diesel rods

I have seen quite a few diesel powered rat rods on "you tube". When they push the go faster pedal they emit a great deal of unburnt feul in the form of "black smoke".

Any one have a smoke belching diesel? Does the fuzzy wuzzies operating under the guise of law enforcement ever put pressure on you?

I have a few cummins trucks, none are ratrods, but they can turn day into night time if pushed to. I drive sensible most of the time and don't draw attention to myself so I don't get harassed. I have had some hard looks from California patrol officers tho as I merge into traffic on the interstate. I pull a 53' trailer so it works the truck a bit so they never have messed with me yet.

Black smoke is wasted fuel. A little smoke is OK, but "blowing coal" is too much fuel not being burned completely. Now if you are looking at a high performance diesel like a tractor puller, those engines are running within an inch of their life, and the extra fuel is helping cool the cylinder enough to keep them from burning a piston. I doubt many, if any, of the trucks you see on the street are built that close.

Bama the extra fuel also builds compression. It's not completely wasted, just not burned

That's true 21. Liquids don't compress. But more fuel doesn't always equal more power, just more smoke.

Fuzzy Wuzzies

Da fuze....Da Man....the Cops....The boys in blue...

bruno said:

Fuzzy Wuzzies

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Da Heat....Da Bacon....SOMEBODY STOP ME!!!...

I have a theory that black diesel smoke is not just silly and wasteful, it's shooting yourself in the foot. I believe that 'if there's that much carbon going out the pipes, there's some going down past the rings like little pieces of half built diamonds, wearing out your rings and cylinder walls, blackening up your oil with fine carbon chunks that are wearing your bearings out, too'.
I've been trucking for a long time, sometimes with my eyes open.

Unless I am pulling a load, my Cummins never smokes
Even when punching it.

Sarge I was called a lot of things in my time on the force, but never Fuzzy Wuzzie.

bruno said:

Sarge I was called a lot of things in my time on the force, but never Fuzzy Wuzzie.

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the long arm of johnny law?

Bamamav said:

That's true 21. Liquids don't compress. But more fuel doesn't always equal more power, just more smoke.

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My thoughts too. The old adage that black smoke means more power goes way back. It might have the slight advantage 21 mentions but it's mostly just the gee whiz factor that the same people who like seeing a set of tires go up in smoke are bemused by. Just my 2 cents.

Yep you can roll smoke without much power but can't have much power without Rollin smoke.

I love to see the smoke roll from an old D9 or pulling tractor, not so much from some jacked up pavement pounder into my window from a stoplight.

I think the idea of massive smoke goes back to the old mechanical engines. With those, you turned the fuel to them for more power, problem was, there was nothing to regulate that fuel/air mix, so they smoked under power. Today's electronic engines make more power with less fuel and almost no smoke.

exador said:

Any one have a smoke belching diesel? Does the fuzzy wuzzies operating under the guise of law enforcement ever put pressure on you?

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I think it depends on where you are. Maybe our fuzzy friends that hang out here can help answer that. My general experience with it, is that traffic cops are not EPA cops, and they don't want to be. They're there to stop people from being donkeys. If you're pulling a load like 21willys, and blow some smoke, it shouldn't be a problem. If you're doing a holeshot, and birds are dropping out of the sky, then you probably have it coming.

Willowbilly3 said:

I love to see the smoke roll from an old D9 or pulling tractor, not so much from some jacked up pavement pounder into my window from a stoplight.

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How about a allis chalmers HD16M? She would burn about 9-11 gallons a hours while pushing hard.

Cool old Army Corps tractor but she must not be pushing much there, don't see the smoke.

Not pushing anything, just brush n a little dirt.

There's many a high performance diesel that barely turns the exhaust dark under full load / boost. Many of the idiots out there "rolling coal" are purposely turning the fuel controller to the max just to pour out black smoke. Although many highway patrol or street cops are not EPA regulators many states have laws that state you can be pulled over for excessive smoke from the tail pipe. And you can also be arrested for such things as disorderly conduct or even negligent driving for purposely smoking out intersections and stretches of roads. The legal reasoning being the people driving can no longer see the road, stop lights pedestrians etc. causing a danger to the public. Just some friendly FYI. carry on! [cl