Most informative, Carl. My e-mail copies to Louise Power have also been blocked as undeliverable as of late.
Fritz Holt _____ From: Carl Kunath [mailto:carl.kun...@suddenlink.net] Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 12:47 PM To: TexasCavers Subject: [Texascavers] Diesel needs (OT) For those of you wondering why a diesel "needs" so much more oil than a gasoline engine. . . . It's not that it's "required" to run. A diesel would operate just fine on 5-6 quarts of oil -- or even less. It's a problem of contamination. Because the diesel operates at much higher compression ratios (typically in the 18:1 - 22:1 range) than a gasoline engine, there are more contaminates forced past the piston rings and into the oil sump. The larger capacity is required to maintain a reasonable level of oil quality. Diesel engines also utilize far larger oil filters than for gasoline engines of equivalent displacement. Oil drained from a diesel engine after 3,000 miles of normal service will usually appear so black that if from a gasoline engine you would suspect it of having served 10,000 miles. It's far more expensive to change oil and filter for a diesel but some of that comes back as better fuel economy. Basically, the diesel pays its way because it does a particular job (usually heavy hauling if it's in a truck) far better than a gasoline engine. Unfortunately, there has been a recent tendency to reduce displacement and maintain power by higher compression ratios and other performance-enhancing tweaks. Ford made a horrible mistake when they replaced the 7.3L engine with the 6.0L in mid-2003. It cost them millions of dollars in warranty expense. They have now recognized that error and have abandoned the 6.0L in favor of a new 6.4L that has yet to earn its reputation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Power_Stroke_engine What the US needs (and what cavers would LOVE) is a Toyota 4-door, 4WD, 6-cylinder diesel pickup. Toyota has marketed diesel engine pickups in other parts of the world but not the US so far as I know. Probably something to do with emission requirements and the fact that they sell everything they can make anyway. ===Carl Kunath (Happy owner of a 7.3L Powerstroke diesel hungry for its next 14 quart oil change.) UNRELATED PS: Louise Power -- your hot mail provider is blocking anything coming from the suddenlink domain. ----- Original Message ----- From: Nico Escamilla <mailto:pitboun...@gmail.com> To: Minton, Mark <mailto:mmin...@nmhu.edu> Cc: texascavers@texascavers.com Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 10:33 AM Subject: Re: [Texascavers] RE: the new MXT Indeed, diesels use a whole lot more oil than gas engines, our ram diesel needs like 11 or 12 quarts, and our f350 is somewhere between 13 and 15. Thank God diesel has always been cheaper than gas down here in Mexico and thank God for semi drivers and machinery operators who sell even cheaper diesel.. these days my little 4 cyl. VW hatchback is more expensive to drive than our 1 ton diesel trucks Nico On 9/5/07, Minton, Mark <mmin...@nmhu.edu> wrote: Nico Escamilla said: >>The International Truck dealer here in Houston has 3 new 4x4 MXT's, >>Here are the specs on the motor: >Well, the engine (a 6.0) is not much bigger than the Cummins found in Dodge diesels which is a 5.9 Dodge now has an even larger 6.7-liter diesel for the Ram: < http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/09/28/023411.html <http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/09/28/023411.html> > I noticed that the engine oil capacity on the MXT is a whopping 19 quarts! I don't know much about diesels, so maybe that is typical, but it is huge compared to gasoline engines. Even changing the oil would be expensive! Mark Minton _____ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.485 / Virus Database: 269.13.5/990 - Release Date: 9/4/2007 10:36 PM
