Some of this boils down to the practical application. Yarns ago dump
trucks and farther back all trucks had gasoline engines. All heavy
trucks are powered by diesels due to engine life and economy dictated
the change. We use 3/4 or 1 ton trucks as required by the contracts
with the oil companies. Gasoline trucks must be no more than 3 years
old with diesels allowed 5 years. Most of the time we have electrical
or instrumentation tools and materials in the trucks, so lightly
loaded. The new emsisions diesels are not getting much better economy
than the gasoline trucks with all else equal. Add in the fact that
oil and filter changes are 2 to 3 times the cost. Now if you are
pulling a trailer on a regular basis as you are, a diesel is the only
way to go. It comes down to application and the correct equipment for
the job. Light duty is not likely the place for diesel engines used
in urban settings. Diesel engines converted to run on natural gas in
urban delivery and city buses where fuel can be readily available and
close will come into popularity in time due to the clean burn. Fuel
economy on NG is better than on converted gas engines due to the
compression ratio. NG can be used with 15:1 to 16:1 CR. As Paul
stated, all diesels will be equipped eventually.

Dale Davies


Hi folks.  I just joined this list, hoping to get some good information
about running rotary engines in aircraft.  So far, I've seen little of that,
but I'm still hopeful.

Rotary engines - A long time ago I had a friend, Dan Duncan, who built
aircraft rotary engine conversions, and I came to believe that they were
great airplane engines.  In the late 1980's, I designed a pusher airplane
that used a Mazda 13b as the core for an internal combustion high-bypass
fan, dumping heat into the bypass and expanding the airflow.  I never got
far enough with the design to build it.  These days I'd like to put a rotary
in my airplane and maybe some day build that other airplane if I get around
to it.

Carbon - Carbon is what I like to call the "crack whore" element of the
periodic table (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table). It will
happily form a covalent or ionic bond with just about anything, which is why
you don't want it in your body in its raw form - it likes to muck with your
DNA.  Mutated DNA leads to mutated cells, some of which grow uncontrollably
and lead to death by cancer.

Diesel Ash - Breathing ash is bad for you.  All research shows that
breathing ash is bad for you.  Your lungs don't work if you put ash in them,
and if the carbon from the ash makes its way into the rest of your body, the
rest of your body won't work either.

Nature doesn't care what you believe about it.

Cheers, all.
Dave Klingler

Did Duncan disappear to Mexico ?
Do you know where he is?

Some up set people are still looking for him :)

Paul Lamar



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