Thank you for adding to my store of Civil War incunabula. Norlyuns still has the aroma of a town where this custom has not entirely disappeared. BTW, Why our SUV's, which are also splendid beasts, are not powered by 2.5liter turbodiesels is completely beyond me. Someone high up in the EPA apparently was frightened in utero by a 1948 Mercedes 190 diesel and is singlehandedly keeping them out of the country. Diesel fuel has also been totally jiggered about to be "sulfur-free" and as a result, instead of being a brown liquid with just the larger dino turds and sticks filtered out, now resembles virgin olive oil, except it is more expensive. I was used to paying about 15 cents per gallon for the aggie version of the crap, which of course we used in everything from our trusty MB 300TD to a lobsterboat and Oliver Tractor.
The Japs run run their Corollas with a really nice 1.8l diesel, @ 55mpg. Here a Corolla is quite needlessly faster off the line than a 1965 Ferrari. Wat's wit dat?
BTW, in my careless youth, I was in Libya, where the oil comes out of the ground just about ready to become diesel fuel. Beautiful stuff!
VW and Audi are offering turbo diesels right now. VW has a 2 liter and Audi 2 and 3 liters. I’ve been watching for some of the new high performance diesels to arrive here since I learned about them.
” I was used to paying about 15 cents per gallon for the aggie version of the crap, which of course we used in everything from our trusty MB 300TD to a lobsterboat and Oliver Tractor.”
I was reading about the reclaimed fryer oil diesels awhile back. Apparently the newer diesels have injection systems that can’t handle the stuff whereas the older engines like your venerable 300TD don’t miss a beat. Something to do with venturi size and vegetable oil having paraffin.