Pass the lab coat
by Khalid Omar
New passenger-car diesel engines from the Ford-Peugeot Citroen alliance will require workers to be trained to work in a sterile environment. The common-rail diesel design, requiring all cylinders to be injected with fuel at the same pressure, needs a dirt-free environment to ensure there is no blockages in the fuel lines.
“With the old tractor-type diesel engines it didn’t matter too much about a bit of dirt, but these new engines have much less tolerance of any dirt particles, especially in fuel lines and the fuel head,” a Ford U.K. spokesman says.
Such attention to detail will require workers in high-tech environments to labor under sterile conditions and powerful lighting. They will be required to wear white coats and protective footwear.
>> Pass me the lab coat; I have diesel engines to build
Whatever will local mechanics do? Especially when the majority of workshops in this country look like this? Common rail diesels are now becoming common in all the new diesel cars and suvs. A 28,000 psi encounter with a bit of dirt is not going to be pretty…
Whenever any work is done in the fuel system, like changing the fuel filter or an injector or just about anything else, the technique here to get the air out of the system is to loosen the injectors one by one and let them squirt out the air. With a common rail, that technique is obviously not going to work - or if it does it won’t be too healthy for the mechanic tightening the injectors.
This is not to even mention the often dodgy diesel outside the big cities.
Posted in Tech, March 11, 2005, by Khalid Omar
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