While thumbing through a few past issues of Diesel Power, I came across some very iconic images that I think make America, well… America…

To be sure, the Ford vs. Dodge vs. Chevy battle will always be part of what makes this country so great, as will John Deere, an icon that also has its very own color (not green, but John Deere Green), and most importantly, the M1 Abrams tank—a military work of art recognized both by those in uniform and civilians alike.

Of course, I didn’t want to leave out any other symbols that also represent what America is all about: CAT, Cummins, International. The list could go on and on, but everything listed here has to do with (in one form or another) the utilization of diesel power.

Have a great 4th of July weekend.

    What Common-Rail did for fuel control MultiAir does for air control. This is not what's coming it's already here in the 2009 Alfa MiTo. Looks like Chrysler has a guardian angel.

    Fiat introduced modern computer controlled Common Rail technology back in 1997. Due to financial problems they sold the technology to Bosch. Back in March at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland they debuted a technology just as important (perhaps more important). Its called Multiair

This technology might silence the gas versus diesel debate because having this much control over the intake valves does some neat things. For one depending on control strategies one could choose to run many different types of fuels and compression or spark ignition.  The debate will now be hydrogen versus electricity. This technology is big for Internal combustion engines.

A 60% reduction in NOx thanks to internal exhaust gas recirculation (IEGR). Basically some exhaust is left in the cylinder which displaces oxygen which gives the nitrogen in the air nothing to bond to.

FIAT POWERTRAIN TECHNOLOGIES S.p.A. Fiat Group Automobiles SpA


www.fptpowertrain.com

MULTIAIR: THE ULTIMATE AIR MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Multiair is the new electro-hydraulic system of engine
valves for dynamic and direct control of air and combustion,
cylinder by cylinder and stroke by stroke
Thanks to a direct control of the air through the intake
engine valves without using the throttle, Multiair helps reducing
fuel consumption; pollutant emissions are likewise reduced
through combustion control
Multiair is a versatile technology, easily applicable to all
gasoline engines and with future potential developments also for
Diesel engines
BENEFITS
FUEL CONSUMPTION AND EMISSIONS REDUCTION
INCREASE OF BOTH MAX POWER AND TORQUE
ENHANCED PERFORMANCE AND FUN TO DRIVE


The Fiat Multiair Technology: some history
In the last decade, the development of the Common Rail technology for Diesel
engines marked a breakthrough in the passenger car market. To be
competitive also in the field of gasoline engines, Fiat Group decided to follow
the same approach and focus on breakthrough technologies. The aim was to
provide customers with substantial benefits in terms of fuel economy and funto-
drive while maintaining the engine intrinsic comfort characteristics, based
on a smooth combustion process and on light structures and components.
The key parameter to control Diesel engine combustion and therefore
performance, emissions and fuel consumption is the quantity and
characteristics of the fuel injected into cylinders. That is the reason why the
Common Rail electronic Diesel fuel injection system was such a fundamental
breakthrough in Direct Injection Diesel engine technology.
The key parameter to control gasoline engine combustion, and therefore
performance, emissions and fuel consumption, is the quantity and
characteristics of the fresh air charge in the cylinders. In conventional gasoline
engines the air mass trapped in the cylinders is controlled by keeping the
intake valves opening constant and adjusting upstream pressure through a
throttle valve. One of the drawbacks of this simple conventional mechanical
control is that the engine wastes about 10% of the input energy in pumping the
air charge from a lower intake pressure to the atmospheric exhaust pressure.
A fundamental breakthrough in air mass control, and therefore in gasoline
engine technology, is based on direct air charge metering at the cylinder inlet
ports by means of an advanced electronic actuation and control of the intake
valves, while maintaining a constant natural upstream pressure.
Research on this key technology started in the 80’s, when engine electronic
control technologies reached the stage of mature technologies.


