[Diy_efi] Is E85 worth it?

[Ian Molton]

Steve Ravet wrote:

> That may be.  There aren't (fortunately IMO) a lot of passenger car
> diesels to chose from here in the US, so I picked the Jetta.  It is, in
> fact, the only diesel passenger car I can name off the top of my head.
> Maybe European spec diesels are better.  Here's a homework assignment
> for the Eurpoean diesel fans.

Not got the time for homework assignments, but I can tell you this:

Diesels produce more particulates, however most of them are 10 microns 
or so in size wheras those from petrol engines are more like 1 micron.

the body is much less able to handle the smaller particles.

Diesels produce 30-40% less C02

Diesels produce nearly no CO, and even with cats, petrols arent good - 
esp. as cats take a while to warm up and hurt fuel consumption...

Modern diesels do produce more NOx however after 50,000 miles they 
produce less than a petrol on average, so over the lifetime of the car 
there is little difference.

Diesels dont produce significant HC emmissions.

Just because you can SEE the particle emissions doesnt mean diesels are 
worse.

heck, NOx emissions are far more visible when they cause smog...

>>The  best thing is it is totally 
>>carbon-neutral - it only puts back into the  atmosphere the 
>>carbon the plant took out in the first place.  Performance  
>>is totally unaffected.
> 
> Leaving aside that human contributions to atmospheric carbon don't
> matter in the slightest, the carbon in refined diesel wasn't channeled
> in from the asteroid belt, it came from the earth same as all the other
> carbon.

yes but its been trapped out of circulation for milennia.

> I never commented on the performance of a diesel, just it's polluting
> nature.

Well you should probably check up on that before commenting more because 
to summarise:

CO2 is 30-40% lower
CO is nonexistant
NOx is essentially the same in a modern diesel over the lifetime of the car
HC is nonexistant
Particulates whilst there is more, is in larger particles more easily 
handles by the body.