Will the Diesel be Dead?

time2roll wrote:

4x4ord wrote:
Gasoline has the potential for huge torque and way more power than diesel.

Diesel will always have more BTU per gallon. The only trick is extracting the power efficiently with low emissions.

My bet is still on electric although battery density or fuel cell efficiency still needs improvement to make it work best in long haul situations.

Diesel contains about 13% more energy per volume than does gasoline but it is about 12% heavier so the energy per unit weight of the two fuels is very similar. I guess what really matters is the energy per $ at the pump and that seems to vary an awful lot. The higher efficiency of diesel can also be attributed to the much higher compression ratio. I think it is going to be interesting to see what future engines look like. I agree that electric will be playing a more significant role.

Looking at the thing it motion, it doesn't really look that complicated.

QX50

4x4ord wrote:
Gasoline has the potential for huge torque and way more power than diesel.

Diesel will always have more BTU per gallon. The only trick is extracting the power efficiently with low emissions.

My bet is still on electric although battery density or fuel cell efficiency still needs improvement to make it work best in long haul situations.

we leased a new 2019 Infiniti QX50 about 10 days ago. Love the car and the engine. The duty cycle remains to be seen and we leased it because I wasn't betting on it long term.

wilber1 wrote:

4x4ord wrote:
Even now there are turbocharged gasoline engines making nearly as much toque per volume of engine displacement as diesel engines make. Gasoline has the potential for huge torque and way more power than diesel.

What’s missing is the fuel economy. Variable compression ratio goes some way to address that.

Another thing that is missing is emissions. Past particulate matter emission regulations have only been for diesels dropping it from 0.10 pre-2007 to .01 in after 2007. Gasoline engines were omitted from all PM requirements. Now many gasoline direct injected engines emit more PM than modern diesels and some even emit more than pre-DPF diesels. How long will that last?

4x4ord wrote:
Even now there are turbocharged gasoline engines making nearly as much toque per volume of engine displacement as diesel engines make. Gasoline has the potential for huge torque and way more power than diesel.

What’s missing is the fuel economy. Variable compression ratio goes some way to address that.

Even now there are turbocharged gasoline engines making nearly as much toque per volume of engine displacement as diesel engines make. Gasoline has the potential for huge torque and way more power than diesel.

All I could afford wrote:
Memories of the early ‘80’s Cadillac V4-6-8 motor come to mind...

And yet cylinder deactivation is very common in today's engines.

dangerbird wrote:
How about this...

Camcon Automotive

Very interesting. The kind of thing that Ford engineer was referring to when he was talking about advances in software allowing big changes in engine design.

Memories of the early ‘80’s Cadillac V4-6-8 motor come to mind...