A Chevette diesel?
 

Yup. Cause I write for Diesel Power Magazine. In addition to the 1982 Chevette diesel I have a 89 Dodge Ram that gets about 23mpg if I keep my foot out of it (and has 400hp if I don't) and a 1971 Nova Drag Car that gets about 5mpg and depletes the ozone layer when it starts.

About the Chevette: It's a 1982 two door, weighs 2400 lb with me in it, has 51 hp from a 1.8L non-turbo diesel engine, and was rated at 41 city/ 55 hwy. So far I've gotten about 44mpg at 70-75mph, and 56.2mpg at 55mph (slowing to 50mph up hills and coasting down). Thinking of doing some aero mods next. Cool forum.

JQmile -

Welcome to EM! Sounds like you have a unique classic Chevette there. I just wiki-ed your car and it looks like an Isuzu powerplant :

Chevrolet Chevette - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CarloSW2

The 1986 Chevette Diesel is one of the MOST RARE CARS in the world...only 384 were built for that last year!:D

My '82 Chevette
 

I used to have an "82 Chevette. 4cyl, 4spd, 4dr, I drove it from the dealership to the tire shop where I worked. I swapped the 155/80R-13's for some 175/70R-13's, installed steel valve stems, pumped them up to 40psi, and realigned it. (Sure it was right at the factory:rolleyes:)

On trips to Chicago (350 miles each way) it consistantly got 50mpg. The tires were checked for balance and rotated every 5,000 miles--the 40,000 mile tires had 62,000 on them when I replaced them.

I gave it to the ex in the divorce (we had a kid and it was the more reliable of out cars). She traded it in with 206,000 miles on it. I swear it was as well built as anything out of Detroit today.

I had an 81 chevette gasser and my father had an 82 diesel at the same time. his was underpowered but reliable, mine I wish I had not sold....it just always ran. Both engines were made by isuzu. I got around 30 and he always got around 45.

We also had a luv 4X4 and a 2wd diesel. The engines were the same as the chevettes.

I would never have rated any of them high on comfor though :)

Jim

I had 3 Chevette's all gas and all rusted away. I met a guy with a diesel model years ago and I was intrigued by it.

Never saw a diesel Chevette but Ive heard of them. Lots of vehicles back then were made as diesels in small numbers.

Gasser Chevettes, my grandma used to have one, her and her kids drove it all over Michigan. She had one of those "Sexy Grandma" front license plates. Then after that she got another Chevette, and transferred the plate of course. My uncle had his own Chevette and said it was surprisingly good in the snow, he lives at the top of a big hill. My friends sister had a T1000. The lady next door to my other grandma had 2 or 3 Chevettes. Quite a few others I know had one too. Seems like around here they were as popular as the Escort back then.

Nothing cooler than owning a "vette" :)

Welcome to EM, JQmile.

welcome jq. nice mag you got there.

It oughta be an Isuzu engine - it was an Isuzu car. The Chevette, maligned little ratmobile that it was, would get you from A to B dry and usually faster than walking, so whatever bad that can be said against it, it had that on the plus side.

I wouldn't turn my nose up at it - if there were any still alive around here, it could probably be bought for pocket change. But all other factors being equal, I think I'd probably insist on the diesel - if I'm going to be seen in a Chevette, I'd like to have a little something to brag about, you know?

Thanks for the welcomes guys. Yeah the engine is a 1.8L, and it spins all the way to 5000rpm, pretty high for a diesel! It also makes 70 lb-ft of torque at 2000 rpm so the car is super easy to drive. I guess my inital goal is to break 60mpg, although I could never do it on any type of daily average: too much traffic here in Los Angeles. I average about 18mph on my commute to work, and my mileage drops down into the high 30s =(.

As soon as I read that article in the diesel mag my quest to find one began. Took me well over a year to source 1 in Michigan. I too was finally plagued with tranny issues this summer. But I just bought another runner driver with a spare tranny from down south and it should be delivered Friday. Now ill have 2 of these bad boys to keep the miles off my Duramax. Muhahaha....

The Isuzu 4FB1 engine is quite underrated, yet it's as good as or eventually better than a Volkswagen engine of the same era. IIRC it had also been used on some export-bound versions of the Brazilian equivalent to the Chevrolet Cavalier. There was also the 4FC1 which BTW shares the same bore and stroke of the current straight-6 turbodiesel fitted to the Chevrolet and GMC half-ton trucks.

Ford Tempo also had a diesel option in '84 - '86. I have seen one, but have no idea of what gas mileage it could get. It used a Mazda 2.0 L diesel motor.

Wikipedia says the Tempo had a drag coefficient of 0.36 for two door and 0.37 for four door, so it should have been able to get 50 mpg.

That was the RF engine. Odd enough, this engine and the gasser FE had the same bore and stroke of the 2.0L versions of the GM/Opel Family II engine, but they're unrelated.