Cheating on Emissions: Nearly All New Diesel Cars Over Limits; Tractors Next?

[3930dave]

Diesel engines, all other things being equal, will ALWAYS get better FE because the fuel has more BTUs. I think diesel (D2) has about 13% more BTUs. Out of the gate the diesel has a head start by virtue of this fact.

Add ethanol into gasoline, and that comparison looks even better.

On my rainy-day reading list..... Figure out if govt mpg ratings are based on pure gasoline, or E10.....

Rgds, D.

 

[DieselBound]

Yup, ethanol is a pure loser (winner is the corn lobby). Biodiesel is also less energy dense, but the energy reclaimed from the entire process at least exceeds the amount of energy put in.

 

[sixdogs]

We'll all be driving Tier 4,5,6, whatever the number reaches, if we live long enough.....

In a speculative sense, I'm going to respectfully disagree. While things seem always on a forward march, that's mostly because our memories are short. History shows people favor, or at least look the other way on controls and restrictions when economic activity is rising and the times are good. Don't rock the boat.

On the flip side, people pay more attention in declining times and tend to unwind the excesses of the prior expansion. There are lots of examples but a couple that come to mind would be prohibition and 55 MPH speed limits. There is a whole element of study that attempts to divine future financial prices and conditions based on current and unfolding socio-economic events like this. You know, the old "hemline indicator" as a determinant of stock prices.

The transition from one condition to another often involves a fight or struggle as the guardians of such controls struggle to maintain relevance against the wave of backlash. I'd say that's where we are now. Cheating on emissions is just the trend emerging and I would expect it to continue and accelerate until things are changed or repealed.

 

[Rmart30]

Deleting DPF on tractors will be here sooner than ya think. Yale forklifts use kubota engines with DPF and no DEF. I have a customer with 2 Yales that both stopped up the DPF withen the last month. He has already found someone who has the proper know how to delete them. The cost to replace each DPF iirc he said was $3200. When you run 10 machines and add $32k in repairs every 3 or 4 years it hurts.

I will not own a tier 4 or newer machine. I work on too many of them and see the problems associated with it. I bought my new Kubota on purpose in 2013 before the emissions were added.

 

[Gator6x4]

This discussion reminds me of basically the same arguments that were put forward when the automotive industry switched from carburetors to computer controlled fuel injection on gasoline engines.