Sad Story - Fuel Economy

[Crazcnuk]

Well, that's my whole point. Canada's economy is largely based on oil. If we are going to be serious and cut back on petroleum products, then we need something to fill in.

There is no way, no matter how much you 'cut back' on your power, that we are going to even keep up to the rest of the world's increase. There is also no way that we are going back to the horse and buggy days.

If there are problems, hindering our progress, then the solution is not to give up, but to fix those problems.

Whatever costs associated with Hydrogen production and use would be far outweighed by the environmental savings. The economic damage may be a little harder to take.

Just changing our vehicles over to hydrogen ( and you can do it with almost any car, not just expensive specialty ones) would make far more impact than all the wind or solar energy crap they are trying to feed us now.

[Jerry]

Not to try and change the thrust from auto energy savings, but we use more energy in our homes than in our cars. Better insulation, more efficient appliances, upgraded windows, co-generation, solar cell instllations, alternative lighting products...many things could be done to degcrease our over-all energy use. Yes, energy is required to produce these products, but the savings over time do add up. Autos should get better mileage, but home efficiency has enormous energy savings potential.

Back to our regular programming......

[Crazcnuk]

Of course it does. Especially in our colder climate countries.

Problem is, are you trying to lower your heating bill, or are you trying to help out the environment.

More insulation and all that is mostly to help out your monthly bills, but it also helps the environement, but only if what your using to heat/cool takes a pollution creating source of energy.

If we had enough electricity, from a non-pollution (CO2, etc) creating source, at a decent price we could stop burning natural gas. If the process was efficient enough we could generate hydrogen in-house and burn it in our furnaces, or just skip the furnace all together and go with electric heat.

Again, it is all about creating ENOUGH electricity, cheaply and as cleanly as possible.

Making everything as effiecient as possible definately helps, too.

Big problem is the idea that somehow we can actually REDUCE our overall consumption, when, in fact, we just find more and more things to use the energy. If not personally, then as a a nation.

Of course the gov't pushes us all to cut back, not because they want an overall reduction, but because all those new businesses that make them money, need the energy.

As far as our gov'ts are concerned, we end users are just an energy black-hole that sucks up resources that can be used to create more GNP. They just want us to sell finished products to.

[xschop]

vw diesel

I took my co-worker's Jetta TDI turbo home and put new rotors and pads on. I only did the rears and I pulled the new ones out of the new box with German writing on it (only thing I could understand was achtung!). anyhow I thought they gave her the wrong ones because they were only 10mm thick, so I thought to myself, I would just yank the rear tire and see... Sure enough 10mm thick is new. She had let one side go so long that it was 4mm thick and the pad was, well, no pad just fried metal...Anyways German engineering never ceases to amaze me. I drove the car to work this morning and It is a fast car. I can see why it gets good gas mileage, it only revs to 5500 rpm and cruises 70 mph at 2300 rpm in 5th.... I may consider getting one....just check the brakes often

[xschop]

question for cody

I checked the engine oil too and it was jet black. She said the oil was changed less than 3000 mi. ago. I don't have experience with diesels,so is this normal?

[DiverRay]

Chop,
Yes, the oil in a diesel engine gets black in a HURRY. It's from the carbon particles from combustion. The oil on my suburban is black within 1,000 miles of a change.
I do notice that it does NOT get black quite so fast with the B99 Bio-diesel.

[xschop]

diesel

Thanks Ray, I was thinking maybe that was the case since diesel is dirty. I know how to make biodiesel in the lab here, I just don't have a diesel to put it in....

[DiverRay]

I'm sure Maximan will help with that!! If I remember correctly, he has a big diesel pickup. You can have him try out your bio fuel, and see if you did it correctly.

[xschop]

BD

It's actually not very difficult to make. It's just cheaper to make if you can get the old oil from Mcdonald's or the Chinese Restaurant down the street. I made some from vegetable and peanut oil a few months ago just playing around with some formula's. My bro in law makes about 55 gallons per week that he runs his farm equipment on in PA. he also has an older Mercedes diesel that he puts it in....

[Crazcnuk]

Now, if you put half the effort into converting to hydrogen, you wouldn't have to muck around with fuels that are only marginally (Margarine-ly) cleaner!

[HobbyMan]

I have one a few things to say. A fully loaded 2002 Ford Excursion with 6 people, luggage, camping gear and a 7.3 DL gets about 12mpg towing a 10k Lb boat at 80mph. Think of the extra resistance and wheel drag as well as wieght. Right now, Diesel is the best. We need to be working on electric. And as an added bonus, it smells better than gasoline also. Actually Marine Diesel oil smells the best.

