anyone out there had a diesel and off'ed it?

[craig333]

I spend some time reading the TDR (turbodieselregister), an enthusiast publication and website, and its rare to hear anything about water related issues with the cummins. Not to say it doesn't happen but it sure seems to be pretty uncommon. I've changed one fuel filter and it didn't even need it. Those voided warranties and blown engines are a rarity.

Just got back from Antelope Lake. I had to check in the rearview mirror a few times to make sure the Jeep was still there because I couldn't otherwise tell I was towing anything

 

[HERR42]

allright, now we are up to two

 

[Lighthawk]

Me too. That's Yankee Jim Rd from Colfax, CA not far from where I live.

As far as diesels go, so long as they don't belch soot or smell up the place, they are great.
It seems the newer trucks run a lot cleaner.


hey! i drove my truck across that!

 

[Silvertip47]

allright, now we are up to two


Well, I went back and counted everyone up.

7 for diesel:

HERR 42
MARC
CJ8
1 Ton Paulie
Barko 1
Craig 333
Chnlisle

5 for gas:

Silvertip
Edohart
Fitwon
Mtn High
John D

2 I could not tell from the responses:

Fish More
ntsqd

Looks like 5 out of 12 or 41% prefer gas on our little survey.

 

[K6ON]

Well, let me make it 8 for diesel. I got rid of my POS Chevy gasser and bought a Dodge CTD, absolutely love it. No more gas trucks for me, and especially no more Chevy trucks..

 

[leadsled9]

I'll cast my vote for diesel. I had my Hawk mounted on my Tundra.......it's now mounted on my Ford F250. No comparison.....night and day difference. I'll never go back to gas.

 

[John D]

There are as many opinions on trucks as people who own them. Almost every truck has something it does better than other trucks. For example, one of my sons drives a beat up 1996 S-10 2WD. It has a 4 cylinder engine and gets 32 mpg if you drive 55. How many guys in this forum drive trucks with that kind of performance? He has a light weight aluminum shell with a rack on top for his surf boards.

Right now, I own four trucks. Each one is better at something than the others. One is a diesel, but I do not subscribe to the diesel religion. I am secular with respect to my trucks. My diesel is an M35A2 Deuce whistler. It is awesome.

The focus of this web site has to do with visiting nice places in the west. Some of them are remote. A light weight camper on a pickup makes it easier to get around. Nevertheless, as soon as you say it is impossible to see all the neat places with a big camper, some guy will prove you wrong by driving the White Rim Trail with a hard sided Lance camper. Did everyone see that? I thought to myself, this guy is some kind of nut. Apparently, he made it just fine (He drives a DIESEL.). Don’t ever say to someone that you must have a certain kind of camper or truck to do something because it is the nature of Americans to prove you wrong, just for the fun of it.

If anyone thinks they are hard core, check out a Deuce camper. - attached. (I wish I knew who owns this to credit them and a deuce actually gets pretty good fuel economy!)

 

[Barko1]

There are as many opinions on trucks as people who own them. Almost every truck has something it does better than other trucks. For example, one of my sons drives a beat up 1996 S-10 2WD. It has a 4 cylinder engine and gets 32 mpg if you drive 55. How many guys in this forum drive trucks with that kind of performance? He has a light weight aluminum shell with a rack on top for his surf boards.

Right now, I own four trucks. Each one is better at something than the others. One is a diesel, but I do not subscribe to the diesel religion. I am secular with respect to my trucks. My diesel is an M35A2 Deuce whistler. It is awesome.

The focus of this web site has to do with visiting nice places in the west. Some of them are remote. A light weight camper on a pickup makes it easier to get around. Nevertheless, as soon as you say it is impossible to see all the neat places with a big camper, some guy will prove you wrong by driving the White Rim Trail with a hard sided Lance camper. Did everyone see that? I thought to myself, this guy is some kind of nut. Apparently, he made it just fine (He drives a DIESEL.). Don’t ever say to someone that you must have a certain kind of camper or truck to do something because it is the nature of Americans to prove you wrong, just for the fun of it.

If anyone thinks they are hard core, check out a Deuce camper. - attached. (I wish I knew who owns this to credit them and a deuce actually gets pretty good fuel economy!)

 

[Barko1]

Love that truck, but I know there are places it can't go Too big for some switchbacks. I bet it doesn't even notice the 400#s on the front. I'd like mine painted like it.

 

[Bat]

I just replaced mine with a Tacoma but only because it was not practical anymore for me.I loved the power and space but is was just to big for my camping and driving needs.I needed something just for myself and the dog and being a first time Tacoma guy it is great, I am going to build a mini me version of the old truck. The good thing about the diesel is it does not care what you load on it the gas mileage pretty much stay's the same.

 

[craig333]

There are as many opinions on trucks as people who own them. Almost every truck has something it does better than other trucks. For example, one of my sons drives a beat up 1996 S-10 2WD. It has a 4 cylinder engine and gets 32 mpg if you drive 55. How many guys in this forum drive trucks with that kind of performance? He has a light weight aluminum shell with a rack on top for his surf boards.

Right now, I own four trucks. Each one is better at something than the others. One is a diesel, but I do not subscribe to the diesel religion. I am secular with respect to my trucks. My diesel is an M35A2 Deuce whistler. It is awesome.

The focus of this web site has to do with visiting nice places in the west. Some of them are remote. A light weight camper on a pickup makes it easier to get around. Nevertheless, as soon as you say it is impossible to see all the neat places with a big camper, some guy will prove you wrong by driving the White Rim Trail with a hard sided Lance camper. Did everyone see that? I thought to myself, this guy is some kind of nut. Apparently, he made it just fine (He drives a DIESEL.). Don’t ever say to someone that you must have a certain kind of camper or truck to do something because it is the nature of Americans to prove you wrong, just for the fun of it.

