Isuzu I-Mark diesel

[truckinwagen]

hey 'Yall, I am getting out of the VW game

I found a new car that sings to me louder than the VW's

its an 83 Isuzu I-Mark with a 1.8L diesel in it.
same motor that came in the chevette and chevy luv.

it has a crossflow iron head, and is rear wheel drive!

pics to come when I pick it up in a few weeks.

-Owen

[Wayland]

What's it like finding parts for those?

[truckinwagen]

not easy, but not impossible either.

the motor was sold in alot of cars(all rebadged Opels like the I-mark and chevette) in europe, and a few were sold in the US.

probably all the parts will end up coming from Ebay and the like, which is fine with me.

-Owen

[truckinwagen]

lets see if these pics work...

[maxfax]

All I can say is you suck!    I've been on the lookout for one of these, or heck even a Vette.. Anything to get out of a fwd..  They always seem to be less the engine around these parts...      Nice find!

[truckinwagen]

its not running, but it sounds to me like all it needs is a starter relay.

and even if it takes a little TLC to get it running it is worth it.

-Owen

[rs899]

Good luck.  Ebay is fine as long as you don't suddenly need something important, for example oversize pistons to rebuild your engine.  I would be afraid, althogh the car and engine are great.

[truckinwagen]

actually, I found a supplier of a total rebuild kit, including OS pistons and bearings.

and the motor should be hard to kill, it has an iron head, 24mm wrist pins, piston oil squirters, etc...

-Owen

[truckinwagen]

I have it!

just picked it up, turned out it just needed a new battery and clamps, runs strong and everything works!

pics to come as soon as I can find my camera cable...

-Owen

[rs899]

Good for you.  Keep us posted even though we will hate you.  I would love to find one of those or any non-FWD small diesel, but there are few.  I can only think of Toyota Corolla, offhand, and Chevette, which uses the Izusu hardware. Datsun put one in the Maxima, but that's pretty much Mecedes sized.

[truckinwagen]

yeah, I would hate me too, if I wasn't me...

the chevette, i-mark and gemini are all just re-badged Opel Katette's which is great because parts are pretty easy to come by, if not in this country, then somewhere else in the world.

I hope I can find my camera cable when I unpack tonight so I can post pics.

-Owen

[truckinwagen]

well, no pics yet(still have not found the cable, might have to go get a new one), but I can give an update on how it drives.

it is really slow, being an N/A(all the left hand drive ones were N/A due to interference between the turbo and brake booster) and a three speed automatic.

once you get over the fact that it is slow, it does not do that bad, it will do 55 easily, and get up to the 85 on the speedo before too long and it is really quiet at speed.

it handles great too, nice and predictable, takes some arm strength as it has no power steering, but I am used to that.

and the best part, no torque steer! just a big lift of the front left quarter when you hit the loud pedal.

pics to come, and more news on how it drives once I start making it smoke...

-Owen

[MJF]

Nice car. C-Kadett never came with diesel from factory, but this is cool Now you need to find a Kadett front end for it 

[truckinwagen]

I would, but this is the only one I have ever seen up here, so...

I need to figure out what is wrong with the glow plug circuit as the warning buzzer is going off.

the glow system in this thing makes the VW one look really simple, but it does get to full glow way faster.

-Owen

[truckinwagen]

turns out it is a bad glow plug making the buzzer go off.

the car has a sensing resistor to notice a bad glow plug(by looking at how much draw the plugs take)
kinda nice.

I found a source of good glow plugs for less than $10 shipped each!

so I ordered a set along with the usual bits(air filter, oil filter, etc...) and a new coolant temp sender(as the wire broke off the one in the car, rendering the temp gauge useless.

the new coolant temp sender cost $80!
oh well, cheap glow plugs, expensive senders...

anyway, still a pleasure to drive, and gets 30 MPG in city driving! not bad for a three speed.

-Owen