detroit diesel 8.2 liter

Does anyone have any opinions on a late 80's 300hp version. I know they are no cummins but are they reliable? Any problems common to these engines? General life expectancy?

Head gasket failures (no block deck to support the liners, you'd think they would have learned from the Cadillac 4100 :rolleyes: ) and bottom end problems. It doesn't live up to the "Detroit Diesel" legend. :( I would avoid it.

I am generally a Detroit fan, but this is the one engine of theirs I would not own.

Back when I was looking for my next boat several mechanics "frouned" on this one. One mechanis advised that they have a very small margin of error should they begin to overheat. If you don't catch it soon you've bought a new engine.

Considering the size range of boats that utilized this package you stil should have a lot of good choices offering the older V series Detroits and Caterpiller.

Good luck.

Yes they were a problem engine but it depends on who did the conversion, J&T had a lot of lawsuits, western branch on the other hand a a reliable engine. I had a set of 8.2 250 HP for 17 years, repowered to cummins. I had my share of headaches but all in all they were good motors, except if they got hot, then you had to put in head gaskets. I sold mine to a nice man inong kong, I think they are still going strong, he sends me pics everynow and then, had them in a searay.
If you found a boat wiht later model year engines that had all the updates, the new headbolts, tec, you should be ok, and I think they still make parts for them, but I would look for something else.
JW

I looked at a few boats with them and the consensus was not in anything bigger than a 32 luhrs and not the 300 HP version. There are 2 lower HP versions that were more durable.

Since then I have spoken to a few people who have them and they are mostlyin smaller lighter boats and doig OK but they are not a real detroit.

These engines were in a lot of small Blackfins, which are an excellent small SF boat. I suspect that a Blackfin with these motors is virtually "sale-proof" at any decent price for the owner. They were a problem child for Detroit; not like the old 2 cycle diesels which were designed as diesels and not a conversion from a gasoline engine with far lower internal pressures. Not all the sets of them were bad, but as they age the number with problems will go up.

Anyone here remember GM "Toroflow" diesels? The 8.2s were sort of the "Son of Toroflow" diesels.......every once in a great while you still see a boat advertised with TF diesels. Usually they are for sale at a LOW price for a LONG time. On the other hand, if the boat is cheap, and looks nice, and has a set of throwaway diesels, a Cummins repower is a bargain these days...

Yes, every once in a while we still see a Terrible-Flow pop up. Like many marine engines, and standby generators, they have no time on them so still run well, but good luck getting parts or someone to fix them. Still there's always someone who thinks they're getting a bargain. I had a friend call once asking about a used GM 478 diesel he was looking at buying. The seller wanted $1500 with the gear. It took me a while ("Are you sure you don't mean 4-71?") then the penny dropped. I suggested he ask the seller for a length of chain and a mooring ball to go with it.

Yes, the boats with them are for sale for a long time at a low price. They're also usually made of wood, since the engines were only made from about '64 to '74 and probably pretty unpopular long before '74.

BTW Jim, what gas engine did the 8.2L come from? This is a new one to me.

Scrod, I may have spoken through my hat here. I thought the GM 6.5? and 8.2 diesels came from gasoline engine designs which were adapted to diesel use. I might be wrong. I thought the problem with them was that they were not originally intended as diesels, and couldn't withstand the higher internal pressures caused by diesel operation.

The DD 8.2s are in fact diesels, and have the unit injector system that Detroits are known for, but they're 4 strokes.

They were also called "fuel pinchers", although they were never really all that good at extracting the higher-BSFC numbers we now get from electronics.

They're parent-bore engines and have an "open" block deck design, which means that they're prone to head gasket problems. Early year engines also had too small head bolts for proper sealing pressures.

The 6.5 is a totally different motor.

Okay, that's what I thought. I've not seen too many 8.2's but I was pretty sure that that was a clean sheet of paper mistake. To the best of my knowledge the 6.2 / 6.5 was also designed as a diesel, although it borrows heavily from gas engine design. GM claimed it was DD engineered, but it reeks of Chevrolet. I've been unlucky enough to own four of these (three in one truck alone) As usual, GM sorted out most of the problems by the time they went out of production. Many people confuse it with the 5.7 liter Olds which was a gas conversion, and the Toro-Flow lesson re-learned.

Since there seems to be some good knowledge on these, are all of the issues marine related or were they common with the pre-duramax GM trucks. Been looking at used diesel trucks and have come across the older GM diesels and was wondering if they are worth a look? (late 1990's) or stay with the Ford 7.3 powerstroke.

Thanks,

The 6.2 / 6.5 engine, not related to the Duramax, had their share of problems. By about '93 they had most of them worked out on the NA's but there was a run of turbos that had major block cracking problems too. I think it was approx '97 when they started putting the oil cooling jets in. The electronic fuel injection systems from '94 on up had some issues too. Again, mostly resolved by the end of production. :rolleyes: Overall I would stick with the Ford. The 7.3 Powerstroke had a few minor issues, but was generally a better powerplant. Make sure you use the cooling system treatment to protect from cavitation issues.

Hi All, the 8.2 is a popular industrial engine and the military uses it also, have just puled one out of an ottaw 30 yard truck and replaced it with a 5.9 cummings.....Cory