If anyone thinks they are hard core, check out a Deuce camper. - attached. (I wish I knew who owns this to credit them and a deuce actually gets pretty good fuel economy!)


Dang, I like it. Pull up in that and toss a few cases of beer outside and I'll bet you'll be all by yourself in no time

 

[John D]

Like they say in Texas, a Deuce and a half is whole nother league of diesel. I hate a show off, but I have to admit there is a perverse pleasure in pulling up next to a Cummins powered one ton at a traffic light.

I have attached herewith a picture of my deuce (which I have posted before). Actually, this truck only sees the occasional parade and never goes off road. It is too nice. There are plenty of videos on YouTube of deuces. To get started, check our the following and surf from there;

These are FUN trucks.

 

[oldnslow]

Now that is some serious hardware! That makes my GMC 2500 gasser look pretty puny. Then again, on those long trips back from the mountains on Sunday nights (I live in Tucson) the AC and comfy seats and soundproofing are kinda nice.

 

[Nimbl Vehicles]

This dodge 05 is the 1st Diesel I ever owned and I have to say
it is fantastic.
I love the power; the fuel mileage and the range I get with this one.
I had a 1500 Chevy 4x4 before. Great truck; very comfy( the dodge is not as comfy but pretty close)but the fuel mileage just killed me.I also needed a higher GVWR.

 

[ntsqd]

I wanted to use a diesel engine for my engine swap. KA makes that rather difficult to do, so I've gone with a gasser. My DD is a 1.6L VW diesel. So to be specific, I haven't gone back to a gasser after driving a diesel truck because I've not yet had a diesel truck.


It was discovered through the use of transparent quartz cylinder heads and high speed photography that “flame fronts” occur in gasoline engines. The fuel air mixture in a gasoline engine is ignited at a point by the spark plug and the flame consumes the fuel as it burns across the combustion chamber. A specific fuel air mixture called stociametric is required and the burning process occurs relatively slowly with respect to the speed of the piston.

The fuel air mixture in a diesel engine is detonated at once when the pressure reaches a high point. A specific ratio of fuel to air is not required. Detonation is defined as the violent release of chemical energy as with a shock wave traveling at a high speed relative to the speed of piston travel. The term detonation is used interchangeably with explosion.

John

I have to take exception to this description. Both fuels are ignited and burn. Diesel does not explode. Of the two, gasoline is much more likely to explode. The high compression ratio of a diesel engine heats the air above the auto-ignition temperature of diesel fuel. Then the injection pump and injector squirt diesel into this super heated air where ignites. Diesel fuel has a slower flame front speed than gasoline. This limits the maximum engine speed (RPM) possible to a number considerably lower than what is possible with gasoline. It is also the reason that diesel engines produce more torque than a comparable displacement gasser, the fuel's slow burn rate favors a long stroke with a smallish bore ("Under-Square") engine design where late gasser design has been favoring shorter strokes with larger bores ("Over-Square") since the 1960's.

 

[HERR42]

i thought that diesel fuel had greater energy......requiring more extreme measures to exploit. higher compression, higer operating temp.

greater energy that gasoline...is that true?

 

[ntsqd]

It does have more BTU's per unit of measure than gasoline. I don't recall it being a huge difference, but it is higher. Tomorrow when I'm at work I can quote the SAE Alternative Fuels Handbook's numbers for gasoline & diesel (& other fuels too)if there is interest.

Diesel doesn't burn well if it isn't well atomized. 10 micron (0.010 millimeter or 0.000393 inch) droplet size is the upper limit and smaller is better. All of the various unique features of a diesel engine are at least partly designed with this in mind.

The comparative in-efficiency of a gas engine compared to a diesel engine is partly due to the lower BTU content of the fuel and partly due to the gasser needing a throttle plate. (How can anything be efficient if it's variably being choked?) Lately gassers have really closed the gap. I believe that this has been driven by emissions concerns more than anything else. Those concerns have caused the OE's to spend the money on more sophisticated engine control hardware and on development time. With EFI there is a lot that can be done and I suspect that we're just starting to see what is possible. What will be interesting to see is if the OE's spend similar time and money on diesel engines for light duty trucks. Given the same effort and hardware I suspect that the gap will open back up.

FWIW, The Stoichiometric Ratio is the ideal ratio for a given fuel where the chemical equation for the combustion is complete. Meaning there are no left-over raw fuel compounds or partly combusted fuel compounds. All fuels burn their best at their "Stoich", but the Air-Fuel ratio does not need to be exactly Stoich for the fuel to combust. Gasoline's viable combustion A/F ratio ranges from somewhere below 12:1 up to over 15:1. Stoich is 14.7:1, but best power happens at about 12.5:1. I do not know the comparable ratios for diesel. The SAE book might have that.

 

[camelracer]

I have heard that the diesel air fuel ratio is in the 70 to 80 range. One more reason for the good fuel economy. They do like a lot of air though.

 

[Barko1]

I have heard that the diesel air fuel ratio is in the 70 to 80 range. One more reason for the good fuel economy. They do like a lot of air though.


Slight off thread but for the Ford owners you might be interested in a Donaldson air filter, something like 3x stock capacity which addresses the above issue. Need a retrofit but a good way to help your engine last. http://www.donaldson.com/en/engine/support/datalibrary/035390.pdf

I think diesel fuel has 20% more energy.

 

[HERR42]

i have not been able to price that....i bet its really expensive