At the beginning world-wide research efforts were focused on the
electromagnetic actuation concept, following which valve opening and closing
is obtained by alternatively energizing upper and lower magnets with an
armature connected to the valve. This actuating principle had the intrinsic
appeal of maximum flexibility and dynamic response in valve control, but
despite a decade of significant development efforts the main drawbacks of the
concept - its being intrinsically not fail-safe and its high energy absorption -
could not be fully overcome.
At this point most automotive companies fell back on the development of the
simpler, robust and well-known electromechanical concepts, based on the
valve lift variation through dedicated mechanisms, usually combined with cam
phasers to allow control of both valve lift and phase. The main limitation of
these systems is low flexibility in valve opening schedules and a much lower
dynamic response; for example all the cylinders of an engine bank are
actuated simultaneously thereby excluding any cylinder selective actions.
Many similar electromechanical valve control systems were then introduced
over the past decade.

In the mid 90’s Fiat Group research efforts switched to electro-hydraulic
actuation, leveraging on the know-how gained during the Common Rail
development. The goal was to reach the desired flexibility of valve opening
schedule air mass control on a cylinder-by-cylinder and stroke-by-stroke basis.
The electro-hydraulic variable valve actuation technology developed by Fiat
was selected for its relative simplicity, low power requirements, intrinsic fail
safe nature and low cost potential.


The Fiat Multiair Technology: how it works
The operating principle of the system, applied to intake valves, is the following:
a piston, moved by a mechanical intake cam lobe, is connected to the intake
valve through a hydraulic chamber, which is controlled by a normally open
on/off Solenoid Valve.
When the Solenoid Valve is closed, the oil in the hydraulic chamber behaves
like a solid body and transmits to the intake valves the lift schedule imposed
by the mechanical intake cam. When the solenoid valve is open, the hydraulic
chamber and the intake valves are de-coupled; the intake valves do not follow
the intake cam anymore and close under the valve spring action. The final part
of the valve closing stroke is controlled by a dedicated hydraulic brake, to
ensure a soft and regular landing phase in any engine operating conditions.
Through Solenoid Valve opening and closing time control, a wide range of
optimum intake valve opening schedules can be easily obtained.
For maximum power, the Solenoid Valve is always closed and full valve
opening is achieved following completely the mechanical cam, which was
specifically designed to maximize power at high engine speed (long opening
time).
For low-rpm Torque, the Solenoid Valve is opened near the end of the cam
profile, leading to early intake valve closing. This eliminates unwanted
backflow into the manifold and maximizes the air mass trapped in the
cylinders.
In engine part load, the Solenoid Valve is opened earlier causing partial valve
openings to control the trapped air mass as a function of the required torque.
Alternatively the intake valves can be partially opened by closing the Solenoid
Valve once the mechanical cam action has already started. In this case the air
stream into the cylinder is faster and results in higher in-cylinder turbulence.

The last two actuation modes can be combined in the same intake stroke,
generating a so-called “Multilift” mode, that enhances turbulence and
combustion rate at very low loads.
The Multiair Technology Benefits
The Multiair Technology potential benefits for gasoline engines exploited so
far can be summarized as follows:
• Maximum Power is increased by up to 10% thanks to the adoption of a
power-oriented mechanical cam profile
• Low-rpm Torque is improved by up to 15% through early intake valve
closing strategies that maximize the air mass trapped in the cylinders.
• Elimination of pumping losses brings a 10% reduction of Fuel
Consumption and CO2 emissions, both in Naturally Aspirated and
Turbocharged engines with the same displacement
• Multiair Turbocharged and downsized engines can achieve up to 25%
Fuel Economy improvement over conventional Naturally Aspirated
engines with the same level of performance
• Optimum valve control strategies during engine warm-up and internal
Exhaust Gas Recirculation, realized by reopening the intake valves
during the exhaust stroke, result in emissions reduction ranging from 40%
for HC / CO to 60% for NOx

