[AT] New product panics (was) Detroits

[Ken Knierim]

On 8/1/06, Steve W. <falcon at telenet.net> wrote:
> I have a couple vehicles here with heads that have the valve seats peat
> out of them due to unleaded gasoline. It has a LOT to due with the rpm
> range the engine runs at and how well the cooling system around the
> valves works.
>
> As for Y2K the catch to that was that the trigger date had actually
> already passed for most systems the year before. I only know of a couple
> systems that had any problems. Nothing major.

The only system I know of that had any trouble that could have been
bad was a debirillation machine. Dad works for a hospital and found
out at the end of '98 that they had embedded a date code into the
system and it croaked when the year rolled over to '99. It could have
been bad if they had needed to jumpstart (defib) someone and the
machine didn't work, but they didn't have that trouble (fortunately).

Still not sure why they would have a date code in something like that,
or why it would croak on the 98/99 transition instead, but he was the
one involved with the Y2K stuff at the time. After sorting that one
out, he ended up being the maintenance guy that had to check out all
the HVAC and infrastructure controls for Y2K. It gave him something to
do while he recovered from shoulder surgery and he really got into the
whole computer/internet thing at that point.

>
> On the low sulfur fuel GM has been testing already and they are seeing
> problems with the new fuel in the D-Max engines that are not designed
> for it. Mainly injector pumps seizing and injector nozzles sticking.
> They are working on an additive to prevent damage though.
>

This one brings about a number of questions... with all the government
regulations on fuel and emissions, how would this one slip through?
Also understanding that fuel varies so much from place to place (and
presumably from refinery to refinery) it makes sense. Plus the fact
that Diesel engines have the parts swimming in fuel for lubrication
does make them more vulnerable to changes in the fuel.
    Clessie Cummins thought that after WWII they would have to be
running "dry" fuels and had some plans for hardening the components so
they would work with non-lubricious (sp?) fuels like gasoline and/or
synthetic fuels; the concept has been around for quite a while. I
would think that the extremely high fuel system pressures of these new
engines (Navistar/Ford and the Powerstroke, GM/Isuzu and the Duramax
at least) would take some sorting out. They're quoting more than
20,000 and 30,000 PSI fuel system pressures... and that alone has to
be tough on parts... and might change how the lubrication works?

My question is: once they have these new engines running at these
ultralow emissions levels, what are they going to regulate next?
There's a point of diminishing returns, I would think. Are they going
to go after home heating systems? I can't imagine a wood stove with a
catalytic converter, but I never thought we'd see a diesel with one
either (like the new Duramaxes).

Ken in AZ