You'd expect diesel engines to get smaller as time goes on, but recent reports claim GM's truck power plant could grow by more than a liter.

Rumored ‘Big-Block’ Duramax Diesel Could Be 8.3L and We’re Off the Rails Now::You’d expect diesel engines to get smaller as time goes on, but recent reports claim GM’s truck power plant could grow by more than a liter.

  • mojofrododojo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    11 months ago

    a couple of notes: those cargo ships (the ones built after @1995ish) almost all use bunker oil or fuel oil to drive electric turbines, generating more torque and smoother power bands than traditionally driven props directly off diesel engines. it’s still burning the worst of the worst in vast quantities, so it’s a marginal upgrade at best, and one that only counts for the newer 30 years of production.

    re: semi trucks - apparently there are some drivers who LOVE them and won’t consider returning to ICE, but I imagine they’re edge cases still. https://axleaddict.com/news/truck-driver-loves-teslas-semi-trucks

    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Sadly yeah. But those turbines could run on almost anything, fuel oil is used simply because it’s the cheapest and there are no laws (or very few) saying they can’t. At least they capped the sulfur content rather hard a few years back, so there is some progress.

      And it is a situation that could be fixed with legislation and money if there was a will to do so as the tech already mostly exists, and it wouldn’t even necessarily require huge changes on the ships.