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Originally Posted by Old Tele man
...look-up the definition difference between "detonation" and "combustion"
...the gasoline "detonates" and the diesel fuel "combustes."
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ok, bear with me here...
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Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Definition of Auto ignition: Spontaneous combustion is a type of combustion which occurs without an external ignition source.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FourBinLabs
about.com defines detonation as: "Definition: An unwanted explosion of the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber caused by excess heat and compression, advanced timing, or an overly lean mixture."
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It seems like
Detonation would be considered a subclass of
Auto Detonation because it is not caused by an external ignition source. As far as I can tell, detonation and auto ignition are the same, except that detonation is unwanted. Or is it a different type of burn entirely?
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Originally Posted by Odin
Diesel is supposed to detonate thats how a diesel engine works
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NachtRitter
What Odin mentions makes sense then... once the diesel fuel ignites, it is an "uncontrolled" explosion, and the Diesel engine is designed to handle that... injecting the fuel at the top of the stroke rather than earlier in the compression cycle. On the other hand, the gasoline engine *must* have a controlled explosion, with no secondary wave fronts caused by the preliminary detonation of the unburnt gases... otherwise the engine will eventually destroy itself.
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If once diesel fuel ignites, it is an uncontrolled explosion, that sounds like detonation. If when gasoline ignites, it's a controlled explosion, then does this mean that gasoline burns slower than diesel?
Old Tele man, if diesel fuel combusts rather than detonates, this would mean that it has an infinity high resistance to detonation, giving it an infinity high octane rating.
The more I think about this, the more confusing it seems.