Diesel vs. Gasoline - why one preferred over another??

"wouldn't bother with all this, if it wasn't for the growing interest
in
biofuels and several people said "cooking oil", etc. works ONLY in
diesel
engines, it will NOT run in gasoline - dont even try."

Biodiesel is made from converted cooking oils and it will run just fine
in a diesel engine. It is not cheap however, because the cost of
collection, cleaning, refining and distribution all add to the price.
It is not possible to take cooking oil from the restaurant directly
into your car.

TCS > writes:

> On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 22:12:38 GMT, the fly > wrote:
> >On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 20:44:37 GMT, "Mark Levitski"
> > wrote:
>
>
> >>Why is that 95% of passenger cars in the US are gasoline, yet diesel used in
> >>much of Europe? I read somewhere diesel is more efficient, plus unlike gas
> >>engine even UNMODIFIED diesel unit can run on "biofuels" (filtered cooking,
> >>etc. natural oils), so why diesel not dominating the market?
>
> > Because General Motors did such a bad job with their
> >Oldsmobile diesel in the early '80s. They slapped a diesel injection
> >system into a 5.7 L gasoline engine. It was so miserably unreliable
> >that it soured the US consumer on "diesel" power.
>
> No, it's because diesels are slow to accelerate, start to start, stink, are
> harder to find fuel for, and noisy.
>
> They're great if you want to haul a massive load, but are mediocre at best for
> day to day driving.

You have obviously not driven a contemporary european diesel.

I have a 2001 Audi A6 2.5 tdi V6 quattro automatic, 180 bhp, and it is
quicker than many gasoline engines of the same vintage. They can now
be had with a 2.7 liter V6, 180 bph, or a 3 liter V6, 225 bhp.

The 180 hp does 0-100 kph (0-60 mph) in 8.3 seconds, and the 225 one
does it in 7.3, which is not bad for a car weighing almost two tons.

The A8 can be had with a 4 liter disel V8, 275 bhp, does 0-100 kph in
6.7 seconds.

The BMW 535d (3.0 liter) is 272 bhp, does 0-100 in 6.5 seconds.

The VW Golf GTI could be had with either a gas or diesel engine a few
years back, both were 150 bhp, and every test I read recommended the
diesel as it was by far the quickest of them.

Current diesels have cat converters and exhaust filters making them
cleaner than gas engines.

Diesels are quickly becoming the prefered type in Europe. Even Jaguar
and Alfa Romeo now has diesels.

Take one for a test, you'll be surprised.

Thomas

Mark Levitski wrote:
> Know nothing of cars (electrical person) - used public transportation all my
> life.
>
> Why is that 95% of passenger cars in the US are gasoline, yet diesel used in
> much of Europe? I read somewhere diesel is more efficient, plus unlike gas
> engine even UNMODIFIED diesel unit can run on "biofuels" (filtered cooking,
> etc. natural oils), so why diesel not dominating the market? I thought it's
> even cheaper?
>
> However, my primary question is:
> Is it true Diesel engine causes a much worse pollution, especiall;y
> carcerogenic (CANCER-causing) exhaust?? If so that would answer questions
> above. But again I thought new diesels burn as clean as gasoline?
>
> I wouldn't bother with all this, if it wasn't for the growing interest in
> biofuels and several people said "cooking oil", etc. works ONLY in diesel
> engines, it will NOT run in gasoline - dont even try.
>
> Thanks for your time, I might answer your electrical questions in the
> future, who knows... so it's not a waste of your time.
>
>
Diesels ARE more efficient for a couple of reasons. They DO emit
undesireable emissions. However, most of these can be eliminated by
design or by emission control devices (also improved [low sulphur] fuel).

Gasoline can be made from bio-products. It is just a bit harder to make.
Ethanol and methanol are both bio-fuels.

My concern about the later two fuels is the energy efficiency of making
them. If carbon-based fuels are used to make them (and they take a lot
of energy to make) the result is likely to be worse emissions of
greenhouse gases. Until we can make ethanol or methanol without
significant greenhouse gases, I don't see it as a great solution. I'd
rather see effort put towards an efficient source of hydrogen.