• Constant upstream air pressure, atmospheric for Naturally Aspirated and
higher for Turbocharged engines, together with the extremely fast air
mass control, cylinder-by-cylinder and stroke-by-stroke, result in a
superior dynamic engine response
Application of the Multiair Technology to FPT Engines
The first world-wide application of the Multiair technology will be the Fire
1400cc 16V Naturally Aspirated and Turbocharged engines.
The second application is a new Small Gasoline Engine (SGE - 900cc Twincylinder)
where cylinder head design has been specifically optimized for the
Multiair actuator integration. Here again, there will be both a Naturally
Aspirated and a Turbocharged version. A specific Turbocharged engine
version will be bi-fuel (gasoline- CNG).
Thanks to radical downsizing, the Turbocharged Small Gasoline Engine
achieves Diesel-like CO2 emission levels, which are further reduced in its
Natural Gas version with CO2 emissions lower than 80 g/km in many vehicle
applications.
Further Potential of the Multiair Technology
All breakthrough technologies open a new world of further potential benefits,
which are usually not fully exploited in the first generation, in order to minimize
industrial risk.
The Common Rail technology, a Fiat worldwide premiere in 1997, paved the
way to more than a decade of further technological evolutions such as
“Multijet” for multiple injections, Small Diesel Engines and the very recent
Modular Injection technology, soon to be launched on the market.


Similarly, the Multiair technology, a Fiat worldwide premiere in 2009, will pave
the way to a wave of further technological evolutions for gasoline engines:
• Integration of the Multiair Direct air mass control with Direct gasoline
Injection to further improve transient response and fuel economy.
• Introduction of more advanced multiple valve opening strategies to further
reduce emissions.
• Innovative engine-Turbocharger matching to control trapped air mass
through combination of optimum boost pressure and valve opening
strategies.

While electronic gasoline fuel injection developed in the 70’s and Common
Rail developed in the 90’s were fuel specific breakthrough technologies, the
Multiair Electronic Valve Control technology can be applied to all internal
combustion engines whatever fuel they burn.
Multiair, initially developed for Spark Ignition engines burning light fuel ranging
from gasoline to Natural Gas and hydrogen, has wide potential also for Diesel
engine emissions reduction.
Intrinsic NOx reduction of up to 60% can be obtained by internal Exhaust Gas
Recirculation (iEGR) realized with intake valves reopening during the exhaust
stroke, while optimal valve control strategies during cold start and warm-up
bring up to 40% HC and CO reduction of emissions. Further substantial
reduction comes from the more efficient management and regeneration of the
Diesel Particulate Filter and NOx Storage Catalyst, thanks to the highly
dynamic air mass flow control during transient engine operation.
Diesel engine performance improvement is similar to that of the gasoline
engine and is based on the same physical principles. Instead, fuel
consumption benefits are limited to few percentage points because of the low
pumping losses of Diesel engines, one of the reasons of their superior fuel
economy.

In the future, powertrain technical evolution might benefit from a progressive
unification of gasoline and Diesel engines architectures.
A Multiair engine cylinder head can be therefore conceived and developed,
where both combustion systems can be fully optimized without compromises.
Moreover the Multiair electro-hydraulic actuator is physically the same, with
minor machining differences, while internal subcomponents are all carry over
from the Fire and SGE applications.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a secret engine being built up slowly…

I may be dreaming, but when conversing with some of my Midwest brethren the idea of putting together a street/sled pulling truck came up.

This may sound cliché, but I’d like to slowly begin collecting parts, a truck, a 12-valve Cummins, etc.. and one day start building something. Nothing making gobs of power, but something that could mix it up at the local sled pulls, or destroy a Mustang owner’s feelings on the street.

With so many wild ideas flowing through the Diesel Power office on a day-to-day basis about other people’s back-of-the-shop projects, I’d like to one day get my own rolling. I’d really like to start with something old-school and simple, and progress from there.

How about you? Anything special getting built in your shop?

This past weekend’s event, the 4x4 Jamboree in Springfield, Illinois, yielded a few subtle surprises…

A dyno, brought down from South Dakota by Dyno Tune Mobile Chassis Dyno Service was on hand—a pleasant surprise. Dyno’s are especially handy at events where diesels are present, being that 90 percent of the time they’re making more horsepower than they did from the factory—and let’s face it, diesel gurus like to see them make big power.

The gray Dodge six-speed (pictured) made 495 hp on Dyno Tune’s dynojet with just an air intake, stacks, and Bully Dog’s Crazy Larry tune. Not bad considering it was 95 degrees, humid, and no breeze whatsoever.

