Diesel or petrol: choosing your poison

Akuli · Veteran Member

Diesel or petrol: choosing your poison

Basil Faulty · Guru

It's politically correct of you to think green but this decision is best based on practical grounds. If you intend to tow - diesel, if you intend to tour - petrol. This is actually a "green" way of doing it, it's better to tow with a vehicle that can tow rather than over work an engine that performs best simply on it's own.
The facts are these, it's engine torque (newton metres)that pulls your caravan and engine power (Kw) decides how fast you accelerate. Diesel has more torque that petrol in a similar sized engine but diesel will require more frequent oil changes unless you use synthetic.
Clear as mud???

Wombat 280 · Guru

Agreed, just went through the entire exercise , Concluded for towing anything a diesel wins hands down. As for green the new diesel motors put out less crap than their petrol counterparts if you believe the manufactures, they require less tune ups but can use up filters in both oil and fuel departments especially if traveling outback where fuel quality after it's left the refinery is suspect. Fuel from outback service stations that don't have the new plastic tanks but still have old rust riddled steel ones often have hight rust content and water . Bio diesel despite all the assurances is not all that clean and unclean diesel will stop you dead in your tracks. You can install additional after market fuel filters which a lot of bushies do anyway . Always carry a spare fuel filter and learn how to drain the filter system of water and sediment .

Overtime a Diesel will pay for itself but if you intend changing over vehicles every two or so years then maybe a petrol is the go.

I once asked a Rolls Royce dealer as a stir how many miles to the gallon does the car on the showroom floor get and his answer was if you need to know that sir then you can't afford to buy it. he was right

-- Edited by Wombat 280 on Saturday 18th of April 2009 07:58:53 PM

Basil Faulty · Guru

Wombat 280 wrote:

Agreed, just went through the entire exercise , Concluded for towing anything a diesel wins hands down. As for green the new diesel motors put out less crap than their petrol counterparts if you believe the manufactures, they require less tune ups but can use up filters in both oil and fuel departments especially if traveling outback where fuel quality after it's left the refinery is suspect. Fuel from outback service stations that don't have the new plastic tanks but still have old rust riddled steel ones often have hight rust content and water . Bio diesel despite all the assurances is not all that clean and unclean diesel will stop you dead in your tracks. You can install additional after market fuel filters which a lot of bushies do anyway . Always carry a spare fuel filter and learn how to drain the filter system of water and sediment .

Overtime a Diesel will pay for itself but if you intend changing over vehicles every two or so years then maybe a petrol is the go.

I once asked a Rolls Royce dealer as a stir how many miles to the gallon does the car on the showroom floor get and his answer was if you need to know that sir then you can't afford to buy it. he was right

-- Edited by Wombat 280 on Saturday 18th of April 2009 07:58:53 PM

I only just read somewhere ( well you know how it is) that Bio Diesel is not the universal panacea that was originally thought. Ok it does not rely on the middle east's oil for manufacture but it does have challeges that a lot of manufactureres can't ( don't) cope with. and it has some nasty emmissions as well. Shame I was thinking of making it myself.

Cruising Granny · Guru

Go diesel for durability and longevity.
I believe you can't run you vehicle on bio-diesel alone. It must be blended with real diesel.
I can't remember the technical reason, but it makes sense to me.
Go diesel, even though it's now dearer than ULP, don't ask me how that happens, you get further on a litre of diesel than a litre of petrol.
The new diesels are more efficient than my old '95 80 Series Cruiser, but I won't be changing.
Happy travels. Chris

dave06 · Guru

yep Bio diesel can only be run as a blend, too harmfull to an engine if run straight and the effects of a blended mix are still not completely worked out as yet, early days, mexico is being very carefully watched as far as bio diesel goes

diesel for reliability, bit of a toss up with modern engines, both much of a muchness,

diesel for economy, absolutely they run basically 15% cheaper than their petrol cousins

repair bill for a breakdown, petrol are far cheaper everytime diesels by nature are expensive things to repair because of the enormous strains the motor has to endure, almost double the compression ratio of a petrol, injectors working at 30% higher than a petrol injector system

injector pumps are a major worry but with the introduction of the "common rail" thern the pump has been done away with in favor of electronically controlled individual injectors (each one very costly to replace) and the electronics that go with it are expensive

depends on what you are planning to drive and where you are planning to drive it, diesel is probably your best choice but make sure you keep the services up to it, breakdowns are very costy for diesel mechanics, thats why we only have ONE here

mike and Judy · Guru

Can only assume you are talking about the commercial stuff Dave,
My nieghbour has been making it ,and using all of what he makes for the last 9 years, even before it bacame a common word,
I have copied his formula and the car is better than what it was on commercial diesel,

The drawback for you is you are too far south, the cold will congeal the animal fats, so you would be confined to a veggie oil, , and living in the city environment the laws are too strict to make it

dave06 · Guru

all depends on what you make it out of, the higher the "oil" content the better,

they tell me used chip oil (canola) is the best if you can keep the seagulls away, strain it and whack it straight in the tank they say,

most bio fuels are highly corrosive, havent had much to do with it, I can only read the literature put out about it, and most of that is swayed by fuel companys

most vehicle manufacturers wil not honour the warranty if bio-diesel is used

mexico has made various modifications to their vehicles heads, fuel lines, tanks and intakes all of which are being studied by various companys and experts

also there is a 10% drop in fuel economy and a correlating relationship with economy

and a 10% increase in nitrous oxide exuded in to the atmosphere

-- Edited by dave06 on Monday 20th of April 2009 05:31:47 PM

TBF · Member

My reply is very short.

Nothing but a diesel for towing..
However, the service costs are higher.
More often more parts.
But they will go forever if you treat to clean oil and filters.

Aart

Akuli · Veteran Member

Thank u guys you are the best. I have taken in everything you have all said and I think I will go for the D option. Hope to catch you on the road and if I break down I will give you a ring furious