Ka-Boom! Diesel Engine Explodes On Dyno, Throws Piston into the Stands

No, this is not a scene from a movie.

In 1998, Peter Bernstein published a noteworthy bestseller by Peter Bernstein titled Against the Gods, the Remarkable Story of Risk. The author's premise was that in whatever endeavor one undertakes, there is risk involved and we need to learn how to manage it. No one is infallible when predicting outcomes because there are always variables outside of our control. In short, risk is a part of business. There are no sure things. As Robert Burns noted in his Ode to a Mouse, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

This book came to mind when I read a recent Truck Trend story about a 12-valve Cummins diesel engine that blew up on the dyno in a somewhat sensational fashion. It didn't just throw a piston; it threw a piston into the crowd.  

Competition pushes people to discover the limits of their equipment. Nevertheless, these efforts always involve risk. You can choose to play it safe and minimize risk, but you won't bring home any trophies.

The explosion took place a few weeks back at the Ultimate Callout Challenge in Brownsburg, Indiana. The team Power Driven Diesel had its truck named Godfather up on the dyno. They were looking for spectacular numbers. Instead they experienced a spectacular debacle.

According to the story by Monica Gonderman, the truck's main engine had been having trouble during the drag racing portion of the event so they replaced it for dyno day. Evidently they had a small fire a couple hours before their turn on the dyno, but must have felt they were good to go. 

They were aiming for an earth-shaking 3,000 horsepower, which they hoped to achieve with a little squirt of nitrous. Having hit 2700 hp a week earlier, they were feeling upbeat about it. Gonderman writes:

After shifting into fourth gear, the truck was under full power and pushing probably 250 pounds of boost. It was ripping through the pull nicely--until it wasn't. The internet reports that the truck made 2,369 hp and 3,039 lb-ft of torque before exploding. 

As we said at the outset, there is always risk involved, especially when you are pushing the envelope. The truck experienced serious damage as parts flew everywhere. The piston landed two rows in front of a guy shooting video. 

The PDD team seems to have been good sports about it all, because they offered to sign engine parts as souvenirs for those who witnessed the calamity. Todd, the man in the driver's seat, said the reverberations from the explosion felt like what you might feel when surrounded by an exceptionally good sound system. Good vibrations? 

On May 23 the Power Driven Diesel team posted a video about the event on YouTube and has already had over 200,000 views. You can watch it here. 

You can also check out the Truck Trend site to read more and see a gallery of photos.  

NOTE: This coming weekend it's the Daytona Truck Meet at Daytona Beach, from June 10 - 13. Will we see you there? 

GM Testing the New Duramax Diesel Powered Oshkosh JLTV

The relationship between military and civilian vehicles has an interesting history. During WW2 G.I.'s had the first encounter with the those light-duty 4x4 transports known as jeeps. They were rugged, reliable and ever ready for action. Even though it was basically designed for functionality and not comfort, after the war, lots of guys said, "I want one of these." As early as 1945 the first Civilian Jeeps were manufactured.

More recently, the HumVee had the same effect. HumVees were light four-wheel drive military trucks developed by AM General at the beginning of the 1980s. During Operation Desert Storm they received a lot of exposure and sure enough, civilians began wanting these as well and a civilian version was introduced in 1992 as the Hummer. In 1993 their all-terrain toughness made them competitive in off-road racing. GM purchased the brand in 1998 and continued manufacturing them. They even reconfigured some as stretch limousines.

Fast Forward to the Present

A next generation version of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) military transport is now in the works and being tested at Yuma and Oshkosh. When the RFT went out in 2008 for a disruptive new military vehicle to replace the HumVee (Official name: High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) and numerous major companies prepared bids. At that time, GM was not amongst those companies courting the contract. Today GM Defense has its hat in the ring to develop and produce this next-gen JLTV. GM Defense is the military vehicle and technology division of General Motors. 

Oshkosh Defense has been the manufacturer since that first run but GM has so analyzed this machine they believe they know it better than Oshkosh itself. 

