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From: simard@loral.UUCP (Ray Simard)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: diesel cars
Message-ID: <157@loral.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 26-May-84 13:33:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: loral.157
Posted: Sat May 26 13:33:01 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 05:32:16 EDT
References: <788@akgua.UUCP>, <773@pyuxa.UUCP>
Organization: Loral Instruments, San Diego
Lines: 23


	GM first sold a diesel engine that was converted from their
5.7 liter gasoline engine.  The results were disastrous.  They have
since abandoned the 5.7 liter abomination (in the trucks and vans, anyway)
and are now offering a 6.2 liter Allison (or Detroit diesel, I'm not sure)
engine, about which I've heard quite a few good comments.  I sure hope
they are accurate, since I'm awaiting delivery of a GM van with the
6.2L diesel in July.

	About the carcinogens in diesel exhaust: it would seem to me
(admittedly not a specialist in the field) that diesel exhaust is less
damaging to the environment than gasoline exhaust, since most of the
emissions are particulates, which rapidly settle out of the air of
their own weight, with a lower level of hydrocarbons, which dissolve into
the atmosphere and become a more or less permanent part of the air we
breathe.  We are therefore exposed to particulates only for the relatively
short time we are close to the source.

Any informed comments on the above?

Ray Simard
Loral Instrumentation