Re: diesel verses gasoline

Posted by Tim B on February 12, 2003 at 19:14:53 from (216.195.30.103):

In Reply to: diesel verses gasoline posted by MIKE on February 12, 2003 at 12:39:03:

Mike,

In general, diesel engines are build to have higher torque than comparable HP gas engines. As I understand, this is possible, in part because pound-for-pound, diesel has much more available energy compared to gas, and diesel combustion requires (and delivers) much higher compression than gas engines - this is more conducive to slower turning, higher torque engines.

All HP is not the same. For pulling loads up hills, more torque is better.

HP = torque X speed. There was an excellent, and lenghty discussion regarding horsepower, and torgue vs. speed on this discussion board a few months back. It certainly helped my understanding, I suggest you do a search for that thread. But I'll offer up my example:

Ltts say I and my 11-year old son had to spin a tight nut off a bolt. I have more horsepower than he does, so I could turn it with a shorter wrench. I could get turn it faster than he can because my hand swings in a smaller radius using a shorter wrench compared to his longer wrench. However, if there is too much friction on that nut, I may not be able to spin it at all, or if I can, I'll have to work very hard and I may not get my RPMs higher than my little boy is making with his big wrench. Plus, his little arms and big breaker bar will be hardly feeling the strain, whereas I'll be huffing and puffing, and my little wrench will be on the verge of bending.

Gas engines reach their max HP at higher RPMs than diesel, so to get the same pulling power up a hill, you have to downshift the gas vehicle and wind out the engine. The diesel, by comparision, is made to keep on turning, even at low RPMs (I thing my 7.3L Powerstroke has max HP somewhere in the 1300- 1500 RPM range, maybe lower).

Diesels (as configured in a truck anyway) are for pulling.

Follow Ups:

• Re: Re: diesel verses gasoline Jimbob 11:03:47 02/13/03 (0)

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