European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 22, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Diesel discovery in Detroit by Owen Ullmann associated Preist Here s a diesel revival going on in the motor City. Volkswagen has just put a diesel powered Rabbit on the Road. General motors will offer an Oldsmobile with a diesel engine this fall Chrysler is tinkering with a diesel it Hopes to Market by 1981. And the Industry believes that s Only the begin Ning. Almost overnight the engine Rudolf diesel in vented in 1892 is being treated like a discovery in de troit. Some Auto men think it could break the monopoly the gasoline engine has enjoyed As the main Power Plant for cars and Light trucks. Why the Iii Den fascination in the 85-year-old engine Detroit sums it up in two words fuel Economy. The diesel gives Between 10 and so per cent better mileage Over a comparable gasoline engine depend ing on How you calculate and who you talk to. That s the beginning and the end of its advantages says one Auto  every other criterion it does a Lousy Job for  compared with the gasoline engine the diesel is noisier and Smellie vibrates and smokes More provides less performance per cubic Inch is harder to Start and costs More to  fuel Economy has become a precious commodity in Detroit. Under a Federal Law that goes into effect this fall the Industry s new car fleets must meet fuel Economy standards that grow stiffer each year. By 18b.1. Cars must attain a minimum average of 27.5 Miles per gallon a figure Only subcompact now , it comes Down to a Basic Choice. Either we go on building big cars with diesels or we just make Small cars with gasoline engines says Harold h. Kehrl a pm executive vice president in charge of research  reach that z7 i figure by 1985 without the diesel we would have to come up with a break through in technology develop some exotic Light weight materials or make our cars smaller  adds Kehrl. Pm s Oldsmobile division is building 100,000 diesels 111 the 1978-Modet year for the full size vow aide shows off Rabbit s diesel engine. Delta 88 car and pm Light trucks. That s a tiny amount considering the Industry Likely will sell 15 million new cars and trucks in 1978. Pm officials acknowledge they Are making a cautious entry into the Market because they Don t know How great a demand there is for the engine. But growth of the diesel could be staggering Over the next seven years. A Well respected private re search firm projects one in five new cars sold in 1985 May come with a diesel. And a top Engineer at Olds Mobile estimates the ratio could run As High As one in four. Initially vow and pm expect to sell every car diesel they produce even though Consumers will have to pay More for one. Vow which is charging an extra $170 for its diesel says it s been flooded with orders for the 10,000 to 17. 000 units it plans to produce this year. The diesel Rabbit would Start at $3,645 and deliver an average 44 . Based on government testing compared with 28 . For a gasoline  Benz which has been offering diesel cars in the United slates for 25 years says it expects to sell a record 22.000 units this year. Mercedes does not charge More for its diesel cars in fact the diesel is a few Hundred dollars cheaper than a Gaso line Mercedes. Even so the Price starts at an Eye opening $12,379. Peugeot the Only other automaker previously of Fering a diesel in this country sold 4.500 of them last year. Peugeot charges an extra $1.000 for its diesel which Sells for $8.680 to Start. Pm is confident it can sell All its diesels in the first year although the lion s share May go in Light trucks. Sales of the diesel Olds Likely will depend on How much pm charges. There have been reports pm will charge an extra $1,000 for the engine which will mean a minimum $6.150 for the Delta 88. But Kehrl says no final pricing decision has been made we want to make it attractive but the Cost Factor is very substantial he said. To understand Why the diesel costs More Kehrl says you have to understand How it works. The gasoline engine has a Carburettor which com Bines air and fuel into a mixture that is sucked into the Cylinder or combustion chamber that houses the Piston. At a specific moment controlled by a timing device the mixture is lit by the ignition system. The Force from the combustion moves the Piston the source of the engine s Power. The diesel also is an internal combustion engine but it does not have a Carburettor or ignition. Rather it sucks up just air into a pre combustion chamber. The air is compressed until it gets very hot. Much hotter than the Point at which the fuel would ignite. Then a fuel injector shoots a Fine Mist of fuel into there combustion chamber and the mixture detonates with a Boom spreads to the combustion chamber where it moves the pistons to provide Power. The diesel gets better fuel Economy because not As much fuel is mixed with air and the engine converts most of the beat into usable Energy. The Gas engine wastes two thirds of the beat it generates. Diesel fuel though literally explodes in the cylinders because of the higher compression ratio and temperature while gasoline bums More evenly in its Chambers. That s where the added Cost comes in. To withstand the Force of combustion and the higher temperature and compression the engine Block must be made of stronger More costly Materi als. Also the fuel injection system is More expensive than a Carburettor and because the diesel is harder to Crank up it needs a bigger starter and Bat Tery. Pm s diesel has two batteries and a larger Radiator As  part not found on gasoline powered cars is a glow plug a heating device needed to warm up the engine before starting on a cold Day. A Driver would turn the key to on and then wait up to 60 seconds before trying to Crank up. What does a diesel buyer get for the extra Money in the Case of the Oldsmobile a 25 percent improvement in fuel Economy four to five More Miles to the gallon. There also is a savings at the pump since diesel fuel costs about a Nickel less a gallon than gasoline. A Delta 88 owner who drives 10,000 Miles a year would save up to $100 a year in fuel costs with a diesel Over a comparable gasoline engine. And for that maximum $100 saving he would have to put up with the Clatter mostly while the engine is still cold the smell the smoke the vibration and longer wait when starting. Another drawback is that a diesel engine provides Only about 75 to 80 per cent of the Power generated by a gasoline engine of the same size. That Means More sluggish starts and less Overall performance. In addition the Oil has to be changed about every3,500 Miles twice As often As in a gasoline engine because the combustion process leaves More particles that can gum up the engine. Finally there s the inconvenience of finding the nearest filling station that Sells diesel fuel. With so Many disadvantages How Many people will want a diesel car that s the question of the year says James Benner director of emissions for Oldsmobile which sacrificed some fuel Economy to make the diesel Pepper and put sound deadening insulation under the Hood to Cut Down on the Clatter. The car also smokes smells and vibrates less than other diesels now on the Road. We re All curious to see what the Market is says one Veteran Auto sales analyst. You can always sell 20.000 of anything just because it s differ ent. But Selling the next 20,000 can be  right now if i had to choose. I d take a gasoline car Over the diesel says John d. Withrow. Chrysler s director of research. If Gas prices go up a lot say $1 a gallon or More or there s another furl shortage Well then the diesel suddenly becomes a very attractive  most Auto executives say the Long term future of the diesel rests with the government. If Congress passes president Carter s plan to tax fuel guzzling cans and give rebates on fuel sting models the diesel could gain a Price advantage Over the gasoline  then there s the matter of exhaust emissions  Emit less of two regulated pollutants Carbon monoxide co and hydrocarbons to but a third pollutant oxide of nitrogen Nodi is More difficult to control. Nox emissions increase As temperatures Rise. Diesels which operate at higher temperatures than gasoline engines can meet the current nox Standard of 2.0 Grams per mile. But Carter wants to lower the nox level to 1.0 Gram per mile by 1981. A Standard Detroit says it can t  just Don t know How to do it says pm s Kehrl. We d have to Lake the engine off the  " there s another pollution problem the diesel spews up to 80 times More Ash Oil and other so called particulates than a gasoline engine. The environmental Protection Agency has no standards for panic late emissions and says it does t know if there would be a health Hazard with More diesels on the Road. A definitive answer could be years away. Wednesday june 22, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 13