The other surprise came while I was on the sled pull track snapping photos and River City Diesel pulled its 6.4L Super Duty up to the line. I had been expecting them to show up with a different truck, not its brand new F-350. The truck ended up taking 5th place in NADM’s Work Stock class.

    Mahindra Update

Screw drive vehicles are unstopable watch this video.   

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afJ18eJeNgU

Watch this video. 

    Arkansas Bio-Fuels will loan free of charge their oil seed press. It is powered by a diesel engine and processes 2 tons of seed a day. That equals 60-250 gallons of oil and about 1200 pounds of feed meal.

    Arkansas Bio-Fuels is a small company on the cutting edge of today's energy and transportation solutions. From his small 2 acre facility Harvey works on vegetable oil production, propane conversions, heating products, bio-motor oil, farming, biogas and many other things.

I bid farewell to low-traffic, non-honking, friendly folks, and diesel country today and make my way back to Los Angeles…

It was a fun trip, where vacation time gave me and my quad some much needed one-on-one time in the hills and sand-flats of Missouri.

It was also a great way to meet some influential people in the diesel aftermarket, some of diesel motorsports’ top competitors, and other diesel enthusiasts and fans.

Here’s an idea of some of the diesel fun I had:

-A 24-valve build at Scheid Diesel’s Effingham, Illinois, location.

-The 2009 Truck And Tractor Nationals in Laporte, Indiana.

-A visit to River City Diesel’s shop in East Peoria, Illinois.

-Attending a local sled pull in Carrollton, Illinois.

-Attending an ITPA sled pull in Newton, Illinois.

Sometimes there’s just no easy way to hop out of your truck…

It’s hard to put all 2,700 of this Komatsu’s horsepower to work at this kind of an angle, or haul 300-plus tons.

The good news is the operator appears to have been rescued before the truck did or didn't decide to return its front Bridgestone back to earth.

 Bio-truck makes it coast to coast on wood, switchgrass, and any other type of plant material. I want to try this on a diesel. 

    Mr. Wayne Keith from Springville, Alabama designed and built a down draft gasifier which powers his V8 Dodge Dakota. His truck runs on syngas (which is produced from plant material) completely although we could use it as a supplement. Imagine a campfire. What you are witnessing is not the wood burning but the the gas coming from the wood combusting. Plants contain hydrogen and that is what burns. The gasifier (located in the bed) heats up the bio material to 2,000-3,000 degrees. Since it is enclosed oxygen can't get to it therefore it is only partly combusted so instead of ending up C02 and water vapor it is turned into hydrogen and carbon monoxide or syngas.

We could use a controller like the one they use to burn CNG in diesels. Keith says he can drive 1 mile on one pound of wood. But you wouldn't have to use wood. You could use lawn clippings or peanut shells or whatever. 

The energy content of syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) is 200 btu/per cubic foot compared to 1,000 btu/cubic foot for natural gas. 

The sled pull portion of the Third annual O’Reilly Auto Parts 4x4 Jamboree kicks off this Saturday in the early afternoon…

Included is a flyer for the event. The sled pull will be put on by NADM. The Super Street class should attract many 3.0 trucks in the Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky area, a 2.8 class should be exciting to watch, and the 2.6 class will more than likely be stacked with close competition. Last, but certainly not least, a Work Stock class will run, one that always has good turnout potential.

I’ll be scouring the State Fair grounds the entire weekend—maybe I’ll run into you, and your truck…

    I submitted a myth to Mythbusters. I asked them to look at the gasoline myth we find ourselves living in today.   

    I like the show Mythbusters. It is the best thing on TV. I noticed they are running a VW diesel commercial. I wonder if they will tackle the gas versus diesel myth? I posted it on their Ideas and Everything Else section.

Also I think they did a show about running your can on water?  That turned into can you run your car on hydrogen? The thing we need to realize is our diesel engines are already running on hydrogen or hydrocarbons we are just attempting to richen the hydrogen percentage.

This is how to do it. You don't need to power the hydrogen generator from your alternator. Why not just run the Cyclone waste heat engine? Here is a letter I got from someone at their company. With data. I don't see this engine on their website anymore.