What interested us most here at Blue Flame is that the engine for this vehicle is a Duramax supplied by Banks Power--yes, the same Gale Banks team that develops innovative engines for racers. The JLTV will be the most advanced, fastest and safest light tactical vehicle ever. The Duramax V8 turbo-diesel engines is couple with a six-speed transmission. According to Army Technology, it's equipped with a TAK4i intelligent suspension system which enable it to deliver a superior riding experience across various terrains.

According to a story by Bernice Baker, who had a chance to be a passenger, this is a machine that can tackle nearly any obstacle from marshy swamp to 60 degree vertical uphill climbs, navigating bouldered terrain and log piles with apparent ease.

It's also designed for being equipped with weaponry, something that I doubt will be available for civilians in this era of road rage. It has a self-leveling feature that improves weapon sighting, writes Baker. 

Like the HumVee it is designed with a low profile so as to make it convenient to load on cargo aircraft and amphibious landing craft that have low height clearances. Its versatility is another plus. It's not really a toy, but it does look like it could be fun.

Relevant Links

GM Authority's Photo Gallery of Testing at Oshkosh

Heart-Stopping Power: Gale Banks' 1200 Horsepower Tri-Charged Duramax

Baja Photo Gallery of the Project Vehicle Courtesy Banks Power

The Army Technology Feature with still more photos

Nearly Half of All Commercial Trucks Now Powered by Clean Diesel Technology with Near Zero Emissions

Photo by Rhys Moult on Unsplash

Yesterday the Diesel Technology Forum released information from a new study with impressive new numbers regarding the adoption of advanced diesel technology. Nearly half (49%) of all commercial diesel trucks on the road today utilize the newest diesel engine technology, eliminating 202 million metric tons of CO2, 27 million metric tons of NOx ad 1.6 million metric tons of PM. All this has been achieved while simultaneously saving almost 20 billion gallons of diesel and 296 million barrels of crude. 

Right now 23 states exceed this average and Indiana leads the pack with 67% of its commercial trucks being 2011 or newer. 

To fully appreciate how significant these numbers are, consider this. The quantity of emissions and fuel savings is equivalent to replacing 43 million cars with EVs or creating a 210,000 acre wind farm (roughly 5 times the size of Washington D.C.).

How many Americans are aware of how much progress has been made in reducing toxic discharge? Throughout the coming decade we will see even greater environmental gains.

"Results from the newest technology diesel vehicles are growing in the form of cleaner air and fewer greenhouse gases in communities around the country," said Allen Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Diesel Technology Forum. For those unfamiliar, the DTF is a not-for-profit association that represents leaders in diesel engines, equipment and fuels.

The primary reason all this is important is that diesel-powered commercial carriers are the primary, and favored, way of transporting goods across our ribbons of highway. Reliability, durability, low-cost acquisition and operation, high-value resale and flexibility head the list of reasons diesel-powered trucks are dominant. With the incremental improvements to achieve zero emissions and energy-efficient performance, diesel's contributions to our nation's economic growth are significant and unheralded.

Diesel Technology Forum continues to do important work as advocates on behalf of diesel. We're exceedingly appreciative of their lobbying efforts and all the numbers crunching they do to assemble this kind of encouraging information for the diesel community. 

The full article is a five minute read. You can check it out here.

GMC Lands Two on US News & World Report's List of 13 Most Powerful Diesel Trucks

GMC Sierra 1500 -- standing strong in 2021.

Making lists -- whether Top 10 Video Games or Top 100 Album Covers -- seems to be one of those things we never weary of. Top 10 state colleges. Top 5 investments for coming out of the pandemic. Billboard Top 100 for any year. Forbes' Top 400 Billionaires always grabs a lot of eyeballs. And the subject of this blog post, U.S. News & World Reports' Most Powerful Light-Duty Pickup Trucks of 2021.

