Good point. This is a perfect example of why I look forward to other folk's input on all this.Worth remembering though that diesel efficiency isn't only from increased CR and minimised pumping losses but is in no small part from the reduced (overall) combustion temperatures due to the considerable excess air which reduces heat loss to coolant.
I do know that with the ever-tightening emissions limits that the increased emissions technology/cost of same on new diesel trucks is becoming breathtakingly expensive:
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(https://www.drivingline.com/articles/how-diesel-emission-systems-work/)
Of course too high combustion temps = excessive NOx production. By the same token, too cool combustion
temps creates a soot issue. Allowing the particulates (soot) to escape has obvious negative consequences, not the least of
which is the fallout of this dark soot onto our snowcaps, which some have claimed could conceivably change the Earth's Albedo? And as a
veteran of the burn pits over in the sandbox I've become a connoisseur of good quality air. And as a dad/grandad I owe it to the ones
who will live well into the future to do my part to keep my vehicles running clean & smoke-free.
But on a brighter note, I recently pulled this directly off of the EPA website:
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(credit: EPA website)
Pondering all this, I think that as long as I'm the same or cleaner than when the chore truck was first built then
I can continue to enjoy the hobby. Our aging rides can be real head-scratchers when parts of the clean air componentry reach the end of
their designed service life and give us counterintuitive symptoms, but I for one will continue to make it work instead of using the 20-year-old
emissions testing exemption as an excuse to let it slide and become a gross polluter. If I know better...then I should do better.
99% less emissions is both amazing and well worth doing.
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