After the problems and costs of four Olds diesel engine series - and the sucess of the Mercedes 300D diesel - GM asked Detroit Diesel to design, from the ground up, a lightweight V8 diesel that would be a bolt-in replacment for the 305 gas engine. That is where the original 6.2 diesel came from. All the rest is pure BS.
Also - about your comments about thinwall design. The 6.2 was not thin wall. That didn't happen until the second year of the updated 6.5. 6.2 cylinder walls aren't any thinner than what was used in the 2.2 liter Isuzu diesels GM used in Chevy LUVs, Chevettes, etc. I still have a few - still running fine.
About the John Deere L to LA engine - when they basically copied the Hercules two cylinder engine - I agree.
As to the source of the 6.2 series versus the older 5.7? Seems you don't know what you're talking about.
Original 5.7 diesel got its start as a private homemade project done by a couple of Oldsmobile engineers - on their own time. When the fuel crunch came - GM and Olds took over the little project and put it into mass production. After Mercedes came out with a reliable diesel -late 70s - GM gave Olds 18 months max - to come up with a lightweight diesel as a "bolt-in" replacment to existing V8s. Around the same time - Ford asked International Harvester about a V8 diesel for use in small and medium sized trucks.
With GM, after the many problems, class-action law suits, etc. with the 4.3 and 5.7 Olds diesel engines - they did two things. First - they came up with the new, beefed up DX 350 diesel block to settle replacment engine claims. And also - GM hired Detroit Diesel to design a better, ground-up V8 diesel that would be lightweight and work as a direct fit and power replacement for the 305 gas engine. It was designed - and - at first - built in-house at Detroit Diesel. GM also - with Oldsmobile - came up with a V-5, 2.5 liter diesel in 1981 - but it never got used.
Original 6.2 has the same torque and horsepower as a gas 305 - just what GM asked for. And, only weighs slightly more by 75 pounds. And, if used carefully - worked just fine. I put 500K miles on one - but 200K is more of the norm. There were several, however, that had the blocks crack the the main bearing webs at 150K miles. This was later adressed by making the outside main-bearing cap bolts smaller - from 12mm to 10 mm. Now - when the bore was increased to make it a 6.5, and the block was cast thinner, and a turbo added - not so reliable at a higher power lever. Especially with a cast-iron crank and thin cylinder heads.
Now - if you want to talk about the IH 6.9 diesel - that became the 7.3 used by Ford - it WAS an evolved gas engine. Made from the IH heavy duty gas truck engines - MV 404 and 446 gas engine series and retains the trans-mounting bolt pattern. IH started the project in 1978 with Ford in mind.
The 6.9L engine underwent a lot of development and durability testing before the start of production. A total of 160 prototype and 10 pre-production engines were built for engineering tests. The test engines accumulated a total of 52,000 laboratory durability test hours and 815,300 miles of field tests by the time Ford vehicle production began.
The laboratory tests included:* 21,000 hours at full load * 16,500 hours at 72 percent load * 4,500 hours of special durability tests * 10,000 hours on pre-production engines
The 10 pre-production engines were built and tested on the dynamometer to verify the quality of the production process. Each engine was subjected to 1,000 hours (approximately 80,000 miles) at full load, with no problems occurring. In addition, pre-production engines were placed in customer fleet trucks and subjected to varied conditions, drivers, and use.
The "converted" gas to diesel 6.9 was built with heavy use in mind - the GM Detroit Diesel 6.2 was not. The IH/Ford 6.9 has a forged steel crank, heavy block, gear-drive cam, hardened valve seat inserts, etc. The GM DD 6.2 used a cast iron crank, lightweight block, timing-chain cam drive, and cast-in-head soft (but hardened) valve seats.
Original 6.2 diesel - 130 horse at 3600 RPM, 240 lbs. torque at 2000 RPM. Engine weighs 650 lbs. Bore 3.98" and stroke 3.8"
Chevy 305 gas engine - 150 horse at 3800 RPM and 240 lbs. torque at 2400 RPM. Engine weighs 575 lbs. 3.7" bore by 3.48" stroke.
Original IH-Ford 6.9 diesel - 155 horse at 3300 RPM and 298 lbs. torque at 1400 RPM. Engine weighs 900 lbs. Bore 4" and stroke 4.18"
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