Online Diesel Source

Why Diesel?

This is a fantastic question, because it allows one to compare and contrast between the top two automobile fuels in the world: Diesel vs. Gasoline. While we would pretty much suggest diesel hands down for most applications, it's best to evaluate what exactly you intend to do and make choices that accommodate your application. If you're considering building out a vehicle for drag strip racing, obviously diesel is not going to be the best choice. That is unless you're entering diesel drag competitions! Let's start with some of the basics: Cost, efficiency, risk, and versatility.

Cost

From about 1995 to about 2005, the cost of diesel has trailed the cost of gasoline, being up to $.35 cheaper at times. In 2005 diesel jumped considerably, surpassing the cost of gasoline on a more permanent basis due to a strict federal mandate which called for a sulfur reduction in diesel fuel. From 2006 – 2008 diesel fuel was considerably more costly than gasoline, reaching over $4.75 a gallon! The oil market has since toned down and diesel is back to being a couple of cents lower than gasoline. Overall, diesel fuel has been cheaper than gasoline over the years. The real kicker for diesel comes not in the fuel itself, but in the equipment that uses it. Normally the up-front costs for diesel engines and equipment are more than gasoline engines and equipment. For instance light duty trucks; the MSRP of an extended cab Chevrolet 2500 gasoline engine pick-up is about $37,000, per Chevrolet's website. Upgrading to the diesel engine costs an additional $7,200. However, another factor to consider is the overall maintenance costs. Diesel maintenance costs tend to be cheaper due to their efficiency, which we'll touch on shortly. Since diesel engines are so much more efficient, they take less Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) to produce x amount of power, where a gasoline engine has to run at higher rpm's to produce the same amount of power. The efficiency and overall RPM's to produce power play a key role in maintenance costs.

Efficiency

Simply put, Diesel fuel has more energy to burn. On average diesel contains about 25,000 more BTU's per gallon than gasoline. To put this into perspective, a 100 Watt light bulb running for one hour eats up about 340 BTU's. The extra energy contained in diesel fuel means diesel engines have to do less work to produce the same amount of power as a gasoline engine. This in turn means running the engine at lower RPM's, which means less wear and tear on the engine, which equates to lower maintenance costs.

Risks

When it comes to risks associated with fuel, it's easy to see which is safer between gasoline and diesel. The key factor in determining safety is what we call a flash point. Dictionary.com (www.dictionary.com) defines the term flash point as ”the lowest temperature at which a liquid in a specified apparatus will give off sufficient vapor to ignite momentarily on application of a flame.” Gasoline has a flash point of -45°F, allowing for something such as hot weather to ignite the vapors. By contrast, diesel fuel is not considered volatile, because it has a flashpoint of over 130°F. Another risk comes in the form of storage. The shelf life of gasoline is approximately 30 days, where diesel fuel can be stored for decades. Using old gasoline decreases the life of the engine and will usually force more frequent maintenance. Additionally, the risk of fire increases when storing a surplus of gasoline, due to its volatility.

Versatility

Versatility is a tricky topic. For most city dwellers, versatility may be less of a concern than to those that live in the country or work in construction. To illustrate our point, let us first touch on the average home owning city dweller. Most city dwellers are not going to have tractors or other misc farm equipment, nor will they drive full size V-8 diesel pick-ups. With this in mind, versatility is going to be less of a concern, as keeping a small tank of gasoline around the house to fill up the weed whacker and lawn mower will do the trick. Being out of gas for either of those two pieces of equipment is not a show stopper and gas stations with regular unleaded fuel are a dime a dozen. Those who live in the country or work in construction are more likely to need/use the versatility of diesel fuel. One trip to the fuel station kills many birds with one stone. Assuming you have a diesel pick-up and an auxiliary fuel tank with a pump on it in the bed of the truck, you can acquire almost 150 gallons of diesel fuel at once. The 150 gallons of diesel can be used on either the rig you're driving or the tractors and generators at a work-site or farm. The fuel can be stored for long lengths of time without any degradation in quality and there is little risk in transporting it due to its flash point. Having this type of versatility and mobility in a fuel type is of tremendous benefit. The same cannot be said for gasoline, since it does not store well, must be kept in a cool environment and cannot be carried in an auxiliary tank in the bed of the a truck. Having a high capacity auxiliary tank with a pump in the bed of a truck makes it increasingly easy to re-fuel other equipment.