How do W123 diesels pass emissions?
 

I often see W123 diesels puffing smoke everywhere on the road. How do they pass DEQ?

Just curious.

not sure what the emissions laws are in your neck o the woods, but in CA diesels, motorcycles and pre-74 gassers are smog exempt.

check out this previous thread, good reading -

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=75194&highlight=truth+emissions

Answer:
 

Passenger diesel powered cars are exempt from formal emissions testing in most states. BUT! They are still subject to inspection failure (as well as road failure) for "visible" admissions.

And I have to say, I do not see many passenger diesel's smoking excessively. I think the vast majority of diesel owners are too proud to let that happen.

Smoke is only the visible part of the exhaust. I don't know exactly everything that's in exhaust. Diesels are much cleaner than g@ssers in most points and g@ssers are much cleaner than diesels in some other points.

I've seen some g@ssers of the same era put out MORE smoke than ours.

Side note: If you think our diesels put out alot of thick smoke, think of every time the space shuttle has launched ;)

the space shuttle launches rarely.

Old MB diesels smell awful. How do you stand the smell?

I'm not a troll. I just wanted to know how W123 diesels get pass DEQ and know I know.

Lots of old diesel cars smell. I, for one, think they smell and sound awful when I head and smell them. The diesel smell from the diesel car in front gets into my brain.

W123s seem to be very solid, well-built cars though.

They smell bad from the rear not the inside. You don't want to breath my exhaust after I had me some nice spicy chili. Diesel is just a whole different mind set. I prefer diesels myself.

Also my perticular diesel barely puffs any smoke. Even at night you can't hardly see my exhaust. ONLY of course when she's cold... then yes she does make a nice smoke screen. I drive her hard to keep my clouds down to a small black fart (that is not visible from inside the car) intially from a dead stop.

Nevada requires a smog check on all light-duty diesels. What they measure is the exhaust opacity, and all 3 of my cars aced the test. The highest was 3% I think.

You're right, some old MB diesels smoke a lot, but that's because they're not well maintained. Well maintained MB diesels will only smoke a little bit when cold or just for a second when accelerating hard.

Still we all know that old MB diesels produce a certain smell. I, like many people on this board, don't mind it. I think old gasoline cars and trucks smell a lot worse.

Yes indeedy, the Republic of California has seen fit to exempt our old diesel cars :D . My boss got a letter from AQMB (Air Quality Management Board ) to bring his car in to a referee station for testing because some cheese dick reported seeing his vehicle ( an 85 300CD in near perfect condition ) blowing smoke. He ignored it without any problems following.
My gas rigs, hereinafter referred to as "gross polluters", put out a great deal more pollutents than our diesels. These little 6 cylinder hot rodded Porsche engines idle @7% CO :eek: . Full throttle in a 3.5 liter twin plug buried the needle on my mobile Bosch CO machine and at night a 12 inch blue flame trails out my exaust pipe from my bright red K36 turbocharger.
Add to the above: I have taken the State smog stations to court and won :D .
And I have a smog licence.
The only time I smell diesel is when I'm behind one.

I can't stand the smell of gas! Its so strong it makes me choke.

Everytime I pump diesel into the tank a take a big whiff and exclaim in relief, "Ahhhh,.."

There's also something called biodiesel that makes it smell like freedom fries.:)


"BAH DAH DAH DAAAAH DAAH,... I'm LOVIN' it!"

You must not have seen my bumper sticker: "Diesel smoke makes me horney" :D

Kidding aside, I do like the smell. It's just something about it that attracts me back for another joyride everyday.

One smell I CAN'T stand is a rich burning g@sser :mad:

Here it is:

They just pass, so let it be...

Yeah, try riding behind one of those Ford Excretions, I mean, Excursions.

You want to smell gas? Come smell my, ummm...Never mind.

Nice bumper sticker. What did the cop say when he pulled you over after that little "smoking" incident?:D

I think I've had too much of "Grandpa's old cough medicine":p

He just asked me if everything was okay. I told him I had a "bad injector" and was on my way home from the Bosch Diesel shop with a spare. Oklahoma does not have emissions testing or vehicle inspections. No wonder there are so many "smoking diesels" around here. It's the only part of Oklahoma that I will miss when i leave for Colorado. :p

One of the worst gas emissions is the one you can't smell, carbon monoxide, where diesels put out carbon dioxide. In CA, gasoline is also "enriched" with methyl tertiary butly ether, which has contaminated over 10,000 ground water sites. It supposedly improves air quality by oxygenating the gas, but water soluable so separates from the gas as soon as it hits water. Every time it rains now in CA it's washing the toxic residue from every car, lawnmower, leafblower and Jet Ski into our drinking water. Ethanol is the other main oxygenator, but MTBE is a by product of refining natural gas, so the petroleum industry lobbied heavily to have it chosen despite strong scientific evidence against it. I used to fly hang-gliders, and its very often that you can top out right where an inversion layer is keeping the pollution trapped, and you fly in this thick purple gunk. When you get back on the ground and look up, you can't ever see it, but you know it's up there. This made me quit flying, and even riding in cars, until forced to drive to see my son. Any Californian who isn't doing something to ween themselves off of gas is giving their money to perpetuate the problem. I think you vote with your dollars in America, and nothing will change until the money flow stops. It disgusts me to see our troops dying to "fight terrorism" while we've volutarily made ourselves slaves to OPEC to enjoy our consumption driven lifestyles.

