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177 comments on DrumBeat: May 26, 2007

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SailDog on May 26, 2007 - 10:47am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Diesel provides better performance AND a third better economy. Too bad you Americans haven't figured it out.

If a fairy sprinkled magic fairy dust on the whole US fleet and tomorrow you all woke up driving diesels, The US would save something like 5m barrels of oil per day.

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ericy on May 26, 2007 - 10:56am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Some of us figured it out years ago...

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jjhman on May 26, 2007 - 12:37pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Some, like the Sierra Club, are dead set against use of diesel in the US because it is much more difficult to reduce emissions. If I recall correctly the latest scheme involves something like injecting urea into the combustion chamber to reduce emissions. That requires a "fillup" of urea solution as well as diesel fuel. Not a bad solution for those of us who need to stop often to urinate.

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ericy on May 26, 2007 - 12:56pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The buzz is that in the 2008 MY, VW will bring back the diesels that will be 50-state clean and will pass emissions. Still waiting to hear details, but the rumors are that the smaller cars like Jetta & Rabbit won't need the urea thing.

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xburb on May 26, 2007 - 3:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Bring It On... Lets Roll
and it's the right color for evasion :)

The little stratified charge 1.5 and 1.6's routinely made 50-55 mpg w/o turbo. Still have one. Today's 1.2liter. 3cyl. and 3 l. per 100k is better than that. Do you think it'll ever show up in America?

We can do so much better feeding a little lower down on the fractioning tower. Thinking total emissions/mpg per passenger mile. Be interested if you hear more rumors.

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ericy on May 26, 2007 - 6:37pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I am aware of the 1.3l diesel (Lupo in the U.K., I guess), but we haven't seen them as of yet. I guess they think they won't sell enough of them as long as fuel is cheap, but in reality they needed to solve the emissions problem first, I suppose.

My Jetta has a 1.9l turbodiesel and gets about 50mpg. That's the only diesel engine configuration that VW sells in the U.S. (I suppose I could order parts from overseas and build a frankencar - don't laugh - I know people who have done things like this).

There are people at www.TDIClub.com who work to maximize fuel economy - one guy drove from Salt Lake City to Philadelphia, and got > 70mpg. He got stopped by the police for driving too slow however, so this wouldn't work for everyone. The guy who did this is a retired aeronautical engineer, and gave a talk about coefficients of drag and maximization of fuel economy.

My guess is that you could scale the Jetta back to a 1.6l engine and the car do just fine - just a little slower. For the 1.3l to work, you would probably need a lighter body like the Lupo.

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xburb on May 27, 2007 - 11:25am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks for yor response. I bumped this topic ahead to today to allow more people to grind it through the hopper.

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totoneila on May 26, 2007 - 5:13pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hello Jjhman,

I am hoping that a small diesel scooter, trike, or motorcycle becomes available soon here in the US. A 250cc diesel should provide sufficient motive power and if beer is still cheap enough: no widespread problem generating sufficient urine for clean tailpipe emissions.

Of course: No drinking, then riding. Just motor to your local tavern for a 'fillup'. =)

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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musashi on May 26, 2007 - 9:48pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The KLR Kawasaki's that are converted to diesel for the USMC are available if you look hard enough. Good fuel mileage, big tank, huge range.

Over 90 mpg at 55 mph and capable of 90 mph if needed, run on diesel, biodiesel or jet fuel.

http://www.dieselmotorcycles.com/military.htm#bike1

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paal myrtvedt on May 26, 2007 - 12:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

hi - SailDog
...can they "program" the refineries so to speak ,how much of a certain or particular distillate one wishes from the crude volum?

Diesel is taken from the heating-oil-segment, as petroleum is a complete different distillate - much lighter part.

To clarify - can they make diesel from petrol ?

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rude crude on May 26, 2007 - 1:21pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

OT. Maybe....

At a small town in western KY in the graveyard across the street from where
my mother lives, volunteers could be seen placing flags on the graves of veteran
soldiers. While this is going on all across our nation this Memorial Day weekend
let us take a moment to honor those who sacrificed so much so that we can
enjoy the life we have today.

In the coming years we will need to band together as a community and as a
nation to mitigate the coming catastrophe that we so often discuss here. We
can debate what should have or could have been done differently to have
averted the crisses that lies before us but the end result is the same. We are
here and what can we do now to lessen the severity of a reduction in energy
rescources?

Best hopes that our veteran men and women's sacrifices were not in vain.

rude

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airdale on May 26, 2007 - 5:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Had a little confusion between Veterans Day and Memorial Day.

According to what I found it seems that Memorial day was previously Decoration Day and started in 1865 to place decorations on the graves of Civil War soldiers.

Being reminded by Rude Crude that we should remember all our veterans I will remember on Monday to visit my hometown cemetery where some of my uncles who served in WWII are buried.

As I have mentioned before my father had 6 brothers and during WWII my father and 5 of his brothers were all in the war at the same time. The last brother served for 30 yrs in the Air Force and in all major conflicts since WWII. Retired to Germany and came back last year and died soon thereafter. Now only one of my fathers brothers remains and lives up the road from me. One was captured and imprisoned for 3 years by the Germans,one was being operated on as his battleship was shelling Saipan,one was in Tank Destroyers,another a tank commander. They were all good men but drank far too much as a result of that war. Some did not pass away well but yet they served and never once spoke of it. Not a word. Never.

Of all those men only me and my brother and one other son was born. Of those only I have a son,my brother never married and my son will never marry. From 7 men(and 7 aunts) it narrows down to only one who continues the line that will soon disappear(me) yet for those who did serve(as did I and my brother) I will bow at the graves and thank them for going in harms way for this country.

BTW in that same graveyard there are graves of Confederate soldiers as well. One next to my future gravesite. My gravesite is at the foot of my great great grandfather who came to this country in 1820. On his tombstone is an anchor crossed with anchor chain. He was once a sailor,,same as me.
I think I will be in good company.

God Bless America, even in this time of tribulation and woes

Airdale..Airdale is a navy slang word for those whose 'rates' are in Naval Aviation

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paal myrtvedt on May 27, 2007 - 6:07am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

rude crude & airdale

I understand that for a YES ...

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SailDog on May 27, 2007 - 7:37am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Robert is far better qualified than me on this, but I think they have some latitude, but the fractions depend on the type of crude and it API.

I am not sure that is a relavant question though. Europe has been moving to diesel cars for years - now sales about 50% diesel, but the fleet is proably miuch less than that. They do not seem to have problems with how much petrol vs diesel is produced.

I don't know where you live, but this is not going to be an issue for the lifetime of any diesel car you buy or own now. PO will take it off the road long before any worries about insufficient diesel being avialable.

I run my diesel Golf (same as a Rabbit, but it is the latest version, which I do not think is available in the US). I run it on biodiesel, available at a discount of about 20c per litre to mineral diesel from a service station just up the road. Biodiesel is made from tallow mainly here. It gets about 50mpg around town and 60mpg in the country. Despite only having a 1.9 litre engine, it has more torque than a 3 litre GM petrol car (called Holden here). It performs well and is the "perfect" town car for a guy with three kids. It was cheap to buy and is cheap to run. PO will take all the SUV's off the road long before me! When we go on holiday I tow a trailer and the extra torque from the diesel engine handles it fine.

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177 comments on DrumBeat: May 26, 2007

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