The truth about the new diesel engines and how it will save you gas!

Hybrid engines might be popular right now but have you seen what the new diesel engines have accomplished lately? In the last few years, this engine is making a huge comeback. Why is it that in Europe, more people are buying diesel to save gas? What are the technological advantages that made it preferable to hybrid engines?

Besides saving gas, the new diesel engines of today deliver more power than what hybrid engines could muster. Most hybrid engines are based on the combination of a gas engine and electric motor. However, whatever gains it made in fuel cannot be compared on what diesel engines can do when pulling a load. And this is the main difference because diesel engines provide continues torque at higher speed. Remember: the energy produced by diesel fuel is 3-4 times greater that of gasoline engine because the fuel is denser. In 2006, A German Company unveiled a diesel car that could deliver a fuel rating of 157 mpg that seats 4 passenger. This exceeds what hybrid engines can deliver without the complications.

During the first oil crisis of the 70s, several models of diesel engines were sold in North America. It was a disaster because the engines were noisy and carried a lot of gas pollutants. To make matter worse, they were also slow and always bogged down when accelerated. Those types of diesel engines were based on a single fuel pump which delivered fuel to each cylinder. Fuel timing is hard to control and this affected the acceleration. Since then, many avoided diesel engines like a plague.

In the last 20 years, several innovations were introduced to solve these diesel problems. One of them is the electronic fuel injection which has been used successfully in gas engines. Using an injector solenoid fitted to each cylinder, a computer was use to monitor different engine loads to make acceleration more responsive. A revised turbo charger boosting technology was also added to enable more exhaust gases to be compressed at lower rpm. These two combinations have pushed the new diesel engine to where they are today: clean and powerful delivering more torque at various rpm range.

Since diesel fuel has more energy per-liter content compared to the same liter of gasoline, it has 15% more greenhouse gas emissions. This can be blame on sulfur which is a common ingredient of diesel fuel. Sulfur helps the engine to lubricate parts which is especially important on cold starting. To solve this problem, a dual air filtering system is fitted to the engine intake. This will help collect particulates matters (PM) which is the by product of sulfur. When saturated inside the modified air filter, these particles can be fed to the intake and help conserve fuel and lower emission.

Nitrogen oxides is also a by product of diesel engine high temperature combustion for years. This was fixed by adding an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system which works with a 3 way catalytic converter. Using this method, Nitrogen oxides can be burned inside the converter before being release thru the tail pipe.

It is thru innovations like these that make the new diesel engines produce clean and powerful engine that will help our environment. On a test conducted on VW TDI diesel engine recently, it actually run better than most top end gas powered engines and could almost catch up or exceed the fuel ratings of hybrid engines. The only big difference was the cost of fuel used which was almost 30%-40 % less. Given the price of gasoline and its new found reliability of diesel engines, this might be our best alternative fuel driven vehicles.

Article Source: http://www.109b.com/artdash

Mr. Richard Trent is a licensed heavy duty mechanic and is regular contributor of automotive ezines. He also owned a few websites designed to help drivers beat the outrageous auto repair costs. Save $200-$300 on your next car maintenance service by clicking here: href=” go2-url.com/arxezd

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