catastrophic diesel failures how many do we know of?

[sweeper]

Please define catastrophic diesel failure?

+1

[BeachCat]

Marius, Leave this argument you would not persuade BeachCat. Since the mid 60th all agriculture engines, truck,trains you name it are diesel. If I remember correctly 60+% of all European cars sold are diesel. I owend both and love the torque of a diesel.

Don't even get me started on the non technical reasons why petrol is better than diesel, like when you are off the freeway and have to fuel up with the hookers and truckers without a roof and lights overhead

[LeonP]

What does failed diesel look like? Is it a different color or odour?

Is it legal to sell failed diesel?
Can it damage you cummins engine?

[BeachCat]

I have just sent a letter to Volvo (know the people there) and told them the forum thinks they are complete idiots for doing R&D on diesels and the forum recommends strongly that they switch to petrol which is far more reliable (well some members say so). Some members think this torque thing is just that, talk talk. I have asked my buddies at Volvo to copy these letters to GE and get them to start making petrol trains as well for the same reasons.

When you have between 500-800 NM of torque at 2000 rpm going to a petrol engine is like kissing your sister.

When you have between 180-220 HP of power at 7000rpm going to a diesel engine is like kissing your brother.

[kevjones]

When you have between 180-220 HP of power at 7000rpm going to a diesel engine is like kissing your brother.

Unfortunately if you need 180 hp at 7000 RPM you are equipped for a race track not the bush or any offroad driving. Some of your TIC comments are quite funny but quotomg 7000 RPM is silly even a good petrol production engine does not make power at 7000 RPM. Certainly yours wont.

[Elders]

It may seem that way with the large number of forum members who have had catastrophic diesel failures and with 2 members currently trying to sort out catastrophic failures. But I'm sure there must be a few diesels out there that if you drive like an old lady and spend R10K a year on servicing somehow manage to stay in one piece.

Put it this way if diesels weren't reliable they wouldn't use them in aircraft would they...oh wait :P

my neighbour is an electrical contractor - the real flat foot V8 type of guy !

diesel Caddy as his contractor vehicle. Just over two tons on the weigh bridge. It WORKS, and not a days problem. Only expensive maintenance thus far was absurd costs for the brakes ...


Collegue had a 3,2 clubcab Ranger. Just over 100 000 km, and it does 160km/h most days for some distance. NO ISSUES !!

Just tradded it in on the 3,2 double cab. When asked if he considered the Amarok or Hilux, he just said - "The Ranger WORKS"


so heavy loads dont kill it

high speed on open roads dont kill it


regular servicing is all these two guys do.




PS - if you want to talk costs - get quotes on a total redo of Ranger V8 PETROL motor ....



personally still prefer petrol, but wont go as far as saying diesel is bad.

[Elders]

I have just sent a letter to Volvo (know the people there) and told them the forum thinks they are complete idiots for doing R&D on diesels and the forum recommends strongly that they switch to petrol which is far more reliable (well some members say so). Some members think this torque thing is just that, talk talk. I have asked my buddies at Volvo to copy these letters to GE and get them to start making petrol trains as well for the same reasons.

When you have between 500-800 NM of torque at 2000 rpm going to a petrol engine is like kissing your sister.

WHY are Volvo waisting time and resources on an R&D department ?


WE, this mighty forum, knows EVERYTHING ! Even though we KNOW half the guys are totally wrong half the time .....

[sweeper]

My dad just replaced his large iveco bus with about 480k on it, 2.3 diesel, not even injectors... 1 clutch change. Yes it just died... Belt jumped, head is tickets, bottom end and rest is still fine. It was loaded 3 tons with just his tools in it. Not a days trouble. This failure was very soon after a belt change... So im not convinced it failed...

Thats pretty impressive in my book, and this poor thing worked like nothing i have seen before....

[sweeper]

To add to it, he had it in days before failure for a noise. Iveco blamed bad diesel. Told him to drive it as is, then it died, had it been checked properly i am 100% sure it would of done a lot more. Repair bill was 26k i think, not bad for so many kms, that included bearings, oil pump etc seeing as it was open already

[kevjones]

WHY are Volvo waisting time and resources on an R&D department ?


WE, this mighty forum, knows EVERYTHING ! Even though we KNOW half the guys are totally wrong half the time .....