[Crazcnuk]

Electric will never happen.

They've been working on it for over a hundred years now. In that time we've learned to fly, to sail under the ocean, to go to the moon.

We've learned to harness the power of the atom.

Diesel stinks worse than anything, after it's burnt. There is nothing worse than following a stinky diesel down the highway.

My 500hp gas car, weighs over 4000lbs, pulling my holiday trailer and all it's race gear gets 14mpg, running at 3200rpm at 68mph.

Think what it would do if I put highway gears in it, and maybe added an overdrive.

[MAXIMAN]

Chop

I'm not gonna be your genepig with your makeshift bio-diesel. Try it out on your girlfriends car! ............Ahh the sweet aroma of REAL hydrocarbons...chickadee chickadee

Originally posted by Crazcnuk

My 500hp gas car, weighs over 4000lbs, pulling my holiday trailer and all it's race gear gets 14mpg, running at 3200rpm at 68mph.

Think what it would do if I put highway gears in it, and maybe added an overdrive.

Hmmm... interesting but here's something more interesting. My stinking turbo diesel (especially stinky after it's burned) - F250 4x4 crewcab 7.3 liter Powerstroke weighs about 7000 "stinking" lbs. Pulling my "stinking" 32 foot camper the whole "stinking" rig weighs "wet" about 15,000 "stinking" lbs. At 70 mph I get about 16 to 17 "stinking" mpg.... .

Of course it makes a fraction of your superior gas powered vehicle ...a mere 280 hp. But the key is the "stinking" torque - right at 600 Ft-Lbs chipped.

My "stinking" diesel stinks so bad it makes me cry...........cry all the way to the "stinking" bank...

[Crazcnuk]

You missed the point entirely.

My not-so stinky gas car, with proper gearing would be in the high teens if not low 20's MPG @ 500+hp. Mine has also saved me the money on the 'chip'.

My car is built for the B&M 420 Mega-blower kit. With that on it will produce 800+hp and close to 1000ftlbs of torque, all for a fraction of what your diesel cost you.

A friend of mine, in Edmonton had a 1987 Firebird with a 454 dynoed at 428HP. His routinely got 28-30mpg highway.

Now if I ever feel the need to drive a building down the road, I will look at one of those behemoths that like to pass me on the highway.

You have to remember the same outfit that made the gas engines that get crappy mileage, and have no regard for real mileage also made your diesel, so why should it be built any more efficiently?

Not putting the diesel down, but it SHOULD get far better mileage than your getting too.

And I'm sorry, but diesels stink.

[MAXIMAN]

Originally posted by Crazcnuk


Not putting the diesel down, ...

And I'm sorry, but diesels stink.

Dichotomy ... or confusion?

Actually you missed the point. Your gasoline engine will not get 16 mpg pulling a 10,000 lb load. If you say it does I call BS.

Now....when I'm pulling NO LOAD my behemoth get about 21-22 mpg...and not with "highway gears". It might get 50 mpg with taller gearing!

What you don't realize is I used to think like you. I used to think gasoline was a better choice until I actually started using diesels. I used to say "I wouldn't have a diesel stuck up my a$$ if I had room for a freight train." That was until I tried one.

I have been in a business that employees the use of light trucks extensively. Over the past 25 years of being in this business we have had 30 or 40 light duty gasoline trucks. In the past few years we've have tried a few diesels and have been utterly pleased.

Diesels stink...I suppose that depends on your sniffer. Diesels cost more at intitial purchase ..yes. Diesels last loonger ... YES. Diesels cost more to operate over the long haul...NO. Diesels are superior for real world work...YES.

There is a reason trucking companies use diesels almost exclusively. They have more torque for real work. They last far and away longer...outlasting their gasoline counterparts by a factor of two. They get far better fuel economy when pulling loads.

Now that I've tried a diesel passenger car I am even more pleased with diesel. Maybe you should actually try one instead of knocking them like I used too.

Show me ANY mass produced gasoline passenger vehicle that will get 58 mpg and I will eat my proverbial hat.

Please don't throw up that bogus Toyota Prius. First off it is not purely gasoline and secondly it will get nowhere NEAR 57 mpg. I have three friend with those cars and all three are very disappointed in there lack luster performance. The best one of these fellas ever got was 42 on the highway...yet Toyota Claims 60?

And since you despise diesels so completely your're reeeeeeeally gonna hate this.......

http://www.dieselbike.net/