Cut-Down Engine of the Week: Oldsmobile 4.3 Diesel

Nearly five years have passed since our last episode of the Cut-Down Engine of the Week series, in which we admired International Harvester's one-bank-of-a-V8 Comanche four-cylinder. The half-a-V8 method has saved many an engineering and production dollar for vehicle manufacturers, as has the two-thirds-of-a-straight-six design, but perhaps the most popular means of lopping cylinders off a proven mill has been the V8-based V6.

By far the most successful such engine has been GM's Buick V6, which started life as three-quarters of the early-1960s Buick V8 we now know best as a Rover product. One of the least successful such engines was Oldsmobile's 4.3-liter diesel V6, available in various GM cars for the 1982 through 1985 model years.

As is the case with so many of these tales, I was reminded of the seldom-seen Olds 4.3 diesel during a trip to the junkyard. I spotted this 1983 Cutlass Ciera diesel in a Denver car graveyard, located just a few rows away from the equally rare 1984 Toyota Corolla diesel.