramax would not be my first choice of engine to learn on, but it is a great motor. FTR Joe, the Duramax is 402 Cubic inches (6.6L), the 6.2L & 6.5L engines are 379 & 396 Cubic inches repectively.

thanks roberto.. the truck has just had the inector pump, injectors, glow plugs, and a couple other things replaces so i should be good for awhile.. all i got to do is get the injector pump timed and it will be finished.. that will be done before i take posession.. i dont want a broke truck for 4k.. lol

007jimmy wrote:

thanks roberto.. the truck has just had the inector pump, injectors, glow plugs, and a couple other things replaces so i should be good for awhile.. all i got to do is get the injector pump timed and it will be finished.. that will be done before i take posession.. i dont want a broke truck for 4k.. lol

Your welcome, but what do you mean by timed? As long as the pump was installed correctly (the pin marks on the gears where lined up) then you should be fine, the computer controls the timing.

How many miles? lol.


4K for a 5 year old 1 ton diesel is superb

70k on the ticker.. i dont think the pins where lined up... we did the pump and knew nothing about it having to be timed so thats why it hasent been started yet..

What's the catch? Seriously...

no catch... a guy i do some work for got it cheap, doesnt like it and is passing it on to me cheap... he wants my honda 400ex quad so i said make me a deal.. lol

An 04' with 70K?!? You either got the deal of the century, or a complete lemon. Is it the LLY? or the LB7?

I agree.....4k for that truck??? I wish I could find a Dmax diesel and allison trans for 4k.....

you can swap just about any diesel into the truck you are talking about..... there are many kits available to do swaps like these...... IT mainly comes down to how much money do you have, how much money do you want to throw into this particular truck, and can you find a similar truck, with a diesel in it already, for as much as what you are going to put into the engine swap...... dont get me wrong, Im not saying its a bad idea..... I still fully intend on having my 1972 3/4ton 4x4 running a duramax/allison combo, and my S10 running a 4BT cummins(4 cylinder) and 5 speed NV4500 manual trans mission..........

lilgib12 wrote:

Hey guys! Hope everyone's trucks are running great...
I have an 89 2500 sierra and I was thinking about swapping out my 350 for a diesel engine. Has anyone done that or thought about it? Would it work out nice or be too much of a pain in the ***? I am going to school for diesel technology and feel like I need a diesel truck ha ha!
If any of you guys have any thoughts please let me know.
Hope to hear from you, thanks.

How bout a 6-72 2 stroke detroit?

I should do a diesel engine swap on my 2500

lilgib12 wrote:

Hey guys! Hope everyone's trucks are running great...
I have an 89 2500 sierra and I was thinking about swapping out my 350 for a diesel engine. Has anyone done that or thought about it? Would it work out nice or be too much of a pain in the ***? I am going to school for diesel technology and feel like I need a diesel truck ha ha!
If any of you guys have any thoughts please let me know.
Hope to hear from you, thanks.

If your only thing about the swap best forget it, if diesel is in your blood and you have a small machine shop then go for it. The easiest for engine swaps are mechanical injected wanabe diesels. These motors are cheep and because of the short stroke are easy to install they need a glowplug circuit to start in less then 80 degree temps. The best bet are your insurance write offs get a donner truck and swap the stuff over. I have done a few swaps I prefer the cummins 5.9 they are quite heavy and are exceptional in reliability but are harder to install because of the length and height. In your situation I would get a another truck with a 6.2 or for more power 6.5 prior to 1994 I personaly like the 1990-93 6.2's they had the better block and if you didn't use them for towing you could get fair bit of miles out of them and enjoy good fuel economy.

My truck is 4wd and I have the 700R4 tranny. I'm not 100% sure which diesel I want to put in it. It's the first truck I've owned on my own (bought, and insured myself) so I'm sure you can all see why I want to pull out all the tricks on this. In school I built and painted a 12 valve dual turbo 5.9L Cummins from the block up. After me and one other student finished it we helped put it into a 1989 Suburban. Its a beast. That engine is ridiculous. I think I'm torn between that and a Duramax. I know it will take a lot to accomplish but it will be a great thing when it's finished.

lilgib12 wrote:

My truck is 4wd and I have the 700R4 tranny. I'm not 100% sure which diesel I want to put in it. It's the first truck I've owned on my own (bought, and insured myself) so I'm sure you can all see why I want to pull out all the tricks on this. In school I built and painted a 12 valve dual turbo 5.9L Cummins from the block up. After me and one other student finished it we helped put it into a 1989 Suburban. Its a beast. That engine is ridiculous. I think I'm torn between that and a Duramax. I know it will take a lot to accomplish but it will be a great thing when it's finished.

If you go 6.2L or 6.5L most of yout existing componets will bolt on. You will need new motor mounts, front springs and some tranmission parts, but your 700R4 and rest of the drivetrain will work. If you go Duramax you are in for a lot of wiring and fabricating. Either way, I agree with hillbilly, get a donor truck with the engine/trans you want so you are sure to have all the parts. Good luck.

merlin5577 wrote:

lilgib12 wrote:

My truck is 4wd and I have the 700R4 tranny. I'm not 100% sure which diesel I want to put in it. It's the first truck I've owned on my own (bought, and insured myself) so I'm sure you can all see why I want to pull out all the tricks on this. In school I built and painted a 12 valve dual turbo 5.9L Cummins from the block up. After me and one other student finished it we helped put it into a 1989 Suburban. Its a beast. That engine is ridiculous. I think I'm torn between that and a Duramax. I know it will take a lot to accomplish but it will be a great thing when it's finished.

If you go 6.2L or 6.5L most of yout existing componets will bolt on. You will need new motor mounts, front springs and some tranmission parts, but your 700R4 and rest of the drivetrain will work. If you go Duramax you are in for a lot of wiring and fabricating. Either way, I agree with hillbilly, get a donor truck with the engine/trans you want so you are sure to have all the parts. Good luck.

^^ Yeah what he said!!! lol

Would I need to get a 6.2 or 6.5 from a specific year?

i liked the 5.9 cummins and any swap you do make sure its turbo diesel! just my .02$