posted
Quote: "Can't wait 'til we get ultra low sulfer diesel in 2006 and manufacturers can meet US emissions. Hopefully the floodgates will open for light duty diesel engines. Ford is already talking about a V6 Powerstroke engine for the F150 and Ranger in the '06 model year. They already have a TDI Focus in Europe and want to bring it to the US in a big way. Mercedes is supposedly bringing back a diesel even before '06. Maybe we'll finally see Toyota diesels in the US."
ProfBooty
Hey, I'd heard/know nothing on this. Is low sulfer diesel what they use in Europe???? Despite driving one I understand little about the regs. (->GOVT) associated with diesels?? Will this put more diesels on the market???? I read chevy has a V6 turbo diesel coming out for small trucks. I heard about the mercedes in the dodges.
Jomama
Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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Some of the science here sucks, particularly lumping old & new diesels together pretty much dilutes any data that would represent improvement due to newer technology being incorperated.
Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Technically, what we run in North America is called "low sulfer diesel" but compared to a lot of other countries, it's quite high. Low sulfer diesel went into effect in like '92 - it went from 5000 ppm to 500 ppm max sulfer. I think European diesel is somewhere around 50ppm. Less sulfer is a good thing for the engine (especially engines with EGR) because it becomes sulfuric acid which leads to oxidation of engine components and it breaks down the oil faster. Diesel oils are designed to stand up to a much higher level of acid/oxidation than gasser oils. I guess it's also the main culprit in diesel emissions. In 2006, regulations are set to go into effect that will bring the sulfer level down even further to 15 ppm almost eliminating it. This is being called ultra low sulfer diesel or ULSD. As I understand it, sulfer is the main reason that diesel engines can't pass emissions in the US for light duty applications like passenger cars. VW is the only company that's bothered to spend the time and money to certify a diesel passenger car and that particular engine is considered pretty old school compared to the higher tech ones running around in Europe. So yeah, once we get the clean fuel, we should see a lot of diesels on the US market as long as the demand is there.
There's tons of info, arguments, etc. about ULSD in the Fuels & Lubricants section, some worth listening to, a lot that's just a bunch of inane prattle:)
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