My first thought in reading this list is to ask, "Why 13?" The answer that comes readily to mind is that by making the list longer, it can be more inclusive. Thus, U.S. News & World Report is able to include Nissan, Toyota and Honda offerings, in addition to the major U.S. manufacturers' offerings. 

In this post I want to introduce the two GMC trucks, then close by listing the top five on USN&WR's powerful trucks list.  Number 8 on the list is the 2021 GMC Canyon AT4 Off Road Performance Edition. The GMC Sierra 1500 muscled its way into the Number 3 slot.

GMC Sierra 1500
The truck division of General Motors covers a lot of territory. GMC makes military vehicles, motorhomes, SUVs, vans, buses, and trucks--heavy duty, medium-duty and light duty. This year's Sierra is available with five engine options, out favorite being the Duramax 3.0-liter Turbo-Diesel. This engine produces 277 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. 

If you know your Spanish, you might be aware that the word sierra means saw. We've come to associate it with mountains, but those High Sierras and Sierra Madres obtained their names from their ragged sawtooth appearance. GMC adopted the name to no doubt correspond to the rugged requirements for vehicles in this kind of terrain.

In addition to the engine options, the Sierra comes with three different drivetrain options that correspond with engine selection. GMC also offers buyers three different can configurations as well. Just looking at this truck, with is expansive grille and staunch design, gives you the impression that it's ready and able to go to work. 

2021 GMC Canyon

2021 GMC Canyon 

Like the Sierra, the Canyon also has a name that speaks of ruggedness. The GMC Canyon took a respectable 8th place on the USN&WR top 13 list. This truck has three engine options. It's Duramax Turbo-Diesel is a four-cylinder power plant that puts out 181 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque. This is a more compact machine that one can dress up with trim options.  

Car & Driver summed up its take on the Canyon with this verdict: "The Canyon has fancier styling than its Chevy sibling, but they both have tremendous capabilities."

The Top 5 
Here are the five USN&WR selected as their highest rated favorites, though all of these trucks have been turning heads and pulling strong reviews. 

(5) 2021 Nissan Titan

(4) 2021 Silverado 1500 

(3) 2021 GMC Sierra

(2) 2021 Ford F-150

Numero Uno: 2021 Ram 1500

GMC liked seeing both these trucks make the USN&WR Top 13 Powerful Light Duty Trucks list. This blog post was inspired by a story highlighted on The News Wheel website.

For a full account of the 13 trucks selected by U.S. News & World Report, visit Jim Gorzelaney's May 27 story here.

Photos: GMC

New Cummins Diesel Engine Fires Off Fabulous Numbers: Clean Diesel Keeps Getting Cleaner with a Little Help from Silicon Valley

Cummins X15: expanding diesel's possibilities.

A recent story by Michael Coates in the Clean Fleet Report was reprinted on SHIFT, a website devoted to sustainable mobility. The article is about Cummins' efforts toward clean diesel.

The author begins by noting what we've been saying many times. There are seemingly countless articles claiming that the internal combustion engine is dead or dying. While investors are throwing their money behind EVs, there are significant advances taking place with the internal combustion engine. While the world prepares for an electric future, there are great strides being made in the realm of diesel.

Coates writes: "While 2045 may still be more that two decades away, emissions advances in internal combustion engines (ICE) are continuing. A new technology may take the already quite clean (especially compared with engines of just a little more than a decade ago) engines to a level that reduces smog-producing emissions while increasing fuel economy and yet not losing any performance."

The new engine concept is a joint effort by Cummins and a Silicon Valley tech innovator, Tula Technology. The two firms  released a study this past month showing how Tula's diesel Dynamic Skip Fire (dDSF) technology reduced NOx by 74% and CO2 by 5% when applied to a current Cummins engine. The Tula software uses algorithms to fire or deactivate a given cylinder on a cylinder event basis. As a result it is able to control exhaust temps that are critical for optimizing emissions control equipment. It reportedly clicked off a savings of 20% in fuel. 

