Any point in warming up diesel fuel?

[ecomodded]

It could be that warm intake air is the key to more economical combustibility,yesterday I disconnected my intake hose that led to the front of my car from the air filter box, so the car would breath warmer under hood air. The hole on the air filter box faces the fender so it is not directly over the motor.

[ConnClark]

Originally Posted by ecomodded

It could be that warm intake air is the key to more economical combustibility,yesterday I disconnected my intake hose that led to the front of my car from the air filter box, so the car would breath warmer under hood air. The hole on the air filter box faces the fender so it is not directly over the motor.

A warm air intake actually reduces efficiency of a diesel and increases NOx emissions. This is one reason you will find intercoolers on turbo charged diesels today.

[ecomodded]

Cooler air may be good for max hp but Max hp uses max gas.
My thinking is I want to make less hp and use less gas, the two are related.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by ecomodded

Cooler air may be good for max hp but Max hp uses max gas.
My thinking is I want to make less hp and use less gas, the two are related.

As you mentioned, this works for gas, not diesel.
But there are whole threads on this, and we don't want to go OT, do we?
Do you like your Diesel warm or cold ?

Now, back to warming diesel fuel...

Originally Posted by AXMonster

Yes, fuel pump failure will occurr in the long term. The fuel temperature into the pump has a maximum and thats why fuel coolers are fitted.... IIRC its about 90°C for the Bosch VP44 pump. Possibly due to lubricity?

I was thinking more along the lines of increasing temperature and pressure making use of diesel's explosive properties, but maybe there would have to be air in the mixture for that to happen?
I think you are right.
HDi commonrail TDs have 3-cylinder high pressure pumps which can deactivate one cylinder, for example at low loads. I might have something mixed up, but the cylinder may also be deactivated when the incoming fuel's temperature is too high.

BTW, does heating diesel fuel excessively lead to a degradation of its quality?

[sparker10]

Yeah I agree with the comment:

"From what I remember, warmer fuel creates smaller droplets in the combustion chamber and that the larger the drops of fuel the more soot is produced, so if I understand correctly, warmer fuel would create less soot and thus would burn cleaner"

However I don't think its going to make too much of a difference.

Watched an interesting program the other night about how to save fuel - didn't realise little things such as removing any weight from the boot, having the air in the tyres full, having the windows shut over a certain speed (due to drag), using the brakes sparingly by cruising at junctions can help greatly. To be fair when you think about it it is obvious.

The program showed a family using a diesel fuel car and they was going on a activity holiday. Anyway they attached the family bikes to the back of the car and had a tent thing on top - to cut a long story short they could have saved a lot of money by renting bikes and buying a tent when they got there due to the extra cost in petrol due to the extra weight and drag on the car.