EricM wrote: Thar is the same motor (more or less) that was in my motor home. I bet I couldn't do the Quarter mile in 40 Seconds....
That beast is in lots of stuff. Cement mixers, busses, HUGE gen sets, the best pickup I've ever owned (man I miss that thing). I was planning on swapping one into a Grand Wagoneer. It was a tight fit so I'm impressed to see it in a 'vette.
curtis73 wrote:Ignorant wrote: A diesel that smokes is poorly tuned. bah.I love you, but you just dropped eleventy-zillion pegs in my book.Not really, but it was fun to say
A factory diesel that smokes may have a problem which requires tuning, but saying a diesel is "poorly tuned" just because it smokes is a bit naive. This is a never-ending debate. The bottom line is that the diesel fuel itself contains more BTUs per gallon than gasoline. How it is used is no more debatable than gasoline in a car.... anyone who has smelled the sting of a pig-rich drag car in staging knows that its not about the idle tune, its about ETs. Its the same with diesels. You tune it for its intended purpose. Black smoke during a tiny bit of its operating range is a trade-off for max performance, no different than a top-fuel dragster that dumps liquid fuel on the track because its best A/F ratio is about 3.45:1.
I read an article by Gale Banks in Racecar Engineering that said a properly tuned diesel should not smoke.
That idiot who can't spell wrote:curtis73 wrote:I read an article by Gale Banks in Racecar Engineering that said a properly tuned diesel should not smoke.Ignorant wrote: A diesel that smokes is poorly tuned. bah.I love you, but you just dropped eleventy-zillion pegs in my book.
I think you are reading that wrong. Banks was hell bent on making it not smoke to convince people that Diesels were usable and not big polluting things like people seem to think they are. He was not saying that a smoking diesel was somehow deficient in tune (although I imagine fuel economy suffers a bit) but that the smoke could be tuned out. This took even his company a long time to actually accomplish, it's not easy, and you don't make more power, just less smoke.
In reply to tuna55:
Ok thanks for clearing that up. I don't have the article with me and it has been a while since I read it.
Diesels are throttled by fuel, not air. In a mechanical injection setup, when you put your foot to the floor at 1000 RPMs, its getting all the fuel it needs for 3500 RPMs (or whatever redline is) Until the turbo and RPMs reach a point where the engine's demand is on par with its supply, its gonna smoke.
The P7100 pump on that 6BT uses several mechanical means to reduce fuel and prevent that smoke, like a boost referenced pin, a governor, etc.
But smoke isn't as bad as people think. The carcinogens and nasty stuff from diesels (which are mostly also present in gasoline exhaust) exists regardless of the soot. The soot is incomplete HC combustion. Its heavy stuff that falls to the earth, doesn't pollute the atmosphere, and is about as impactful on the environment as those drops of oil coming from the leaking rear main seal on a gasoline car.
Diesel haters assume that black smoke is this terrible thing, but its not. Just because you can't see gasoline exhaust doesn't mean its good, and just because you can see diesel exhaust doesn't make it bad.
I enjoyed reading your posts here on the topic. 
Not much love for the diesel vette, though. Too much looks alteration and not enough performance. I do like to see it in big barges, as mentioned.
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