Originally Posted by
OZBUSDRIVER
The technology required to make modern diesels economical is two or three orders of complexity higher than current dinosaur avgas engines. Common rail fuel systems and concomitant myriad ECUs are all serious failure modes for even minor issues. If only we could make a cheap to run, light weight diesel with the technology level of GM 2 stroke.
Common rail injection with electronic ECU's are now standard on almost all current road vehicles, reliability is outstanding. Redundancy utilising a reduced performance "limp home mode" would easily exceed certification requirements.
Interesting comment implying the Detroit Diesel (GM 2 stroke) is low tech...
4 exhaust valves per cylinder, roller cam followers for the exhaust valves and the unit injectors, supercharged and on some models turbocharged with inter and after coolers. Very reliable generally.