nomo4me

Want to be someone here in Utah? You've got to drive one of the deisel powered super-duty sized trucks. They are everywhere, and much more prevalent than in Boise, Denver, Vegas or Phoenix based on my observation.
So I'm riding past a high school parking lot and one of these deisel powered little-weanie-compensators exits the lot 50 yards in front of me. The truck was only a year or two old (Chevy Heavy Duty), but had been seamingly tuned to toss as much black soot out the exhaust as possible. It laid a dense cloud of black smoke and hauled a$$ away from me RAPIDLY; the truck's computer had obviously been re-chipped for max speed.
It was a level stretch so I held my breath for about 50 yards, by which time the breeze had blown it away from my side of the road.
I ride about 1/2 mile, and there is the truck in a driveway on my side of the road, it's bed hanging over the sidewalk. It is stationary, but the engine is at max rpms and i can hear the tires chattering a bit on the concrete as the driver obviously has the thing in gear with the brakes on.
The effect of this, and I believe the drivers obvious intent, was a house-sized cloud of black smoke completely blocking my side of the road. I can't see around it to try to go into the oncoming lane and skirt the smoke. I'm not going to stop before I get to it because a few of sluggo's pals are beside the truck on the lawn and I don't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing me stop.
So I plunge through the damn thing and am engulfed in blackness for a couple of seconds.

I emerge on the other side with no sense of panic or alarm, but rather a sense of amazement that someone might be proud of such an achievement.

Mike

galen_52657

Utah inbreeding has taken it's toll....

bnet1

I love the sound and feel of a well tuned diesel, especially when cruising down the highway pulling a 30 foot gooseneck trailer with about 10,000 pounds of horses in the back. I like big trucks too, but what that idiot did really takes the cake. If he was smoking he wasn't tuned for best efficiency and fuel economy. Just a big red-neck trying to show off to his buddies. Too bad you were forced to ride through his pollution. Makes you want to duct tape his lips the the exhaust and then goose that sucker! Yes, I cycle too, and commute by bike.

galen_52657

Just makes you want to ride up and fart on the guy....

spine of hortus

i think black smoke means hes got an oil leak in there somewhere and from how you described how he treats his truck i can see how it coulda happened

probably he didnt even buy the truck himself it was probably a gift from daddy

when you spend 30k of your own money on something tiy tend to appreciate it a bit more


a well tuned deisle wont have noticable smoke and they arent made for going fast their made for haulling

nomo4me

That was an intelligent and meaningful comment. Do you have anything else to add?

cyclingshane73

Take heart. With all that black smoke billowing out of his tailpipe its only a matter of time until his engine goes "kaboom!"

Do they emissions testing in Utah?...probably not.

pj7

Blue smoke from the tailpipe is from excessive oil burning in the combustion chamber.

Black smoke is from an extremely rich mixture of fuel/air, meaning that he has more fuel going into the cylinders than he is currently capable of burning. You see that alot with kids now-a-days when they get those cheap ass mod chips that change their FtA ratio to be richer. It does produce more power, but poorly. More power could be gained just by tuning the exhaust better and leaving the intake the same.

And while we're at it, white smoke is caused when coolant is introduced into the combustion chamber and burned, which is usually a sign of a faulty head gasket or worse, cracked heads

genec

There's a guy here at my office with a small diesel in a pick up truck... he has a remote starter maintains a "Raiders" attitude. He is proud of the fact that he can get his truck to "belch" black smoke at will.

Takes all kinds.

timmhaan

just think - that guy could have paid for a college education instead of that truck. seems a better use of the money to me.

Hanzo

Big trucks have their place for hauling heavy stuff around but just to drive one around like a car is kind of dumb, especially with the diesal prices. You're looking at an easy $60-100+ every time you fuel up depending on if it has dual tanks or not. I think a lot of people are getting sick of paying that since I see used car lots covered in the things.

catatonic

Kids and their stupid mods on cars annoys me to no end.

There's plenty of cheap mods that can be done to get extra HP. Chips are supposed to be polish for the finished product...at least that's how I learned how to do it.

Raiyn

So it would seem
As if your's was particularly useful there Sparky.

CommuterRun

I agree. Just add a chip by itself? Yeah, you'll get more power, but the engine will never be right if that's all you do. Hence the black smoke, running rich. Just adding a chip and doing nothing else will also lead the engine to a premature death. Which negates one of the major reasons for getting a diesel in the first place.

Nicodemus

sparky. God I love that one.


Hey, why not do something james-bondian? Get some horribly nauseating stink bomb smoke maker or something, and set it up under your seat. Then give them a taste of your own "exhaust" as you ride by.

Oh man, I really like that idea. Too bad I never get dicks like that where I live.

greywolf

sounds like his turbo's on the way out.

phinney

Is it just me or do the macho diesel pickups sound just like the Frito Lay delivery trucks?

bkrownd

I once knew somebody who put transmission fluid (?) in their beater's washer fluid bottle, and put the end of the little hose in their carburator, so hitting the washer fluid button would produce a big cloud of 007 smoke screen out the tailpipe.

phinney

Back when diesel was cheap and injection systems simpler some truckers would "shim" the injection system to deliver more fuel. The idea was to provide more power (unlikely) and smoke. They really seemed to like to leave a smoke trail.

galen_52657

Diesel engines are highly efficient. Much more that gasoline engines. This is because of the much higher compression ratio of diesels - 23:1. When a diesel drivers steps on the 'diesel' peddal, more fuel is injected into the engine to produce more power. More fuel = more smoke out the tail pipe. The good thing is, with a diesel, most of the smoke is soot, which is very small solid particulates - not even a gas, much less a greenhouse gas. The soot is carbon, just like a charcoal briquet. The soot settle harmlessly to the ground.

DieselDan

Then gunks up your bike.

bottom-bracket

two words...... Veggie Oil!!!!!

pseudobrit

Diesel fuel, being denser, also has more kinetic energy per gallon.

Let me preface this by saying I drive a derv:

The particulates do not settle harmlessly to the ground so easily. They hang in the air for quite awhile and cause respiratory problems. Now, the particulates are a highly localized pollution problem. They do not have wide regional or global implications but they can cause problems in cities.

Nitrous oxides are a high component of diesel exhaust, and they cause regional smog.

Newer technology is reducing the particulates in exhaust, and overall, a diesel produces less worrying pollution than other ICE designs. CO2 exhaust in a biodiesel-burning car is ridiculously low.

phinney

Thanks pseudobrit, that's interesting.

galen_52657

I would think that if one of the big three US auto makers could come up with a diesel/electric hybrid, they would sell every one they could build - especially for small truck fleets.