There has not been a major upset since e-mail has been mastered, other than when the editorial assistant sends an e-mail inquiring about something the “boys” in the office seem to have lost.
First it was an entire article and then a mug shot of yours truly. (I can understand the mug shot getting lost.) As I reviewed the “Old Iron” article in the previous issue, I realized I had left out one of the major engines of the era.
The Hall-Scott engine was a rival of the Buda, and also used butane or propane as fuel. Both of these were in-line six-cylinder engines and I remember one example I saw having two spark plugs per cylinder. Unless he has parted with it, one of the locals hereabouts has an example of this engine mounted in a classic Kenworth truck.
I remember hearing old-timers talking about thinking they had a darn good truck, and how irritating it was to be pulling up a grade and have one of those 400 horsepower Buda’s or Hall-Scotts’ just pull out in the fast lane and go right on around them, sometimes adding insult to injury by up-shifting while they were right beside the cab of the truck being passed.
There is currently a new generation of engines that run on propane or CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) that have been in service for a few years now in some metropolitan city buses.
Within the last year some of the ocean ports have started requiring the trucks hauling ocean-going container into and out of the ports to be “ultra-clean” in the way of exhaust emissions.
One way to do this has been to use engines that run on CNG. These engines are conversions of the same big-block engines that generally use diesel for fuel. Two modes of ignition for the gas are used.
The first uses a “pilot” shot of diesel to create a flame, followed by direct injection of a burst of CNG. The other uses spark plugs, just like your good old garden variety gasoline engine.
The road tests of these newfangled low-emissions machines show them to have adequate power for what they are designed. They run quiet and the exhaust is very clean.
The downside is that it takes a lot of space for the fuel tanks, and a range of operation between re-fueling is not much over 100 miles.
For comparison, the diesel engines that meet the 2010 emissions are a computer and plumbing nightmare. But they still burn diesel and 550 and 600 horsepower engines are fairly common.
They use various combinations of cooled exhaust gas recirculation to reduce nitrous oxides, and catalytic converters to reduce other pollutants, just like on your car or pick-up.
Two or three years ago (I think the 2007 models started this), diesel particulate filters showed up on just about every on-highway diesel-powered vehicle.
These catch the “soot” from a diesel engine. Then when the particulate filter gets stuffed, the computer runs the engine very rich to create enough heat to burn up the captured soot.
This creates exhaust temperatures of 1,200°F to 1,500°F. Lots of things catch fire at much lower temperatures. (Dry weeds, newspapers, garage walls, the neighbor’s cat, etc.)
If you get saddled with one of these, make sure you read the directions. The big change in the engines that meet the more strict 2010 emissions is the addition of a form of liquid urea into the hot exhaust to reduce the nitrous oxides and particulates.
Some engines already meet the 2010 rules without this, notably the Cummins engine in the Dodge pick-ups. In the heavy trucks, International Harvester will be able to get by without the urea for awhile.
Those espousing the urea treatment chime in with “This is proven technology. Europe has been using the urea additive for several years now.”
My first thought when I heard this was that they were doing things in Europe that caused my great-grandfather to leave for America in the 1860s. I’m so glad my diesel pick-up (1997 model) has only 240,000 miles on it. I expect it to last another 12 years before it needs an overhaul. It has no computer.
Change of subject to the two friends crossing the country bringing home a new used truck one of them found in Tennessee. They almost missed the first snowstorm of the year.
I can drive most any kind of vehicle through snow and ice without much concern as long as I can stay away from other traffic. But I have a real time to ride in a vehicle on slick snowy roads with anyone else driving. The two buddies on their way home from Tennessee were of the same mind-set.
They both cross Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State on a regular basis, snow or no snow, loaded with hay on the westbound trip, and motorcycle doors or glider fuel on the eastbound return, generally without incident. But this is in trucks the respective drivers were very familiar with.
When the snow hit, the owner of the new used truck used the persuasion, “I would rather wreck my own truck than have you wreck it,” as he got behind the wheel.
The passenger seat was almost bolted securely to the floor. It moved enough to give the passenger the feeling that the truck and the road were not parallel to each other.
When the snow got bad, the passenger would move back to the sleeper, and try to take his mind off of the road conditions by cutting up celery into finger-food-sized pieces, which served as non-fattening munchies.
After one long period of serious truck skiing, the driver asked for some celery sticks. He claimed that the celery sticks, normally six inches in length, were cut into pieces only a quarter of an inch long. FG
