Diesel engines are the combined inventions of two specific inventors, Rudolph Diesel and Herbert Akroyd Stuart. The internal engine is strictly from Diesel and the injection system is derived from Stuart. Stuart is best known for his advances in solid injection. Solid injection is derived from compressing fuel to extremely high pressures by means of pumps. It is then forced under pressure through injectors into the combustion chamber. Diesel’s original engine injected fuel by means of compressed air into the cylinder. The fuel was atomized and mixed with air and then injected. This was “air-blast" injection. The early models of diesel engines were extremely large and heavy due to the large compressors needed as part of its’ fuel injection system. Naval diesels were so large that they needed separate engines just to compress the air required to power the diesels. During the earlier years, the use of diesel engines with automobiles was not feasible.

Today’s diesel is a miracle of innovative genius. No longer is the engine serviced by a mechanical fuel pump but by ECM run fuel pumps, which service the individual injectors at the proper and accurate opening times. The distributor pump direct injection method was improved vastly by the Volkswagen Audi group in 1989. The genie in the bottle or the ECM (the electronic control module) made the injection timing, fuel measurement, exhaust recirculation and turbo boost precise and accurate. They provided the incentive for diesels to be marketed to the mass market. Consequently, Volkswagen began selling their Mark 3 Golf TDI very successfully. European automobile manufacturers build common rail direct injector diesel engines, a means where the distributor injection pump is deleted and a high-pressure reservoir stores the fuel at extremely high pressures. The computer-controlled injectors have a precision system actuated by solenoid or even piezo-electric actuators and are used to inject diesel fuel at the correct time. This high performance diesel engine is used primarily for racecars.

So why should someone buy a diesel? Diesel fuel is denser than gasoline by 15%. The diesel engine must be larger in order to put out the same power as a gasoline engine. The size of the diesel engine has with the assistance of turbo charging, precise timing and feed back allowed it to operate under pressures impossible with gasoline engines. This means a more efficient and powerful engine. Therefore, if you want a faster, more economical and environmentally safer automobile then choose a diesel.

If you are concerned about the diesel knock then a diesel rail injection system with a two-stage injection system can completely rid your vehicle of the dreaded diesel knock. In the department of emissions, diesel engines rate very environmentally friendly since they produce little to no carbon monoxide. The higher PM10 (or particulate matter greater than or equal to 10 microns) emission occurs when diesels are not equipped with diesel particulate filters. The other pollutant gases of sulfur and nitrogen oxides are eliminated by catalytic converter.

The diesel is renowned for the power and torque required for towing heavy loads. It is reliable and easier on engines to start than gasoline engines because there is less wear and tear due to the lower pressures. Last, a diesel offers many types of effective and inexpensive fuels such as the biodiesel fuels found in vegetable oils and used vegetable oils.