FROM: James Clark SUBJECT: Re: diesel question DATE: Tue, 03 Oct 2000 19:25:36 -0700 ORGANIZATION: Global Network Services - Remote Access Mail & News Services NEWSGROUPS: rec.autos.4x4 Willem-Jan Markerink wrote: > In article <20001003004952.12359.00000100@ng-cs1.aol.com>, > arcaeh@aol.com (Andrew) wrote: > >>From: w.j.markerink@a1.nl (Willem-Jan Markerink) > > > >>And electronics is not enough, you need a high-pressure system like > common > >>rail (the Powerstroke has that I believe) > > > >Since when? > > Since quite some time I believe, it might even have been the first > non-heavy-truck diesel with common rail/very-high-pressure ever (although I > recently learned that Renault now claims to have the very first common-rail > heavy truck engine). > I might confuse this with ordinary direct-injection as a first in a > non-heavy-truck application, but that seems somewhat unlikely, since I also > recall a mid-1990 time-stamp of this fact, and I thought the Powerstroke > got its direct injection quite some time before that. > The "Powerstroke" has a common fuel rail (a cast gallery in the head), but so do the PT Cummins and the older Detroits. It is fed low pressure fuel via the lift pump. The PS pumps high pressure engine oil into another gallery and this oil is routed, via solenoids, to and from chambers located directly above unit injectors. The oil moves a piston that discharges the injectors, rather than relying on a fixed camshaft. Caterpillar uses the same system.