Oil & Fuel Diesel more Maintenance than Gas (engine)?

Tom_H · Oct 2, 2004

It sounds like in the 24 years since I bought my VW they have replaced that fake diesel with a real one. I agree with everything you said about real diesels; there's no way I'd have a gas burning tractor. The earliest earth scraper/movers were gas burners and they just didn't have the raw power they needed.

Though I'm not the one who said diesel odor is a wife-repellant, funny you should ask about running it in the house. I keep mine in the third bay of the garage. The garage is also where the clothes washer and dryer are, so in winter, cold startups do leave the place pretty smelly for awhile. Though it's not cold enough to require one, I'm planning to put in a block heater and see if that reduces the amount of incompletely oxidized fuel during winter startups.

frank_f15 · Oct 2, 2004

TOM; just curious , but what is the coldest temp you get there?

Tom_H · Oct 2, 2004

About 3 times a year it might get down to 30. Fairly often in the height of winter it'll hover just above freezing from 3 a.m. 'till dawn though. About 14 yrs. ago it hit 18 and people had busted pipes galore. I doubt I've ever started the BX at colder than 42. She had to turn quite a few revs before she got combustion. Hottest I've driven the BX here is 113. (PLEASE Kubota, put an a/c in with those new BX cabs.)

That old Volksie diesel spent a lot of time at Tahoe, a winter in Vermont with at least 15 below, and crossed the Mojave Desert a few times. Drove her through Vegas once at 118. Another time while crossin' the Mojave I had 4 tires with good tread but they were so old the polymers had started breakin' down & all 4 of 'em blew out in the middle of nowhere. (Hard to imagine what we did before cell phones.) Guess you could say I drove that old car to H--- and back.

ZackaryMac · Oct 4, 2004

I yanked out the stock 4.3 gasser and put a Isuzu diesel in my 1991 Sonoma S10 and although slow, gets great fuel mileage also. The truck it came from shows 484,000 kms on it. I don't think it was ever rebuilt. I had 3 A2 diesel Jettas (1985-1992), one turbo, and the last one I had sold with 611,000 kms on it. I never had any motor problems with them either. I guess maybe the earlier diesels in the A1 cars weren't as good perhaps.
I HAD to have a diesel tractor. I am a diesel fan so there was no way a gas engine would work for me. And I'm not disappointed.

slowrev · Oct 4, 2004

During a Gas "shortage" back in the late 70's people were literally fighting over diesel VW rabbits in the showrooms. Diesel was MUCH cheaper than gas then. During the next year it seemed that the majority of broken down vehicles I saw beside the road were diesel rabbits. And the for sale ads were full of them.....Of course things have changed and GM no longer does the 350 converted to diesel either /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ben

Dargo · Oct 4, 2004

Hey slowrev, you are close to my area. I have a salvage yard close to me (within 3 miles) that has 2 Cummins diesels with over 1 million miles on them that are for sale that came out of Dodge pickups. Both run well and have never been worked on. On one of them, the guy who owned it delivered camper shells across the country for a living. He claims that anytime it was cold outside, he always left it idling all night so he wouldn't have to worry about starting it in the morning! Talk about some time on an engine!! There are stories like that all over the place about the Cummins diesel engines. Even with the best maintenance I doubt that you would get that to happen on a regular basis with the best gasser.

RalphVa · Oct 4, 2004

Most all diesels will smell better, maybe hardly smell, in 2006-2007 when they're required to get virtually all the sulfur out of the fuel.

When many gas engines had carbs, diesels got 50% better fuel mileage. Now, with gas fuel injection on most cars, the diesel advantage has dropped to about 25%. Diesel fuel has more weight and energy in it/gallon. Then the higher compression ratio gives a lower exhaust temperatures. Both of these result in more output/gallon.

Diesel engines have no ignition system. The injection system is virtually the same as that on a modern gas engine car now. So, diesels are simpler.

Ralph

upgw · Oct 4, 2004

Yeah, sounds right, something like:
1) There's more energy in the fuel, so 10% better
2) The engine doesn't waste energy creating vacuum, another 10%
3) Higher compression means better thermal efficiency, another 5%
So overall, 25% better economy total, factor in tax-free fuel and you can really cut down your fuel cost.

Not sure where I read that...

- Patrick

hacker · Oct 6, 2004

If one is worried about the smell of a Diesel engine, use Biodiesel. It smells great, really. The engine runs better too.

I have been running in my BX22 for about 20 hours now and I love it.

It is also much better for the environment and made in the USA. If you spill it, no worry at all, it is totally green and harmless.

Biodiesel might be hard to find locally, so you'll have to search online. There is plenty of information out there. There are many farmers who are producing it now. I get my B100 from globaleindustries in Cavendish, VT.

I would suggest asking a lot of questions if one's tractor is pre-2000, but all the later Kubota diesels are good to go. Biodiesel is more corrosive than regular diesel, so it can eat away at some older engine parts. It also keeps the engine much cleaner.

I hope that helps someone.

Hacker