LarryT wrote: > And to make one more stretch of the assumption - and say *all* gassers are > better than *all* diesels - and if this change in the longevity & > maintanence of gas and diesel engines is industry wide, will we see big 18 > wheelers changing to big gas engines? Or will they be staying with diesels > for the torque to pull heavy trailers? >
You can't really draw a comparison between the high-speed diesels in cars and the medium-speed diesels in heavy trucks. They're totally different animals. Torque isn't really the issue -- you can make any torque value you want with proper gearing. Trucks use medium-speed diesel engines because they offer efficiency that isn't found in other practical powerplants. If something else was cheaper to run you can bet they'd switch. Ships use low-speed diesels for the same reason. The figures for the low-speed, two-stroke diesels used on container ships are pretty amazing -- some can reach 50% thermal efficiency.
