suntubi

Continued from a performance thread on 190e (w201), elsewhere on this web site.


The issue is not "cleaner" or "better" diesel.

Is 91 Octane gasoline cleaner or better than 87 Octane?

Diesel in the US actually has less sulfur than many Euro grades. We often consider the carbon particulate emission from diesel (the soot) as being somehow "dirtier" than the NOx emissions from gasoline. That's a matter of point of view.

In Europe, naptha, a gasoline component, can be blended with gas-oil ( the European distillate or diesel) to "boost" its quality. This may be perceived as a higher quality fuel in that it may deliver better performance on acceleration, but it also produces more NOx's. It's also more dangerous to handle with the naptha component. It doesn't necessarily mean greater speed or utilization of latent energy in the diesel, or performance.

We don't typically blend gasoline components with distillates in the US. Too dirty, dangerous and hard to sell.

Alternately, diesel can be "boosted" with Kerosene. This may improve combustion velocity in the cylinder ( acceleration) but at the expense of energy content in the fuel and in terms of fuel economy (torque).

Didn't MB have a 220 mph diesel prototype ( using really "bad" diesel fuel)?

MTI

Apparently MB is considering bringing the diesel back to the US market, which has some interest in it since the VW TDI has been a pretty good seller. Also note that there is an AMG diesel on the market in Europe. As for the high speed diesel, you may be thinking about the prototype C-112 Gullwing. As the C-111 it had the triple rotor wankel engine, then MB stuck a diesel in it.

suntubi

That's the one I was referring to. What year was that?

E-Klasse

Prior post... (Check it out)

There is a long discussion about fuel issues as far as octane ratings you might want to check out at the above link...