"Clean" Diesel - opinions?
 

Hi,

I'm just wondering--what are some of the things people are doing (in the real world) to keep their diesel-powered rigs running somewhat "clean".

I recently wrote a 4 part article about this:
Hilton's 4WDTraveller.com: Part I: Clean Diesel for your 4x4

And I'm wondering what others are doing as well. In my case, I'm running B5 or B10 bio-diesel and a diesel fuel catalyst (RedLine) to try to reduce emissions and get more miles from every tank, which so far seems to be helping.

Plus, I keep the Landcrusher stocked with fresh oil and clean filters, somewhat..obsessively.

Clean Diesel
 

A turbo diesel with clean injecors, an injection pump that's set on the slow side and a particle filter should be less poluting then a compairable petrol vehicle. Depending on the traffic, it might even be cleaner then a comperable hybrid vehicle (e.g. if your driving long distances at the same speed, a modern, clean direct injected turbo diesel will be 'cleaner' then a toyota prius).

It comes down to providing more air for the same amount of fuel.

The next thing you could do is add lpg injection. This results in higher efficiency, meaning more of the fuel is burned so less particels remain.

Bio Diesel is not free from debate. Not so much from an environmental point of view, but because of the socio-economic impact in the third world... .

Better still is driving it less miles, or (and?) getting something more economical. Land Cruisers aren't exactly frugile, isn't it.

What I'm trying to do right now is to organize my daily life in a way that I'm not depending on fosil fuels for my daily transport, so compensating for the fosil fuels I use doing the things that make me happy (traveling).

Hi,

Not much really. If the engine meets the European emission standards, it is already 10 times cleaner then 90% of cars on the roads in the countries we travel. If your conscience is killing you, forget cars and go on a camel trek. But then camels and other large beasts are notorious for dispensing large quantities of methane, which contributes to global warming. Oh well, you can't win, can you?

I'm not actually worried about it, but I just like a challenge and...I'm really cheap. So I'm always trying to find ways to squeeze more out of every tank. My wife thinks I'm nuts, I call it my "1 tank" challenge every time we hit the highways...

The biodiesel I run doesn't come from food stocks, so I think it's a lot better than stuff that does, but...there's no silver bullet I know.

And I forgot to mention: my Landcruiser is my weekend, pack in the family and dog, and hit the trails rig. My daily driver is a gas-sipping Mazda 323...which, in somes ways, is just as much fun to drive.

Driving style of high torque rise diesels is the one major thing that you can do to improve fuel economy.

Use progressive gear shifting - use only enough rpm to enable the engine to cope with the next gear up, and increase the rpm on each change up.

Know where maximum torque comes in on your engine rpm, know where maximum horsepower comes in, drive between this range as much as possible once the vehicle is at cruising speeds. All engines will also have a lowest fuel consumption rpm, usually close to maximum torque, but not always, drive with your rpm around the lowest fuel consupmtion rpm as much as possible.

Skip shift wherever possible - ie miss a gear or two if you are accelerating down a hill. Start in 2nd gear whenever possible - level ground or slightly downhill.

Use brakes instead of the gearbox to slow down - brakes are cheaper than clutches anyway. Skip downshift as well.

Avoid braking as much as possible - read the road as far ahead as you can see. Green traffic lights 400 metres away will only turn red, back off and coast up to the red light. Red lights turn green so increase speed to catch the green.

If you can fit an exhaust brake, fit it and use that instead of the service brake.

Replace thermatic fans with electric fans.

Aerodynamics - under front bumper air dams will improve fuel efficiency more than anything else you can add to a vehicle. The underside of vehicles are the least aerodynamic of the design.

Get rid of bullbars, roof racks, rear wheel carriers and any other non standard add on that roots up aerodynamics (as if).

If you must have roof racks use roof pods that are marginally better aerodynamically than a full length rack.

Fit a tropical roof and get rid of the AC - as if.

Get rid of PAS and build some muscles.

Dont buy automatics.

Keep tyres just slightly over inflated (1 or 2 psi) on highway driving. Rotate the tyres front to rear, side to side every 15,000kms.

Even keeping the vehicle polished will help a smidgen, same as getting rid of mud from the underside.

I just keep on top of servicing and keep weight down as much as possible - makes a massive difference. My 90's an ex-mod soft top and aside from a set of rubber mats, a roof tent and a fridge, I won't bolt anything else to it. On the last trip I was with some heavily kitted out cruisers, and I reckon I was using way over 40l less fuel between stops. Mind you, that was nothing to dance about when fuel was 4p a litre :( - makes you wonder why we bother in the UK when the rest of the worlld is busy spraying the stuff about like piss.

don't know why we're worrying with these guys about
YouTube - Truck Trial ChÅ™Ã*č, Vránov
I presume they are running over rich for a bit more power