RAM EcoDiesel a Flop for Towing

Huh?!? First you say you would never WOT your truck up a long grade and don't believe in abusing machinery. Now you are defending a truck that had to go WOT and was stressed out barely holding 50 mph(10 mph under the speed limit) when it was not even carrying the max weight the Ram rated it for versus a truck that was considerably less stressed pulling the same weight while easily able to do the speed limit. You are contradicting yourself which makes me wonder what is more important to you, your own beliefs or your need to defend a Ram product? It seems like your own beliefs are taking a sideline here.

I said, why do you have to go up the hill at 50 MPH. How do you get having to go up the hill at WOT out of that? 240 HP seems to be the limit for the V6 3.0L diesels in North America, be they VW, Mercedes or Motori, I assume because of emission standards. BMW does a bit better at 255 HP. This is not true in Europe where Audi offers a 313 HP twin turbo version of their 3.0 and next year a triple turbo version putting out 353 HP. I think these engines are very underrated for North America.

No, the Ecoboost would be less stressed than that Ecodiesel. Not only was the Ecoboost running at a lower RPM, but the higher compression ratio of the Ecodiesel puts more stress on the block than the Ecoboost. However, that is a moot point since the both these engines have a CGI(Compacted-graphite iron) block like the the bigger diesels do to handle the stress. Diesel engines are inherently "overbuilt" to handle the stresses of compression ignition which is one of the reasons why they last longer, and the 2.7L EB is built the same way with less stress on the block to make it's power.

Two words for you. Boost Pressure. To make the same amount of power, you have to mix the same amount of fuel and air and burn it. A smaller displacement engine will have to either turn faster or operate at a higher manifold pressure to process the same amount of fuel and air in the same amount of time as a larger displacement engine.

Lastly, the reason why gasers never achieve EPA numbers has more to do with the fuel uesed and the test itself. If you read how they do the test you will find that they never exceed 60 mph so if one thinks they will get the EPA numbers at 70 mph then they are being overly optimistic. Another factor is the fuel. The EPA test uses non-ethanol gasoline which is rare in the real world. Most gasoline at the pumps is E10 which reduces your fuel efficiency by about 5% which is a 1-2 mpg loss for most trucks. For the diesel test, the EPA uses the same stuff you get at the pumps as summer #2 diesel so you don't get that loss right of the bat like gasoline. However, you will get a loss in the cold months(usually October to March) when stations switch over to winter #1 diesel that has about a 5,00-8,000 Btu reduction in energy which reduces your power and fuel economy.

So what? Most gasoline is E10 which doesn't change the fact that diesels do better in the real world. All vehicles get worse mileage in cold weather, doesn't matter if they are gas or diesel. Never seen #1 diesel on the west coast.