It's a Swedish thing Chris, even though they deny it they are getting most of the design cues from here. Even now as we speak there are various Volvo diesel guys on the forum in disguise. Usually to evoke discussion they start a thread about petrol being better than diesel. Then they get all the info they need from Marius. It;s an old trick.

[BeachCat]

unfortunately if you need 180 hp at 7000 rpm you are equipped for a race track not the bush or any offroad driving. Some of your tic comments are quite funny but quotomg 7000 rpm is silly even a good petrol production engine does not make power at 7000 rpm. Certainly yours wont.

[bfreesani]

If you know your engine and have the correct monitoring, you can do a lot with a diesel.

My old donkey 2,7 that runs mostly on cooking oil and paraffin, has just clocked 165k km since install. Last engine I drowned, so not the fault of diesel tech there.

With bent con rods and a blown water pump, I still got it back to Roodepoort ftom Rust de Winter.

The "new" jap import got a new set of injectors and a pump over hawl in 2008 and still goes well for its age.

All that with personal mods that people said would break it faster than the cooking oil. I run the turbo at 1,1 bar of its possible 1,3bar designed spec. Diesel pump is nearly 1/3 turn open from standard and its running with no IC.

But I never let EGT go over 650deg. And with that in mind I can run it flat foot at 145km/h from joburg to Parys and the volume of air through the engine keeps the EGT within limits.

I think the problem is mostly technically ignorant drivers who know nothing more than getting in and driving it to its limits (and beyond).

There is very little out there that is really IDIOT proof, let alone engines, not petrol or diesel.

[kevjones]

Like I said power is falling away at 7000 RPM. And pray tell how exactly are you going to drive arouond at 7000 rpm making a mere 134 Kw.

Choose which ever graph of mine you like one is on the wheels and one at the flywheel. Oops peak power is about 2200 rpm 122kw, oops torque is 450nm on the wheels at 2200, oops 176kw on the flywheel, oops 625 nm torque. oops it's only a 3.0l V6 diesel not a v8. Should I convert for you.

122kw = 165 Bhp.
176kw = 236 Bhp.

All at 2200-2300 rpm. did I mention it's a punny little V6 diesel 3.0L.

[BeachCat]

If you know your engine and have the correct monitoring, you can do a lot with a diesel.

My old donkey 2,7 that runs mostly on cooking oil and paraffin, has just clocked 165k km since install. Last engine I drowned, so not the fault of diesel tech there.

With bent con rods and a blown water pump, I still got it back to Roodepoort ftom Rust de Winter.

The "new" jap import got a new set of injectors and a pump over hawl in 2008 and still goes well for its age.

All that with personal mods that people said would break it faster than the cooking oil. I run the turbo at 1,1 bar of its possible 1,3bar designed spec. Diesel pump is nearly 1/3 turn open from standard and its running with no IC.

But I never let EGT go over 650deg. And with that in mind I can run it flat foot at 145km/h from joburg to Parys and the volume of air through the engine keeps the EGT within limits.

I think the problem is mostly technically ignorant drivers who know nothing more than getting in and driving it to its limits (and beyond).

There is very little out there that is really IDIOT proof, let alone engines, not petrol or diesel.

I need a motor that I can give the keys to anyone who can steer in a straight line and not have to worry, the many petrol vehicles I have owned were such vehicles and by my definition, reliable.

A vehicle that can catastrophically fail in the hands of someone who has not received special instruction is something I cannot afford, nor do I want the worry knowing that such an event is possible.

If things do break and in a foreign country then I need to know that the maximum I will need to pay will be R10K for parts.

On the comfort side I want a vehicle that can pull a 500Kg boat up any hill at 140km/h for any length of time without any problems.

Two diesel motors I have had were not up to the task and despite being serviced by two highly recommended diesel mechanics catastrophically failed. I would love to be R50K the richer telling you all how much I love my 2.8TD but unfortunately that's not the case.

When I purchased my Pajero I was engaged to be married and it was on my fiancee's insistence that I took it to be serviced before moving from JHB to Durban. I had already changed the brakes/oils/filters and the vehicle was running sweet and pulled boats no problems. It never recovered from that first service and neither did our relationship. So I lost a hell of a lot over these unreliable diesel motors and wouldn't wish the same on any other poor soul, so I will evangelise against them. But just the cost of parts alone is enough to advise anyone who hasn't got deep pockets to avoid turbo diesels bearing in mind they will likely be purchasing a high km model.

