CO and CO2 are very harmful, you are correct. But those, you can breathe out!! The particulates in diesel exhaust you cannot. I was not referring to how harmful diesel fuel was to the environment, just to you and me. I will find a link for you.

Yes. Diesel exhaust is a serious public health risk and has been listed as a known human carcinogen since 1990. In 1998, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) formally listed diesel particulate as a toxic air contaminant. In fact, diesel particulates are the most significant source of air toxics in California and account for 70 percent of the cancer risk from toxic air contaminants statewide, according to CARB. Diesel exhaust also exacerbates lung diseases such as asthma and emphysema. Public health risks are greatest from older model diesel engines that emit the highest levels of diesel particulates.
http://www.californialung.org/spotlight/diesel_faq.html

One point for me!!!

I love the smell of a clean diesel, but the old dity diesels like older busses and 18 wheelers are nasty. A diesel with a cat smells really good but when you take that cat off the smell gets stronger. I also think the cat makes it smell sweeter. I love the smell of the diesels that have that sweet smell. Yep it brings back memories of the old school diesel rabbits and 300d's.
You know you are addicted to your diesel car when you have a black ring around your mouth.......... from taking bong hits from your exhaust.

Knight Rider521, I find that website pretty biased. They mention biodiesel as a green alternative, but they also say it's usually just 20% concentration and so it's not very useful in reducing emissions and instead natural gas is the best alternative. Sounds to me like they own a lot of shares in the oil industry and see biodiesel as a threat. Running on pure biodiesel is currently the best way to protect the environment and human health, period. Natural gas burns clean too, but produces way more green house emissions.

About CO, no you don't breathe it out, it penetrates your blood through your lungs and diminishes your blood's ability to carry oxygen, causing death or organ failure. And the organic vapors in gasoline exhaust are as carcinogenic as they get. About diesel particulates, I believe they too are harmful, but the evidence has not been as conclusive as you make it sound. In fact the EPA recently said that the results of their studies are inconclusive.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

of f-1 fumes better but those days are waaaaaaaaaay behind me.

bio d is untraceable. it smells familiar but not at the same time. thats when it is clean veg o to start with.

Hey; get away from my exhaust pipe!!! ROFL

So, we're really a bunch of hipster druggies looking to get a high.

Ahhhh, the sweet, sweet fragrance of half-burned dieselfumes.

Forget the grass, pass the oil.

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1987 300SDL (324000)

1986 Porsche 951 (944 Turbo) (166000)

1978 Porsche 924 (99000)

1996 Nissan Pathfinder R50 (201000)

I wonder if you can produce biodiesel from hemp oil, mmmm everyone driving behind you would be all ##*ked up.

It reminds me of my youth in New Jersey.....

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Over 21 years I owned several:
w108
w110
w111
w115
w116
w123
w124
w126
w212

What diesel smell?

Intoxicating aroma.

Lets not ruin all this good talk by introducing the fact that it could actually be bad for you.
If you think about it EVERTHING we do COULD potentially be bad for you.
Just this morning after a cold start up the diesel smell perrneated the air and today it reminded me of my youth when I would put those little drops in my electric train's smoke stack and it would belch out smoke around the track.
What a nice visit, all because of my 300SD
See - diesel is good, Monday morning and I am happy as my limbic system is working overtime.

Running down the road today and a big Lincoln Town car was ahead if me flooring it up a hill. I about threw up on the the rotten egg smell it was producing and waffing into my air vents.
No one can tell me that smells better than diesel.
I decided to floor the ol SD and gave the guy behind me a treat!
At least I hope so.
My little act of kindness for the day,
just wish I could have passed that Lincoln, but no such luck.

That's not crayons... that's a heater core leak. Hot MB coolant smells like crayons (open your expansion tank sometime when the engine is warm---slowly!---and take a whiff).

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AlexTheSeal: hack mechanic, inadvertent drifting champ, builder of infernal devices, professional epistemologist

'87 300D Turbo, roadtrip mileage champ (for sale!)
'92 Isuzu Trooper, mudder extraordinaire (for sale!)
'82 Honda Silverwing, cockroach of motorcycles
And various boring daily drivers...

Wow, old thread.


Who else thinks gasoline exhaust smells more toxic? To me gasser exhaust has a sweetish, evil cancer smell. Diesel exhaust just smells like burnt oil

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

diesel exhaust is nasty. low octane gas is nasty too. 93+ octane however smells kinda cool from carb'd vehicles, coupled with the sound of high performance v8's or air cooled twins. but then they start burning rubber. blechh!
wvo smells good. i don't know about bio but i do like the grill smell

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1984 300TD "MAX" 303K+ still going...
fast '70 Chevelle 200k+
home built Shovelhead chopper