"Thank you for your interest in the Cyclone Engine Technology. I have
attached the information on our Cyclone WHE and as you can see at 60MPH a
diesel will provide enough waste heat to produce over 6KW, which you could
use to power all of the accessories and cab comforts and charge batteries
which would save you HP by using the WHE to power these devises instead of
the main engine.  We can also  put a small combustion chamber on our WHE and
burn diesel and meet emissions when the main engine is turned off.  So you
save two ways 1. With using less fuel by driving all of your accessories
from the waste heat and 2. Meeting emissions and idle reduction laws when
the main engine is down.

We are a small R&D company and are doing Beta site testing of the WHE engine
however, all of these sites are paying us to do so.  At this time we do not
have the funding to do a test vehicle.  It would be a good test and we
appreciate your understanding of the technology for this application

If you have any thoughts on how we could get this done it would be
appreciated."

OK I don't know how much hydrogen 6 kw of electricity can produce but I do know it is definitely more than 0.

I have the perfect test bed for this trial: Project 300. It has a 6.9L International indirect injection engine. It is not efficient since it has two combustion chambers which allows more surface area for excess heat to sink into. Well in this case we want heat so its perfect. We could block off the radiator to conserve the heat or energy.

Does anyone have a good plan for making a low pressure boiler?  

Today I stopped in at River City Diesel in East Peoria, Illinois…

… And they’re pretty big on 6.4L and 6.0L Power Stroke power adders.

While browsing around the shop I was able to snap a good comparison photo of a 6.0 and 6.4 piston. Notice the massive wrist pin on the 6.4L piston when compared to the 6.0L’s. Just one of many hard parts in the new Power Stroke that is superior to its predecessor.

In fact, the day was highlighted with a ride in its ’08 regular cab F-350 (pictured), which ran a 12.00-second quarter-mile on nitrous this past week at Cordova Dragway Park in Cordova, Illinois. Oh, and the truck’s good for 12.65-second runs on fuel only. And, did I mention they create all their own tunes (in-house), which I should add are good for getting a stock 6.4L powered truck deep into the 500 rear wheel horsepower range.

Look for some interesting things coming out of this shop in the future. Like modified or twin injection pumps, BIG non-VGT turbo setups, and more…

We’ll be visiting this facility again.

Right now I don't have a garage of my own but I still like to think about what I would include in my future dream shop.  

I could talk about adding a lift, tons of specialty tools, and compressed air but there are a few little things that would make any garage better. All you have to do is look at professional shops. Here are two professional things I would like to add to my future garage.

1. A shop rag service. I hate having piles of rags around. All I want is a  fireproof container to temporary store the rags until the rag company comes around. When I worked in the garage of a self serve gas station I always liked having access to fresh rags. I doubt the service would cost more than $100 a year.

2. A Sure Shot Spray Gun ($30-50) and a 55 gallon drum of brake cleaner($380). At first this might seem excessive but you go through it fast. You can buy it by the gallon too for about $14. Think of all the times you needed to go to the parts store just to buy the little aerosol cans that last about 5 good squirts.  You pressurize the can yourself with compressed air and get cleaning.

Finally, I’ve got time to make it over to another sled pull...

This one will be on the Illinois Tractor Pulling Association's circuit, which lands in Newton, Illinois, this Thursday night.

The 3.0 class trucks, which are really popular in Illinois, and Missouri, will pull in their normal 8,000 pound Pro Stock Diesel truck class, but a 20,000 pound Pro Stock Semi class will also run.

While I’ve never seen the ITPA semi class, I have seen plenty 3.0 trucks run, and they’re pretty impressive to watch—there will probably be a dozen Pro Stock trucks running. It should be a good time.

Well, I managed to track down the winner of Jason Thompson’s Diesel Power sticker contest held a few months ago…

It now rests in the rear window of our 24-valve Dodge project truck. And, rumor has it that it bolted on nearly 200 horsepower—oh wait, that was our trip over to Scheid Diesel last week.

And after taking it for a test drive over the weekend, I think it needs a “Don’t even try it in your F-150” sticker as well. I had a run-in with an F-150 completely infatuated with racing the truck, and after he’d baited me all through town, I let him have it—or at least some of it while merging onto the interstate.