Westsidewagon

Its a personal thing. I know some people do not like the smell of a diesel. But when you get behind one, just close the fresh air vent and you should be ok until you get away. I personally hate to get behind a gaser with a bad catalitic converter. You know the rotten egg smell from the sulphur. But it is a personal thing. Its like a fish market. Some people hate the smell and some, it reminds them of -- well lets not go there. But I like the smell of diesel, and fish markets too!

Dave

Wow, this thread sure went a long ways in a little amount of time. As for my exhaust, it smells like burnt chicken or overdone egg rolls (depends on which restaurant I got that tank of oil from). Not the best smell in the world, I admit, but not too bad either. It smokes much less on veggie, too.

Back on topic...

I know that the Ohio e-check for diesel cars only checks the "visible" things (like no holes in the exhaust...) and "opacity".
So Ohioans (in certain counties) do have to bring thier car in and pay the man $20 to keep driving it, its not tough to pass. The opacity limit is 20%. if exhaust gas were 20% opaque (it blocked 20% of the light coming through it (?)) then you'd have to see a LOT of black smoke pouring out the back for it to fail.

-John

Old diesels still smell awful. I see more old polluting diesel cars on the road puffing smoke than gas cars. New diesels are great though. They make huge torque and have fantastic fuel economy.

When the old diesel engine dies, why not put in a newer late pre-OBDII diesel engine?

1. "Old diesels smell awful." That is purely a matter of opinion. I can remember even as a young child actually liking the smell of city bus exhaust. As with any odor - some people like it and some people don't.

2. "I see more old polluting diesel cars on the road puffing smoke than gas cars." There is much more to engine exhaust than just what you can see. From an ill-maintained diesel engine, you are seeing particulates and assuming the worst. However these particulates are relatively harmless and quickly fall back to the earth. Gasoline engines also produce particulates, but of a much smaller size so you can't see them and they stay in the atmosphere longer. Gasoline engines also produce much more harmful invisible gases than diesel engines. Finally, diesel engines are more effecient than gasoline engines, so overall they burn less fuel to do the same amount of work.

3. "New diesels are great." Agreed. That's why I have 2.

4. "When the old diesel engine dies, why not put in a newer late pre-OBDII diesel engine?" Speaking specifically about Mercedes here, they just don't die. That's why you still see so many of them on the road, and why we have this wonderful Diesel Discussion forum. But let's say for argument's sake that the engine in my 240D bites the dust. There are several options perferable to buying a 1993 OM602 engine. I could get another used 240D engine for little money, as W123 are hitting the wrecking yards every day due to rust and crashes.. I could rebuild the engine I have in the car. Or I could buy a rebuilt 240D engine that would go another 300K miles.

Another factor I think you're not considering is the materials and energy it takes to make a new car. By keeping these old cars on the road, we're deferring the purchase of new cars, and therefore the use of that material and energy until some future time when car making will undoubtedly be more efficient than it is today.

The reason you see old diesels on the road is that they are still around. Most gassers of the same vintage have long since been recycled.

If you want to start talking overall pollution, I wonder what causes more pollution: a 20 year-old diesel going down the road or the factory making 3 all new gassers in the same time period.

I see a lot of old BMW E28 (82-88 5er) 528es on the road (528e not 528es as there never was a 528es). They get great gas mileage. BMW dropped their 524td in the mid 80s after a year or two likely because the 528e was a better car.

Much more likely is that they dropped it because it didn't sell. MB dropped most of their Diesels in the U.S. in 1988, and discontinued them completely in 2000. Not because they're bad cars but because misinformed people in the U.S. won't buy them. Mostly, we can thank G.M. for that.

Here is a GM 2.5L Diesel that never went into production. Notice anything odd?

GM

I'll bite, whats odd in the picture?

Aside from the torturous route of the injection lines, and the fact that it is a V4?

My guess is that the picture is of the olds 350gasser cum diesel cut in half to a V4 layout. It's a good thing that it never made it into production. It simply would have been little more than another GM abomination in their long distinguished line of fantastic failures.

Nope... V5

The injection pump is where the "missing" cylinder would be. Count the IP lines :D

I thought there was something else funny about about the injection lines. The picture isn't clear enough in the IP area to count them accurately.

Oh my gawd, a V5. I wonder if it would vibrate at all. :rolleyes:

Across the pond, VW makes a g@sser V5. I don't know which vehicles it was an option on or if it's still an option.

Stock VW v5

Sounds of the V5:

http://homepage.hispeed.ch/spectre/sounds.htm

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