[Diy_efi] Is E85 worth it?

[Ian Molton]

Steve Ravet wrote:
>>>I never commented on the performance of a diesel, just it's 

> Thanks for the summary.  You may have missed the beginning of the thread
> where I posted certification levels for the 2006 VW Jetta.  There are 3
> non pickup diesel vehicles available in the US, the Jetta, MB E320, and
> Jeep Liberty.  Here are the Jetta and MB numbers, and a Honda for
> comparison.
> 
> 	Jetta		MB E320	Accord
> CO	.11		.1		.3
> NOx	.55		.39		.01
> HC	.824		.76		.01
> part	.069		.064		NA

I notice you seem to not care that the 'NA' excludes particles more than 
1um in size then - of which petrol engines produce plenty, and also that 
the CO2 is massively less in diesels?

Ok heres the results for the VW Lupo 1.2 ('99 model) on normal diesel 
(not the shit you get in the USA) and the 4.2l V8 audi A8 diesel

        Lupo 1.2   Audi A8 4.2
CO     0.22       0.09
NOx    0.12       0.13
T.HC   0.01       NA (as in _zero_)
Part   0.018      0.0006  (yes, thats three zeros after the dp.)
CO2    47.2       154.6

I think its safe to say that on all but NOx, the audi smashed the Hondas 
figures... it probably performs better than that V8 SUV you mentioned 
too. 326BHP and 480 ft-lb torque from 1600-3500 RPM...

Interestingly, at least here in the EU, Honda are heavily pushing... 
you guessed it - diesel technology!

Media quotes for the _3.0_ audi TDI include "One danger for Audi is that 
the A8 3.0 TDI suddenly makes the 3.0-litre and 3.7-litre petrol models 
look utterly superfluous"

> I didn't put in the V8 SUV, it would be too embarrassing.  How do you
> clean up the emissions from your diesel Jetta?

Buy a 'proper' diesel and run it on decent fuel?

Sadly vege oil is better than the crud that oozes out of USA diesel pumps...

> This file lists certification levels (in grams/mile),

I've converted my units to the bastard unit of g/mile from g/km so they 
are a direct comparison. why do people insist on mixing metric and 
imperial units?!

 > In this
> case the time is the usable life of the vehicle, defined as 120K miles
> for gas vehicles but only 100K miles for diesel.

Ludicrous! the average (decent) diesel will run for 300K miles easy. 
Theres a reason why most taxis over here run diesels and I have not sat 
in one (locally) thats done under 200K!

Diesels are well renouned for being far more robust than petrols, with 
the exception of those that were built from a petrol engine with 
injectors stuck into them.

> The EPA doesn't test gas engines for particulate pollution, and this is
> frankly the first time that I've heard that gas engines have particulate
> emissions.

So you're unaware that in the past petrol engines required regular 
'de-coking' then?

Sure, they are better now, but they do emit particles - just ones small 
enough to not be obviously visible.

> who can point us to the
> agency that does certification, and their online results?

The Euro 5 standard is just starting to become the current goal at this 
time. Google will throw up plenty of links.