Never giving the truck more than ¾ throttle, and taking my sweet time navigating the NV4500’s gearbox, the big black Dodge wiped the smile off his face real quick in getting up to my preferred 75 mph highway cruising speed.

Next up, a 10,000-pound tow test… I wonder if we can get some competition around town for that… and some diesel competition this time.

    Let's talk about diesel smoke.    

    I want diesels to last forever. Growing up I saw lots of diesel equipment. I also saw lots of glorious diesel smoke. Therefore I equated the smoke with all the other great things about diesel. Saying that it is important to look at other perspectives. Some see diesel smoke  as contributing to deaths. 3,000 per year in the U.S.

Obviously there are powerful interests that want clean air. There are also powerful interests that say we got a job to do.

What should we do? 

Options:

Nothing- Hope everything just works out.

Something-?  I honestly don't know, but I would like my kids to be able to drive diesel trucks. 

 Finders keepers I guess…

I know our readers are knowledgeable folks, but I have to say it anyway:

-Don’t Buy This Guy’s Equipment On Ebay Or Craigslist-

    This graph made by the Department of Energy is the only argument a compression ignition enthusiast needs...check and mate. 

    The other night I saw a Volkswagen commercial where the diesel Jetta was talking smack to the Toyota Prius. I think this debate will prove to be one of the biggest and the most important questions we face in this second decade of the 21st century. Let's face it energy is king. We used to have stone, bronze and steel eras now we have wood, coal, oil, nuclear, and ? generations.  Our Federal  highway transportation system reflects how we live it created the Suburbs (for better or for worse) and helped eliminate small town main street. Instead of the Eisenhower highway system I would rather have four wheel drives and rough roads.

In LA people spend some of their time in parking lots the rest is spent stuck on the freeways. Since moving here I've considered taking up smoking cigarettes at least that way I will be able to breathe through a filter. I grew up breathing clean air in Minnesota know I can't stand the stuff.

When we consider rules and laws for vehicles I think we need to look at where the vehicles will be driven. City versus everywhere else. In the city what we have now makes no sense. What's worse most of the people who legislate are from the city (I assume). The Department of Transportation is trying to fit 500 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag. In the city there should be public transportation and electric small cars (batteries ok here if the city is ready to deal with the piles of batteries).  Tractor trailers should unload at depots outside the city and have smaller trucks do the deliveries (this might not work in all situations like hauling massive things but that is usually done at night anyway). I love public transportation for other people just not for me.  It will get the people who don't want to drive in the first place off the road. Plus manufactures will not have to cater to people who are mechanically and automotively illiterate. Maybe future cars won't ding, ding, ding you know make all those stupid noises created to irritate and four wheel drives will stay four wheel drives, basically no compromises.  Electric cars work good if you only have to go less than 100 miles (that's city driving).

Everywhere else people need energy density. If they need energy density they need diesel. Someday we will come up with a way to store electricity compactly but until then its Diesel Power.

I think a hydraulic hybrid,  compressed air hybrid, compressed spring hybrid, kinetic energy hybrid, and/or a CNG/Hydrogen/Propane hybrid are much better ideas than a battery hybrid considering the state of the battery today. I like capacitors. I like electricity just not giant heavy, poisonous batteries.  Solar power  on each car is ok too since it is decentralized.  I would pu a windmill on the car too so it has something to do when its sitting in the parking lot. The electricity could go to power a hydrogen generator instead. Consider we need to mine the materials for batteries that takes energy and it makes messes.

If we want to use electricity we should generate it in the car with a diesel or steam generator. Otherwise if we have a centralized electrical system think of all the costs environmentally and economically. People who do not think ahead will face the consequences sooner of later. Imagine we have all these electric cars we will need to string high power electrical lines. That costs money and do you think environmentalists are going to to like stringing high volt lines through national parks? Since the power from solar, wind and geo is created where people don't live it will be a problem. Unless they can figure out how Tesla transmitted power through the air but are we as smart as Tesla?

