Electronics with Diesel engines!.

G/Day Ross, Yes I reckon your right, but whats still very noticeable out there on the road is the difference between the clean running point of a good oldie and the newies, One blows smoke the other doesn't...lol,, a good thing I guess!

Cheers Axle.

That post is so true, however I grew up with grey motors, red motors, slant motors, HP179's, 4 bolt 350's.
None of them can shine a light on these new motors, 300,000k's is now the norm before a rebuild.
In the 'good old days' 160,000 k's was the norm.
Having said that, give me a 265 hemi with triple webers or a 149 grey with a 1/4" of the head and triple SU's,any day.lol
The heart over rides the brain every time.

My Territory diesel can smoke quite a bit, but usually only when I give it a bootfull. I call it a factory fitted Tailgater Mitigation System.

As for the longevity, yes the elecdickery in modern cars may well be a limiting factor but you have to admit these modern diesels are pretty good. 440nm out of only 2.7 litres in a 2 tonne car returning 9.0 litres/100 in the city, colour me happy.

All diesels will blow smoke, it's the amount and for how long for that differs....... diesel has a very poor burn rate compared with other fuels, the only way to get it to burn better is change the design of diesel or add a burning aid like LPG.

You will find a CRD will blow smoke when under load for a few seconds at the most compared with the old dinosaur diesels that would keep on blowing smoke.

Euro 5 blow less smoke and the soon to be introduced Euro 6 will blow less again and with a clean exhaust pipe.

It is not just the advances in electronic engine management systems that has improved the amount of black smoke exhausted by a diesel engine but also improvements in exhaust systems. I believe that all vehicles built to Euro 5 or newer standards are fitted with both a catalytic converter and a diesel particulate filter (my 2008 auto D40 Navara is a case in point). The design of DPFs is also improving so we should get to a situation in the not too distant future where engineering improvements will have diesels running cleaner than petrol engines. Of course if the vehicle is not maintained properly then all this will be for nought.

Same here with my 1983 HJ47 Troopy!

Axle,
just thought I would show a photo of a near new non electronic engine starting.

LOL RA!!, Bit like my landrover!.


Cheers.

I'd say your right mate in regard to common rail stuff, ,But as time goes on maybe they might get filtration sorted so no contamination can get to these hi pressure units at all , although they appear to be fast wearing units anyhow.

cheers.

Bantam - The Mack END673 engine that formed the basis of the powerplant for the Mack R-600 was first released, in Naturally Aspirated form, in 1957.
Around 1960, the END673 was offered with turbocharging and became the ENDT673 - the famous 237HP engine that powered the original R-600 Mack.
The R-600 was first produced in Australia in 1966, but the truck was available in the U.S. for a couple of years prior to this date. So the engine has been around, for over 50 yrs, and the R-600 has been around for a little under 50 yrs.

In the late 1970's, new emission control laws saw Mack introduce a "puff limiter" to the Bosch APE inline fuel pumps on the ENDT673. The puff limiters job was reduce overfuelling and the resultant massive cloud of black smoke, as typically shown in Rockapes photo above.

The puff limiter works by withholding full rack travel on the pump at low engine RPM when the driver floors the go pedal. The puff limiter operates via a diaphragm that is connected to the manifold and which measures turbo boost pressure.

As the turbo spools up, the intake manifold pressure increases, and the puff limiter matches the rack movement to the boost pressure to match the fuel being injected to the amount of intake air available. This stops overfuelling and the resultant huge "puff" of black smoke.

However, many truck owners often disconnect the puff limiter to try and gain extra power - and it's not unknown for truck owners to "screw up the pump" (i.e., increase the amount of fuel injected on each pump stroke). As a result, we get smokey, annoying trucks.

Overfuelling is a particularly nasty condition with diesels. No matter what age your diesel, it should never show any visible black smoke in the exhaust at full throttle - and only a tiny amount upon hard acceleration.

Overfuelling results in the oil film being washed off cylinder walls, with resultant possible piston scuffing and eventual seizure - it floods the combustion chamber with soot and excess fuel that is not burnt, and which fuel and soot goes past the rings and dilutes the oil.
In addition, overfuelling merely wastes fuel and increases fuel consumption.

The earlier Jap diesels with mechanical injection and aneroid control of the rack were terrors for overfuelling when driven hard at high speeds. This is easily discerned by the crankcase oil turning filthy black with soot buildup - often long before the specified oil change is due.