diesel chevette

[dlb]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 945220150/

This thing sold quickly. Neat conversion, and looks like it was well done. I'll copy/paste some of it here in case the ad disappears soon.

"1986 Chevette Diesel

Factory 1.8 Isuzu diesel and T5 manual trans.
Body is solid with no rust. Great project car.

Needs fuel pump (in tank), brake service, and glow plug relay. Will need to be towed.

Was well maintained over the past 10 years of my ownership

Replaced within the past 5 years:
- Fuel tank
- Beck Arnley glow plugs
- fuel filters and filter housing
- Muffler

Comes with the Chevette and Diesel badges.

Really cool car to drive. Feels like a crossbreed between a tractor and a go cart. I consistently averaged 55mpg daily driving. Been parked for the past year and a half as I moved onto other projects but always kept Power Service additive in the fuel. No longer have the space to store it and would like to see someone keep it going. "

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[NWMO]

Hey David,

Conversion?? confuses me, but that would be a reasonable little car since it’s diesel.

Chris

[dlb]

Oh, did it come stock with an Isuzu diesel? It says "factory" but I've never heard of Isuzu engines in Chevy's, or Chevette's with diesel engines, so I assumed it was a swap. Curious.

Well hell's bells, look at that. On the wikipedia page it says the Chevette was rebadged as the Isuzu Gemini, and was available with a 1.8 L diesel. I had no idea. I suddenly have a lot more respect for the lowly Chevette(/Gemini).

[Nordical25]

Chevrolet Nova had also 4a-c engines and 4a-ge-engines between 1984-1988. I wonder if there are even more of 1980's Chevys with Japanese engines.

[NWMO]

Hey David,

Diarmait has a Chevy Luv with the little Isuzu diesel as well. I understand parts are getting more challenging (like most things), but they are pretty rugged little engines.

Chris

[LowBuckCanuck]

Chevy has a long history with Isuzu, even the red blooded American staple the duramax is the result of the Isuzu/chev joint venture. I'll bet that chevette would be a sweet little car, especially with these gas prices.

[Nordical25]

Very interesting! Chevettes were built already to GM's T-unibody so they were experiementing same body all around the world with many different engines around the world.

Here in Finland we received Opel Kadett C with German engines built both in Belgium and in Germany. That one is still a really good and agile. Top of the line model was Kadett GT/E. Here you can see a heavily modded one doing Nurburgring in around 8 minutes passing some quite ok cars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze8Rmcb_GT8

It was also possible to buy here Vauxhall Chevette, but they were way more rare ones here. They were manufactured in U.K. and had even own British motors. Most famous one was Chevette HSR with 2,3 litre engine.

It is also fascinating to now that Isuzu cooperation is related even with Duramax. Experiments with Isuzu must have been positive back then.

[Petros]

I have never seen a diesel chevette either, but it is possible. back when they were new, they did not have a very good reputation. the gasoline engine version was not very reliable, major problems with engine and the drive train, and the body tended to fall apart and get rusty very quickly. it was GMs attempt to make smaller cars for the US market. the management at GM seemed to have it (incorrectly) that a small car had to be a cheap car. apparently they never noticed the audis, BMW, Alphas, volvos and other smaller cars sold in the US that were never considered "economy" cars.

they eventually gave up on their attempts at small engines and just installed Japanese engines in their smaller cars (a big improvement), and eventually just had the Japanese make the whole car for them, rebadged (Chevy Luv, the Chevy Sprint, Geo Tracker, etc), and the quality improved too.

[MrWrench]

I have a less than stellar example in my yard right now. My friend Alex and I got it for $500. It came with 2 spare injection pumps, a good used trans and a core trans. Plus a ton of other cool parts.
We wil be working on it this winter.

[Toyotise]

These always fascinated me as a kid.

[Nordical25]

I have a less than stellar example in my yard right now. My friend Alex and I got it for $500. It came with 2 spare injection pumps, a good used trans and a core trans. Plus a ton of other cool parts.
We wil be working on it this winter.

That would be an interesting project to follow as a Kadett C owner. What kind of car it will become? Here such cars are either Restored, converted to racing cars with lower suspension and higher engine output or used as a bit customized cruising cars with tinted windows, new rims, improved stereos etc.

[MrWrench]

This one will just be fixed up to make a daily driver out of. Eventually probably sold.
I have a YouTube channel with a video of it so far. I'll be doing more to it after the Meet and Greet!

https://youtu.be/91JTTxitpeI

[Nordical25]

That is just great news. I am already subscribed to your channel since you post interesting Tercel 4wd & Volvo videos so I will be informed by Youtube automatically of your incoming Chevette videos.

Hopefully you will get your Chevette running well with original parts. Consider putting Volvo drivetrain + engine if original parts will cause too much trouble. At least here in Europe Kadett spare part situation is similar to Tercel 4wd. It means that something is available easily and something not at all.

And it is really great car to build a proper sound system with amplifiers if you are interested in that field since electrical wiring is so much simplier in Chevette compared to modern cars. The same applies to Tercel 4wd.

[Toyotise]

Another Isuzu diesel:

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Saw one of these the other day. Looks like the owner is taking very good care of it.
(1981?) Isuzu P’up diesel MPG edition
The retaliatory “chicken tax” light truck tariff made these foreign light trucks prohibitively expensive in the USA.

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[dlb]

Holy cow, that looks mint. Very nice.

While we're off-topic on various cool little old Japanese cars, yesterday I met a guy who has an old 4wd Nissan Sentra wagon. I think it was the first one I've ever seen in person. I remember there was a fella on this forum with one and he said parts were pretty much impossible to come by, and that was probably 5 or 6 years ago.