Re: F250 gas vs diesel
K fellas... Ive read through here. You wont have any clogging of the injectors, or sooting of valves, or any of that with a diesel these days.. At the base here.. 90% of our vehicles are deisel. Powerstroke's on all 45 of out F450 ambulances, duramax's on the 200+ Milcots (think of a chevy crew cab spraypainted olive drab with detroit diesel engines.) our mercedes benz G-wagens, the Detroit Deisels in our AFV's, even the 9.75L Steyr engines in our heavy support trucks.
Weve suffered probably the worst condition of fuel in afganistan, to the point where I was changing primary fuel filters once an hour due to the high wax content. You get pretty quick about it when your stuck on the side of the road in a place that isnt very friendly... (I for one an extremely happy the US Army was there overhead with the Ah-64's.)
The old addage remains. Deisel engines to not like to idle. This is true. A carbon build up will happen at low idle if left for extended periods. I mean really extended. 2-4 hundred hours or even longer.
As for a light load. Whenever you vehicle moves, it has to work against load. Constantly. The weight of the vehicle alone gives enough resistance to bring rpms to at least 900 rpm or higher.
Also if you happen to be in Canada, all diesel should now be low-sulfur, which will greatly reduce the soot and carbon factor. I cant speak for the US, which may throw this completely out the window.
I think really what more do you get out of a diesel.
Increased milage.
Increased towing power.
Partially reduced maintenance, no spark plugs, no coils.
Here's what the downside is....
-Increased Cost. Diesels usually cost several thousand dollars more.
-Increased maintenance. 2-3 fuel filters (water separator as well. some are combined with the primary) some setups may have dual oil filters.
-Increased fuel cost. Depends on where you live here. Gas is 105.1/L... Diesel is 110.1/L...
-Smell. More of a wifey complaint if you catch my drift.
-Less infrastructure. In smaller areas diesel fuel isn't as widely available.
The big factor I find is the price of the engine when compared to the other. I think dodge diesels are rougly $7000 more for the set up. Thats a lot of bread to consider. Think long and hard about your choice man.
Same thing, it didn't know it was resting, so how can it benefit from it? Engines don't have watches or calendars.
