diesel

It's sort of like an organ transplant for cars.

Transonic Combustion, which has been relatively secretive until now, has created a fuel injection system that will let diesel engines run on regular gasoline. Diesel engines get better mileage than regular gas engines, explained CEO Mike Cheiky in an interview. However, diesels typically emit more particulates. Gas is also far more readily available than diesel in the U.S. Insert Transonic's components into a diesel engine and you get the best of both worlds.

Additionally, the company's fuel injection system dramatically increases the internal compression in an engine, … Read more

BMW's got fast diesels ready for all 50 states. We take a first look from the floor of the 2008 Detroit auto show.

Click here for more 2008 Detroit auto show coverage.

At the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, diesel cars grabbed their share of the limelight, as manufacturers such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW prepare to import new diesel vehicles to the U.S. New diesel engines promise performance equivalent to gasoline cars but much better mileage, and new technology means cleaner emissions.

Click here for photos of new diesel cars shown in Detroit.

Click here for more 2008 Detroit auto show coverage.

EcoMotors is working on a futuristic diesel engine that's similar in concept to something Charles Lindbergh may have once used.

The company, which came out of stealth mode over the weekend, wants to bring what is called an opposed piston/opposed cylinder diesel engine to market. In ordinary engines, pistons pop up and down (or back and forth if laying down) inside an individual cylinder capped by a cylinder head. Gas is injected into the chamber and gets combusted by the action of the piston, among other factors.

In EcoMotors' engine, there is a double-length cylinder with a piston … Read more

We recently got a chance to play with a diesel-powered Audi A6 from Europe (click here for photos), and were impressed by its performance. At the 2008 Detroit auto show, Audi displayed the system that will clean up the diesel A6's exhaust when it's imported to the U.S. It is a complex system, and uses the AddBlue technology also embraced by Mercedes-Benz. The exhaust first goes through a particulate filter to remove the heavier bits, then the AddBlue solution breaks down the nitrous-oxide. A filler cap for the AddBlue tank sits right next to the gas cap. … Read more

Forget the smog-spewing oil-burners of old--a whole new generation of cleaner diesel cars is on its way to U.S. showrooms. In anticipation of the new wave of European-sourced diesels, we got our hands on an Euro-spec Audi A6 3.0 CDI to see how it compared with its gasoline equivalent. Having put it through a number of highly scientific emissions tests and the obligatory zero-to-60 run, we have to admit to being fairly impressed. Check out our photos of the Euro-spec Audi A6 diesel.

With its diesel engine, the 2008 Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI transports seven people and plenty of cargo while getting mileage worthy of a midsize sedan. The oversize SUV from Mercedes-Benz features all the interior luxury we would expect from the German carmaker, along with performance that favors economy over power. Unfortunately, it uses the same baseline cabin gadgets we saw in its gasoline-engined counterpart, the Mercedes-Benz GL450. This system covers a lot of the basics well enough, but the interface is poor and some features are antiquated.

Read the review

In two years, tourists will likely be traveling to Alcatraz on green energy.

Australia's Solar Sailor has come up with a way to make large solar panels that can also act like sails. Put one or more of the sails on a boat and the boat gets converted into a hybrid. The boat still has a diesel engine, but it mostly gets around on wind or sun power. A tour boat in Sydney Harbor has an array of eight small solar sails.

"It makes three runs a day and uses 1/10th of the fuel," says CEO … Read more

Despite a few hiccups on the big launch day, DC Comics' webcomics initiative Zuda Comics went live before the end of business Tuesday on the Left Coast. The first webcomics push by a corporate comic book publisher, Zuda is attracting a lot of attention as the webcomic-o-sphere tries to figure out what it all means.

… Read more