What problems did the diesel engine have?

Answer 1

1. Diesel engines, because they have much higher compression ratios (20:1 for a typical diesel vs. 8:1 for a typical gasoline engine), must have thicker metal castings so tend to be heavier than an equivalent gasoline engine.

2. Diesel engines also tend to be more expensive to buy. However, because diesels can do more miles per gallon, they are well worth the extra money because, but, if you do a big annual mileage, they will save you money buying diesel fuel instead of gasoline.

3. Diesel engines, because of their weight and compression ratio, tend to have lower maximum RPM ranges than gasoline engines. This makes diesel engines high torque rather than high horsepower, and that tends to make diesel cars slower in terms of acceleration. The latest designs of diesel engine have performances which are almost as good as as gasoline engines.

4. Diesel engines must be fuel injected, and in the past fuel injection was expensive and less reliable. Nowadays many gasoline engines also use fuel injection systems and the designs of both the injector fuel pumps - and the injectors themselves - have been improved to make them very reliable.

5. Diesel engines tend to produce more smoke and "smell funny." Nowadays, provided they are serviced correctly, diesel engines don't emit more smoke.

6. Diesel engines are harder to start in cold weather, and if they contain glow plugs, diesel engines can require you to wait before starting the engine so the glow plugs can heat up. Modern diesel engines don't have that problem.

7. Diesel engines used to be much noisier and tended to vibrate. Modern diesel engines can be almost as quiet as gasoline engines and they don't vibrate so much.

8. In some places diesel fuel is less readily available than gasoline.