Useful Tips for Diesel Engine Owners

If you are considering switching to a diesel but do not know how to maintain it yourself, we can say right away that keeping a diesel in good condition is no more difficult than maintaining a gasoline engine...
Diesel vehicles are famous for their durability, but this does not mean that they do not require care.
Prices of used diesel vehicles in Western countries are falling. This is because for a long time sales of new diesel vehicles were very high, so the used vehicle market now contains a large number of them. New diesel vehicles are much more expensive than comparable gasoline models. In addition, the time when the diesel lineup consisted of only one model has passed. Today manufacturers are able to supply diesel engines that meet the most demanding requirements.
Countries where diesel fuel costs the same as gasoline or even more are unfortunate, if such countries exist. But even in this case you will come out ahead, since diesel vehicles generally have a longer service life, provided that you drive a high annual mileage. No savings are achieved only with low annual mileage. You save on spark plugs, although with spark plugs replaced every 60,000 km the savings are small. At the same time, you will lose on more frequent oil and filter changes.

What Makes Diesel Attractive?

Modern diesel vehicles are attractive for their ability to develop high pulling force at low engine speeds, which is especially good for drivers who do not like to shift gears too often. Most manufacturers offer turbocharged diesels so that the owner can experience for himself all the appeal of a high-class vehicle.
If you are considering switching to a diesel but do not know how to maintain it yourself, we can say at once that keeping a diesel in good condition is no more difficult than maintaining a gasoline engine, despite their differences. We offer you a brief guide to purchasing, operating and servicing a diesel.
The mechanisms of gasoline and diesel engines differ little. Both engines operate on the four-stroke combustion cycle, but combustion takes place in completely different ways.
In gasoline engines the air-fuel mixture is ignited by spark plugs, while diesel fuel is ignited by very high compression.
When a gasoline engine draws in air and gasoline on the intake stroke, a diesel draws in only air, which is compressed to such a degree that its temperature rises to 800 °C. The hot air ignites the diesel fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber of the cylinder shortly before the piston reaches TDC on the compression stroke. Since the compression ratio of diesel engines is twice that of gasoline engines, fuel injection must take place at very high pressure so that the fuel enters the combustion chamber and the fuel jet retains its shape. Due to the increased injection requirements, the high-pressure fuel pump of a diesel engine is a component manufactured to extremely high precision.
Older diesel models usually used in-line multi-plunger high-pressure fuel pumps. Most modern diesels now use more sophisticated distributor-type rotary fuel pumps, since they perform better at high engine speeds. Modern diesels use
electronic fuel metering control systems to achieve near-ideal combustion. Many diesels are even equipped with catalytic converters to clean the exhaust gases.
There are two types of diesel engines, and the difference between them lies in how fuel combustion takes place. Some use direct fuel injection. The name itself indicates that fuel is sprayed directly into the combustion chamber cavity. Although this injection method is very efficient, its disadvantages are strong noise and uneven operation. For this reason, direct injection has been retained only on diesels used in commercial trucks. However, on diesels of improved design these drawbacks have been largely eliminated, and most vehicle manufacturers offer highly efficient direct-injection diesels.
In other diesels, which do not use direct fuel injection, a small auxiliary chamber is created in front of the combustion chamber, into which the fuel is injected. This chamber is located on the side opposite the injector installation point and the direction of the fuel spray. This design feature allows higher engine speeds, but at the cost of some loss of power.

Why is a diesel noisy?

The familiar diesel knock is caused by fuel ignition and the subsequent sharp pressure rise in the combustion chamber. The characteristic diesel knock is most clearly heard after starting, while the engine warms up at idle.
A diesel has no ignition system, but it has a cylinder combustion chamber preheating system using glow plugs. In addition, the times of long cranking with the starter and the tedious waiting for the glow plug indicator light to go out are long gone.
Many manufacturers now produce quick-start diesels, which require no more than a couple of seconds to start in winter. Some vehicles even have a "start lever" that can directly control the high-pressure fuel pump to change injection timing, speed up warm-up and reduce smoke emissions at start-up.