Also what the Toyota Prius is in my eyes is a overgrown disposable cell phone. Where do we send our outdated electronic products today? Third world countries where small hands feverishly separate the plastic coating on wires to get at the precious metals. I saw this in Bangladesh. The kids get poisoned.  I would like to see how long it takes to separate a Toyota Prius at a junk yard by hand this is wher they will end up.I have seen giant machines that pulverize the cars into little pieces and then sort the chunks but their has to be a better way. Don't build disposable junk. The car companies say they'll buy back the batteries but what about the rest of the car? Also what happens if these cars make it to the third world or remote rural areas? 

Diesels last longer and are easier to recycle if they ever die.Let's not forget the dangers of EMF. Electromagnetic frequency. Does it cause cancer? What happens if your driving a truck 9 hours a day?  

When considering tomorrows vehicles there are a few fallacies (brain farts) many people make.

Finite Ideas Fallacy: Some people don't realize the future is infinite. We are not a predetermined path anythings possible.  

They would have done it already fallacy: This is thinking's worst enemy. Critics say we can't do that or that's impossible because manufactures aren't doing it today. Imagine if everyone thought this way nothing would get done. Some bozo once said science reached its limit at the end of the 20th century.

This is one of my favorite parts about being in the Midwest: sled pulls every night of the week during the summer…

Tonight I’ll be venturing southwest of here to Carrollton, Illinois for a local sled pull. A few guys I know in the area will be hooking to the sled, mostly for grits and shins, but also because they like to compete (in what I think is the best diesel motorsport out there) any chance they get.

I’m sure it will be mostly street trucks, but that always means that the competitor turnout is good: first timers hook and break or hook and become hooked for life, and those with experience show up early, survey the track, and decide what to change before their class is told to line up.

It was a hot one today-probably 95 degrees and sky-high humidity. No doubt, tonight will be a good night to see some engine failures with high rpm runs and thick air to deal with. We’ll see…

You’re looking at the ‘Factory Stock’ class winner at a local mud drag…

It’s a 12-valve that tore into a dozen gas-powered trucks in its class and took home the win. It was also the only diesel competing at the event—but at least it cleaned house.

Every time it lined up you could see a cloud of black, then it would take off, the smoke would clean up, and mud would fly. I hope that diesels keep invading gasser turf in the future, especially in the faster classes.

The guys at Scheid were back at it again today putting the final touches on our 24-valve buildup…

With a FASS system helping us maintain fuel pressure to a set of its Lightning (1) injectors, we made 309 hp and 885 lb-ft (with the stock VP-44). And after today’s addition of a Hot Rod injection pump and Lightning turbo, we laid down more than 400 hp and over 1,100 lb-ft.

After we installed the Hot Rod injection pump, the truck saw a gain of 75 hp and 255 lb-ft, with our EGTs creeping over the 1,500-degree mark. But, after the addition of Scheids’ Lightning turbo, EGTs cooled down 150-degrees—and 24 more horses were unleashed.

We’ll bring you a step-after-step install article in the October issue on our ’02 Dodge build. And, since we dyno’d the truck in between each modification, we’ll give you an in-depth look at building a streetable, economical, and fun 24-valve—and how our test mule reacted to each individual power adder.

Today we re-opened our 24-valve file and started getting a little more serious with our ’02 Dodge 3500…

And, thanks to the folks at Scheid Diesel, we added a FASS system and a set of its Lightning (1) injectors—which culminated in more than a 60 hp, 170 lb-ft gain.

We’ll be back at it Tuesday with the addition of a Hot Rod VP-44 injection pump and a turbo.

Then we plan to test out the new setup via: dyno, tow test with a 10,000-pound trailer, fuel economy drive, and play around on some back country roads. It should be fun.

    The German built Elsbett diesel engine is designed to run on vegetable oil the way Rudolf Diesel intended.    

 The Elsbett company goes back to the 1930's. Their diesel engine devolped in the 1980's  (way before todays Green movement) was designed to run on vegetable oil. This engine is oil cooled.  Here is some more info lifted from their  site.

 I learned my IDI losses 30% of its total fuel energy to the coolant system. This makes it a perfect candidate for waste heat energy recovery. The Elsbett engine only losses about half that. 

100 Year Light Bulb what else can I say.

Livermore 100 Year Light Bulb http://www.centennialbulb.org/

This bulb is located in a Fire Station in California.