TCS wrote:
>
> No, it's because diesels are slow to accelerate, start to start, stink, are
> harder to find fuel for, and noisy.
>
> They're great if you want to haul a massive load, but are mediocre at best for
> day to day driving.

Acceleration is purely a horsepower to weight thing. Put a powerful
enough diesel in a light car, no problem with acceleration. Diesels ran
at Indy, you know.

The stink can be removed with emissions controls and cleaner diesel fuel.

The reason they are used for massive loads is that is a commercial need,
where efficiency affects the bottom line of the business. If gasoline
were cheap enough compared to diesel fuel, it is certainly possible to
build large gasoline diesels. Aircraft engines were built with over
4000 horsepower.

On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:39:15 -0500, Don Stauffer > wrote:

>The reason they are used for massive loads is that is a commercial need,
>where efficiency affects the bottom line of the business. If gasoline
>were cheap enough compared to diesel fuel, it is certainly possible to
>build large gasoline diesels. Aircraft engines were built with over
>4000 horsepower.

People flying aircraft don't mind having to wait for warmup. Most of the
time is spent operating at a constant load where diesels excel.

Tell us about indy car drivers using diesels. I've love to hear about that.

Thanks, except one thing: methanol is NOT acceptable. I am not in a
business of racing to hell, methanol destroys regular/consumer engines, my
onwership style is a direct opposite - dont have spare cash to abuse my car
so methanol is out and ruled out in Nissan Sentra manual. It's corrosive.
Pure ethanol i salso not an option but 10-15% additive is defacto standard
additive at ALL gas stations I ever used here in NewYork/NewJersey, it's a
given fact. SO thiese both are nopt a solution and dont come to my mind
when referring to biofuiels. Biofuel is something dirt cheap (e.g. used
cooking oil), nontoxic and homemade, ethanol is alcohol, if it were so
simple we'd seen hordes of people drving aroung on alcohol, it's too
aggressive for fuel lines.

Methanol corrodes regular fuel lines and I dont own/dont plan to buy a
Ferrari or racing cars to kill in a year or so, every car I woned-every
manuals warned against methanol, ethanol is already present in most US gas
puimps any way - to act as oxygenate to reduce pollution, also supposedly
add horsepower but very little.

Oh Hydrogen:
I WAS THE ONE WHO RAISED HYDROGEN SUBJECT REPEATEDLY HERE AND ALL OTHER AUTO
NEWSGROUPS, MANY RIDICULED ME, I FIRED BACK AND WAS RIDICULED EVEN MORE, NOW
I SEE YOU MENTION IT.

SO I AM NOT ALONE. GM/EXXON WILL BUILD MULTIPLE HYDROGEN REFUELING STTAIONS
HERE IN NY LATER THIS YEAR, CA, MI, FL HAVE THEM AND GROWING FLEET OF
FORDS/GM VEHCILES RUN ON THIS MOST ABUNDANT FUEL ON EARTH AND IN UNIVERSE!!!
Hydriogen is the basic most abandunt element of the universe, i dont want to
get into physics but take as a fact. The first non-quark partcile since
creation was probably electron and proton, hydrogen is nothing but that
(single proton+electron)

"Mark Levitski" > wrote in
message m...
> Know nothing of cars (electrical person) - used public transportation all
> my life.
>
> Why is that 95% of passenger cars in the US are gasoline, yet diesel used
> in much of Europe? I read somewhere diesel is more efficient, plus unlike
> gas engine even UNMODIFIED diesel unit can run on "biofuels" (filtered
> cooking, etc. natural oils), so why diesel not dominating the market? I
> thought it's even cheaper?


From what I've understood, one reason may be that the crude oil which the US
gets is higher in sulphur content, and that makes a worse diesel fuel.

Europe gets much of it's crude from the middle east, and it's lower in
sulphur and consequently emissions.

We get much of the oil from same MiddleEastern sources, except cheaper
because US was first to get into long-term projects/contracts and we have a
higher trade volume with e.g. Saudis than whole of Europe, so I dont know
where you got this idea we pump oil from another source?

Yes we get some from SOuth America (Venezuela, Mexico, etc) but Europe also
gets some from non-middleeastern sources: Nigeria and my country Russia.
Russians supply much of natural gas for Europe, by the way