[BeachCat]

Like I said power is falling away at 7000 RPM. And pray tell how exactly are you going to drive arouond at 7000 rpm making a mere 134 Kw.

Choose which ever graph of mine you like one is on the wheels and one at the flywheel. Oops peak power is about 2200 rpm 122kw, oops torque is 450nm on the wheels at 2200, oops 176kw on the flywheel, oops 625 nm torque. oops it's only a 3.0l V6 diesel not a v8. Should I convert for you.

122kw = 165 Bhp.
176kw = 236 Bhp.

All at 2200-2300 rpm. did I mention it's a punny little V6 diesel 3.0L.

It was just a word play on the brother/sister thing, 200HP at the wheels at 5500 is what I'm expecting and I will turbocharge another VVti motor and swap motors next year, I think a turbo will produce peak power close to 7000rpm as the graph I posted indicates.

What ever the outcome it will have at least 3 times more power at the wheels than the turbo diesel

[bfreesani]

I need a motor that I can give the keys to anyone who can steer in a straight line and not have to worry, the many petrol vehicles I have owned were such vehicles and by my definition, reliable.

A vehicle that can catastrophically fail in the hands of someone who has not received special instruction is something I cannot afford, nor do I want the worry knowing that such an event is possible.

If things do break and in a foreign country then I need to know that the maximum I will need to pay will be R10K for parts.

On the comfort side I want a vehicle that can pull a 500Kg boat up any hill at 140km/h for any length of time without any problems.

Two diesel motors I have had were not up to the task and despite being serviced by two highly recommended diesel mechanics catastrophically failed. I would love to be R50K the richer telling you all how much I love my 2.8TD but unfortunately that's not the case.

When I purchased my Pajero I was engaged to be married and it was on my fiancee's insistence that I took it to be serviced before moving from JHB to Durban. I had already changed the brakes/oils/filters and the vehicle was running sweet and pulled boats no problems. It never recovered from that first service and neither did our relationship. So I lost a hell of a lot over these unreliable diesel motors and wouldn't wish the same on any other poor soul, so I will evangelise against them. But just the cost of parts alone is enough to advice anyone who hasn't got deep pockets to avoid turbo diesels bearing in mind they will likely be purchasing a high km model.

I think you have doubts as to the capabilities of your friends in this regard, BUT, I have a rule I live by " Two things I never lend to anybody, my car and my wife"

So far both have lasted the test of time.

[sweeper]

I've lent my van, not broken yet... Let me put it like this. My 4 cyl diesel does not stand back on performance and reliability, not even mentioning economy. Simply put it will kill any petrol that keeps up with it... And its 12 years old tech(since in SA)....

[Johan Engelbrecht]

I find the thread most interesting! It is all about risk management.
Sorry guys, turbo's have so many rubber pipes connected to inter coolers and connections between intake and turbo that unfortunately, depending on what make of vehicle, your risk IS higher. Had the unfortunate experience to help a friend (the ones that greet each other while their vehicles are still driving) and was amazed to see the the never ending maze of rubber pipes!

I have also paid school fees, my own doing in the dunes when the turbo sucked a bucket of sand. Now own a Toy 2.5 D4D - promise only 45mm of rubber hose! Compromise on power though.

[sweeper]

That said, i have beer in so im arguing, lol, pointless, keep your 7000rpm petrol, we all know how you feel now. Back to beer, its damn good stuff, not even my diesel beats it....

[BeachCat]

I find the thread most interesting! It is all about risk management.
Sorry guys, turbo's have so many rubber pipes connected to inter coolers and connections between intake and turbo that unfortunately, depending on what make of vehicle, your risk IS higher. Had the unfortunate experience to help a friend (the ones that greet each other while their vehicles are still driving) and was amazed to see the the never ending maze of rubber pipes!

I have also paid school fees, my own doing in the dunes when the turbo sucked a bucket of sand. Now own a Toy 2.5 D4D - promise only 45mm of rubber hose! Compromise on power though.

Pipes aren't so bad on a turbo, if there is any leak or they are in bad condition then you find out quickly, squeals like a pig but only air is lost no liquids, and even if you split an entire hose as once happened to me, you wrap it with tinfoil and then duct tape and it lasts about a week, not something that will leave you needing a tow.