 Whilst a very good idea at the time, owing to the recent 1979 energy crisis these engines had gained a terrible reputation for reliability.Part of this had to do with the fact that, whilst the engine block itself was indeed a diesel specific design (contrary to most people's belief that it was simply a dieselised version of the famous rocket V8), GM management made significant cost saving measures by using many parts from the gas V8 counterpart which were not up to the task of diesel engine operation, specifically the number and type of head bolts used, and the lack of a water and fuel separator in the fuel line, a big issue as a lot of diesel fuel contained water and also high levels of sulfur at the time.The engine was later revised into the DX block and most of the issues were fixed, a V6 version displacing 4.3 litres and a smaller 4.3 V8 were also offered around this time, mainly for the downsized front-wheel drive models of the mid-1980s and although they were much better in the reliability department, the damage had already been done and the North American diesel car market was severely crippled as a result, despite the best efforts by Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, Peugeot, VW and others in offering their more refined and powerful diesel engines.