European diesels, we need them in the USA

Has anyone checked out the VW websites for germany or the uk. their product line has nearly every car available with diesel engines. some with up to 60 miles per gallon. we need to make them available here in the USA by changing our epa laws. if i can get one with a left hand drive then i'll buy one and ship it over here

You’ll get your wish starting this year when the US low sulfur diesel standard goes into effect.

not the same though. california emission standards prevent the best VW cars from being sold here. all ulsd standard does is lower sulfer content in the fuel. nothing else. it won't change anything else about the diesel except maybe lower the cetane rating. a hydrotreater ruins both octane and cetane. that's why an isom unit is needed to bring octane ratings up on gasoline.


as of 1-1-2006 the new sulfer standards are in effect for both gasoline and diesel, however if refineries can't meet specs they can buy sulfer credits to offset the difference between what the standard is and what they can get down to

[edit on 16-2-2006 by bigx01]

the cetane rating in europe is quite a bit higher than here also

My 1986 toyota 4x4 is currently running a factory turbo, petro... But... the european version was callled a "Hilux" and ran a toyota 2L diesel. The US domestic 2WD came with a diesel option and I am currently seeking out two of these domestic Toyota 2L engines, in any condition, in the southeast US for engine swap.

Before swapping the first motor I will break it down to components, and rebuild with modifications to accept corn oil as fuel.

PM me if you know of anyone with a Toyota 2L, I've got cash.

Thanks,

Sri Oracle

I KNOW!!!!! even honda is selling a lot of desiel powered cars. i mean even the new honda civic hacthback that is being sold everywhere BUT HERE has the option of a very effecient desiel that gets like 50+mpg and can come with a 6spd manual gearbox. the new honda civics that are sold abroad will really change the way people view honda's

i even heard that they are going to try to adapt a vtec-e style system to their desiel motor, which locks out one intake valve until a certain rpm is reached. which allows to motor to consume very little fuel.

before i did my motor swap in my honda civic HX (used the vtec-e motor) my car got an easy 38 city and 44+ highway MPG

I've been driving a diesel engined car for the last 3 years now. If I drive sensibly (no lead foot) I can get 600+ miles from it's 55Litre tank. It's rapid too and accelerates faster than many more expensive petrol engined "sports" models
Right now I wouldn't go back to a petrol engined car.

In all my visits to the USA (many times for business and visits to my little Bro in NC) I have rarely seen any diesel cars. Saw a TDi Golf last year but that was a rarity. There's still very much a "diesel is for trucks" attitude, especially at the showrooms.

Originally posted by Sri Oracle
..
Before swapping the first motor I will break it down to components, and rebuild with modifications to accept corn oil as fuel.
..

i think you should try www.fromthewilderness.com... and remember that soil minerals can be depleted. burning (potential) food is unwise, no matter how you put it.

Originally posted by Long Lance

i think you should try www.fromthewilderness.com... and remember that soil minerals can be depleted. burning (potential) food is unwise, no matter how you put it.

at georgia pacific's old pulp mill in bellingham washington they produced 7 million gallons of ethanol each year using the spent pulp liquor.

WASHINGTON OVERVIEW


Overview:

Currently there are two ethanol plants in Washington State, one in Bellingham and one in Olympia. The plant in Bellingham is owned by Georgia Pacific and produces ethanol from pulp liquor derived from their wood processing. The plant has a capacity of 7 million gpy. The ethanol plant in Olympia is owned and operated by Pabst Brewing Company and uses brewers waste as their feedstock. Plant capacity is 700,000 gpy.

Bryan & Bryan Inc. (BBI International) 2000 Ethanol Workshop Series

btw it was 200 proof alcohol. now there is only one (with one being built to use wheat as a feedstock)

this was just from a 700 ton a day pulp mill. place an ethanol plant at every one of our pulp mills here in the USA and you will have 100's of millions of gallons being produced each year. this plant is now closed for good. the rest of the pulp mills don't have ethanol plants. they burn thier lignin and surgar waste.

we don't need to use food products to create ethanol, lets start by using waste material first.

Lets also start by relaxing the standards on car diesels and start enjoying the bennifits that the rest of the world enjoys, like 60mpg cars

p.s. anyone over in europe know if i can get a vw diesel from there with a left hand drive? i can convert the speed and odometer here

Originally posted by Long Lance
burning (potential) food is unwise, no matter how you put it.

WVO (waste vegetable oil) is no food source... its what you pour out of your frying pan when you're done frying. I use "corn oil" generically in speech to denote such.

Sri Oracle

I have a Diesle VW Beetle, with 50 or 55 if I recall. I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure. Drove from Ohio to Florida with only 1 stop for Diesle. I wanna know why I don't see to many of them either here... Ive seen hundreds of VWs and only 1 or 2 diesel now and then.

[edit on 3-3-2006 by Foxe]

you don't see many diesel cars here because of the old myths that came about back in the 70's. the main being poor acceleration. now back in the 70's diesel's did have poor acceleration. but with the lightweight turbo's we have now and better engines you get nearly the same acceleration as gas engines. the other problem is not all gas stations sell diesel, so people would have to visit truck stops instead

Originally posted by Sri Oracle
..
WVO (waste vegetable oil) is no food source... its what you pour out of your frying pan when you're done frying. I use "corn oil" generically in speech to denote such.

Sri Oracle

I'm sorry if i was overreacting, biological waste is a good source, although it's probably rather limited more an additional (minor) fuel source rather than a substitute.

Originally posted by Long Lance
although it's probably rather limited more an additional (minor) fuel source

One sacrifice I make in my life is that my home is no warmer than the firewood which I split by hand with a maul can make it (addmittedly I still use a chainsaw for length).

One day a sacrifice I will make will be to go no further than the waste oil I collect gets me. I want off the grid so bad my skin burns (maybe that was the niacin?). Piece by piece the puzzle comes together.

Sri Oracle

Originally posted by bigx01
you don't see many diesel cars here because of the old myths that came about back in the 70's.

There is something more sinister controlling diesels in the US than myths from the 70's about acceleration. Regualtion makes diesel engine production next to impossible. It is designed that way. In the US diesel stays in the corporation's rigs... gotta keep those goods moving; sell that plastic junk. The rich get richer.

Sri Oracle

do diesel engines produce more pollution or something? I didn't know that diesel engines had more mpg. We are going to be buying a new car soon too. Does this apply to diesel trucks also?

Actually when it comes to diesels you can get them very clean.
I can't remeber which vehicle it is but there is only one that is certified for use in underground mines that has a diesel engine.
They fit a scrubber to the exhaust and no harmeful emmisions.

And as far as fuel economy goes the prius is comparable with a lot of the diesels.
According to the comp in mine I'm getting about 60 mpg.
And no I don't eat tofu.

Diesel engines these days are about 40% more efficient than petrol engines, and you can use biodiesels with little to no modifications to the engine. I'm thinking algae-based biodiesels. Check out the link in my sig

I wonder how well a diesel hybrid would work being that you get the best performance out of a diesel at a certain engine speed.

Originally posted by flibble
I wonder how well a diesel hybrid would work being that you get the best performance out of a diesel at a certain engine speed.

you would probably be better off using diesel-electric system like a train. size the generator correctly to match the most fuel efficient rpm of your diesel and use electric motor for the rest. of course if your varaiable frequencey drive failed then you wouldn't be able to go anywhere. but a back up drive would solve that