The specific Cummins diesel was the X15, a state-of-the-art engine used in many Class 8 trucks. dDSF is essentially a micromanager of the engine's cylinders. The engine was first put through the paces on the dyno and then road tested, testing that is ongoing. 

According to the Clean Fleet Report, Cummins is not the first to employ dDSF technology. GM began working with Tula in 2018. The joint effort with Cummins, however, has now been going on for a year or more.

The selection of the X15 was quite intentional. This is Cummins' most fuel efficient diesel engine in the Cummins lineup and possibly the most fuel efficient they've ever produced. The target for this Tula-Cummins team-up is to hit 2024 NOx standards without losing this fuel-efficiency milepost.

For long haul trucking fleets that average 100,000 miles a year, even the slightest gains become significant when added up. This is just one more event in an ongoing series of incremental improvements through the application of technology. We look forward to the road ahead. 

Related Links

Cummins Won't Let Diesel Die
Cummins and Tula Work Together To Advance Diesel Tech
The New Cummins Heavy Duty Diesel

How to Read Diesel Smoke Signals

In early April, XDP published a useful tech talk article on how to diagnose what's going on in your engine by what your smoke is telling you. This article is a brief summary of the highlights from that story. We'll include a link at the end here so you can read further.

The article begins by stating flat out that there should be no smoke coming out of the tailpipe of a properly running diesel engine. The exception might be a small burst of black smoke upon acceleration in older diesels.

If you do have smoke, it will be either black, blue or white.  

Black Smoke is indicative of a problem with the air/fuel ratio. The culprit is often the fuel injectors, though not always. Fuel injector issues can include damaged nozzles, worn parts, over-fueling or incorrect injector timing. Sometimes there's a problem with injectors sticking open too long with common rail diesels.

Other areas to explore with a black smoke problem include clogged air cleaner, malfunctioning turbocharger, faulty injection pump, low compression, sludge buildup, excessive carbon in the intake manifold, and even low quality fuel.  

White Smoke will signal a different set of issues. Often it means that not enough fuel is being burned, or that unused fuel has slipped through to the exhaust. It could also mean that your engine is too cold on startup, or that coolant has somehow seeped into the combustion chamber.

With white smoke you may also have an injector issue, either damaged or incorrect timing. Other potential issues can include damaged rings or cylinder liners, water in the fuel due to a head gasket leak, low cylinder compression, malfunctioning glow plugs, or even a fuel pump issue.

Blue Smoke is the least common of the three.  It means you're burning oil in your engine. Not good. Underlying causes can include damaged, worn or sticking rings, damaged or worn cylinders, oil too thin for your application, worn seals, too much oil in the engine or a damaged lift pump. 

Whatever the cause, excess smoke is not something you really want to see. Here's the full article at XDP: Diesel Smoke Diagnosis

Related Link
Looking for Blue Flame Diesel Oil? Now Available at Xtreme Diesel Performance

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Today is Memorial Day. To all veterans, current service members, and their families – thank you.

Memorial Day: A Day for Honoring Those Who Have Served

Memorial Day, which usually falls on the last Monday of the month, falls this year on the very last day of the month. Most of us are aware that Memorial Day was designed to honor the men and women who have died in the service of our country. Did you know that the entirety of May is National Military Appreciation Month? It is a season for honoring our veterans and military communities for their service to our country. 

This holiday, which began after the Civil War, was originally called Decoration Day. On the first official Decoration Day, General James Garfield gave a speech at Arlington National Cemetery. 5000 people helped lay decorations on the graves of 20,000 Civil War soldiers who were buried there. 

It wasn't until 1971 that it became an official national holiday, making this year the 50th anniversary of this official designation. Many Americans observe this day by visiting cemeteries, holding family gatherings and participating in parades.

Throughout this last weekend of Military Appreciation Month we want to make time to honor our veterans and all those associated with the military for their service to our country. 

We're grateful for your dedication to preserving our freedom and making this world a better place. To each and every one of you: Thank You.