diesel pollution

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Racing roadkill

Racing roadkill

Guru
I hate diesel with a passion. The stuff from the pumps acts like tear gas, the burnt stuff from the exhaust isn't much better. I got cut up by a bloody diesel car on a ride last week. The knobber was sat in front of me, going no faster than I wanted to, and choking me to death in the process. The devil's fuel.
 
Drago

Drago

Legendary Member
Location
Suburban Poshshire
I drive a pickup, does that make me a numbskull?

I'm not intro cars, buy my transport solely for practical attributes. The large front cabin suit me well - I can't drive a focus if the drivers door is closed - and the rear bed is ideal for bicycles or my wife's wheelchair.

I've converted it to run on veg, so the emissions are far cleaner than any diesel with over 3/4 less particulates, and its closer to carbon-neutral than any commercially available car by a huge margin. It also means I can fuel it for 65p/L, so at low 30s to the gallon it costs less than a Nissan Micra to run.

So who's a numbskull?
 
Dave the Smeghead

Dave the Smeghead

Über Member
I cannot believe this "rolling coal" thing. I am almost too flabbergasted for words. They even think its fun to put their own heads in it - hopefully significantly shortening their lives in the process.
Lets hope the "craze" never comes here; mind you with price of our fuel I can't see many being able to afford it!
 
ClichéGuevara

ClichéGuevara

Legendary Member
Location
Kingston upon the River Hull
Quite a few years ago, the company I worked for gave me an old diesel with a side exhaust to drive. It was a proper heap and I hadn't gone far when I turned round to take it to the garage because it was ridiculously noisy and smoky.
On the way back, I got caught at a level crossing, and as is my habit, switched off the engine. It was only as the barriers lifted and I fired up and checked mirrors etc before moving, I noticed the Miami Vice type in the open topped car next to me.
His white car had a big black ring on the side, and he was covered in black bits, as was the inside of his car.

Now kids, it's wrong, it's neither big nor clever and it was an accident...but I must confess, I was too busy laughing to apologise. I'm sure that makes me a bad person.
 
GrasB

GrasB

Veteran
Location
Nr Cambridge
[QUOTE 3347475, member: 9609"]Black smoke is poor incomplete burning usually because the mix is too high (lack of oxygen) but weirdly does not seem to affect performance. (providing there is not too little oxygen (obviously)) When pumps were adjustable things, we used to try and get them to run a little back at full power, least you knew it was getting enough fuel.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, on my Alfa I was running over 140bhp/l with the slightest puff of black smoke when the throttle was cracked (nearly) wide open when starting from off-boost. This was a known over-fuleing issue that's impossible to fix (intake manifold airflow mass trailed pre-turbo airflow mass as the air stacked up between the primary & secondary turbos momentarily)

albion said:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring...estimate-pollution-pumped-out-by-diesels.html

It pretty much says that in London each diesel car is 3 times over the maximum actually allowed.
"emit around three times more NOx pollution in congested traffic than is permitted in current European emissions tests"
Click to expand...
Standard EU tests are broken & don't represent real world driving shocker!.. oh sorry we've know this for god knows how many years
 
Recycle

Recycle

Über Member
Location
Caterham
mustang1 said:
Seems like whenever I read anything about diesel pollution, much is made of cars polluting the roads. In my experience the cars are pretty clean: clean(er) engine, stop/start mode, etc.
Click to expand...
A well maintained diesel engine on average has a more efficient combustion stroke than its petrol equivalent, but the diesel has a lot of nasty additives which after combustion are released into the air as carcinogenic particles < 10 microns. This is dangerous because particulate matter < 10 microns is not commonly produced by nature so we haven't evolved effective ways of filtering it from our lungs. These carcinogens are inhaled deep into the lungs, and particles < 2 microns pass through the lungs into the blood.
 
Nortones2

Nortones2

Guru
Location
Burbage, Derbyshire
Recycle said:
A well maintained diesel engine on average has a more efficient combustion stroke than its petrol equivalent, but the diesel has a lot of nasty additives which after combustion are released into the air as carcinogenic particles < 10 microns. This is dangerous because particulate matter < 10 microns is not commonly produced by nature so we haven't evolved effective ways of filtering it from our lungs. These carcinogens are inhaled deep into the lungs, and particles < 2 microns pass through the lungs into the blood.
Click to expand...
The same applies to petrol cars. The sub-2 micron particulates are as prevalent in petrol if not more so. Euro 6 will require particulate filters for petrol too. Diesel is picked on because of the obvious cloud from older engines. Petrol is not s o blatant, and the technology to measure superfine particulates has been slow to develop.
 
hennbell

hennbell

Guru
Location
Lloydminster, Alberta , Canada
Drago said:
I drive a pickup, does that make me a numbskull?

I'm not intro cars, buy my transport solely for practical attributes. The large front cabin suit me well - I can't drive a focus if the drivers door is closed - and the rear bed is ideal for bicycles or my wife's wheelchair.

I've converted it to run on veg, so the emissions are far cleaner than any diesel with over 3/4 less particulates, and its closer to carbon-neutral than any commercially available car by a huge margin. It also means I can fuel it for 65p/L, so at low 30s to the gallon it costs less than a Nissan Micra to run.

So who's a numbskull?
Click to expand...

The numbskull would be the people who take beutifully tuned, clean running trucks and pay money to have them belch black smoke. The truck is not the issue the person driving it is.
 
Smurfy

Smurfy

Naturist Smurf
Location
Smurfette's Kitchen
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