[AmpEater]

Originally Posted by diesel_john

Above 20 to 1 you are at the point of diminsihing returns. About all there is to gain is taking off your muffler and using the turbo as a muffler. Even with a modest boost of 6 or 7 psi. Your cylinder pressures will be up in the considerably reduced reliability range. What happens is without oil cooled pistons increase intake temperatures reduce the strength the pistons and the increase pressure pushes a hole in the center of the piston.

First of all I'd like to thank you for some very good information diesel_john! Sounds like you've got about 100,000x better understanding of the technical aspects of diesels than me.

Would an intercooler make a significant difference in this regard? It should lower the intake temperatures to close to ambient. The cylinder pressures would still be increased over designed operating conditions however.

Originally Posted by diesel_john

Propane injection has the effect of advancing the timing and also raises peak pressure. There are undeniable safety concerns with propane on board. You can produce this same effect somewhat by advancing the timing.

I'm a little curious as to how one advances the timing on a diesel? My understanding is that timing refers to the point at which the spark ignites the fuel mixture, but seeing that diesels have no spark I would assume that timing is fixed. Do you instead adjust when the fuel is injected instead?

Originally Posted by diesel_john

Biodiesel burns enough cleaner that just 10% almost eliminates any noticeable smoke from my 1983 engine. The only problems that i have encountered with vegetable oils is low temperature waxing and it tends to soften rubber seals in the fuel system.

I had no idea biodiesel actually burned any cleaner, I thought its sole appeal was better lubrication and being "renewable". This is very interesting, perhaps I can eliminate the need for propane if this is the case. Is your experience with fossil diesel/biodiesel blend, or would this apply to a biodiesel/WVO blend as well?

Originally Posted by diesel_john

The reason i asked about frequency is the torque peak of most high speed diesels is below the 60 Hz required for house current. The diesel does not lose efficiency as fast as a gas engine does at rpm's below the torque peak. So you could have the advantage of being able to reduce the engine rpm down to the torque peak or even lower if the cooling fan will provide enough air. This is huge. This like having an infinitely variable transmission, this is very good. You can reduce "rack" and still fully load. Anyway, because diesels have a comparatively long stroke, piston speeds at high rpm's tend to reduce the life expectancy.

Again, very interesting. Because the generator will be belt driven I could set the ratio at whatever engine speed is ideal. If I could get close to full power with a reduced engine speed and significantly increase the life expectancy I would be very happy. I assume the 60hz tidbit applies to direct drive generators? I'm glad you mentioned the cooling fan. My plans did not include one. It seems like an electric radiator fan should provide more than enough airflow, while still allowing me to turn it off at highway speeds and just allow the passing air to do this work.