Re: Is this the future of towing??
Black smoke is pretty much gone from modern heavy-duty diesels. Has been since the first electronic ones came out in the late 80's. If you see a puff of black smoke from a modern diesel it has either been tampered with or it is broked or both. Older mechanically governed diesels blew black to enhance acceleration, but they have had that figured out electronically for years. All 2002 heavies and newer should never show any visible smoke, period.
This soot up the intake thing is probably due to EGR. If done properly and nothing is broked, EGR on a diesel is not that much to worry about. Any design, whether for efficiency, emissions, or both can have failures or inherent design issues, but I would be totally surprised if VW had a major design flaw that guaranteed they'd be eating warranty claims, and that they would not subsequently do something to fix it.
The turbo "spooled up all the time" is kinda one of the things done to drop emissions and control smoke. The reason the old Dump truck blew black early was because the turbo was not spooled up . . .
They've even gone to twin turbos, one lighter weight higher speed for low speed boost, and a larger one for higher loads and boost requirements. Waste gates allow the same thing, mega boost early that can be "dumped" if necessary.
Many of the latest diesels use both EGR and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) which is basically injecting Urea into a catalytic converter. This dramatically reduces NOx as does EGR. The combo gets them where they need to be. Some manufactures are SCR only, some EGR only. Both are very clean with the SCR negative being you need to fill up with both diesel and a splash of cow pee (Urea)
Neither of these strategies is about smoke though. Smoke is controlled with a Continuously Regenerating Trap (CRT) or Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF). They are the same thing, but they "trap" particulates and then burn them while "regenerating" to prevent plugging when exhaust temps are high (high load conditions).
Yes, lots of stuff to go wrong, buuuuut I have every confidence that manufacturers will get it right. Maybe not first year of big changes (1994, 1998, 2004, 2007 and the biggie is 2010).
There was a time when these diesels were not as clean as they claimed or certified. It was the late 90's and they all got caught manipulating emissions electronically for fuel economy. Caterpillar, Cummins, Detroit Diesel, Volvo etc. paid huge fines, and they had to "upgrade" all of the electronics so that they were 100% compliant all of the time. Today they are as clean as they say they are with a few very minor exceptions where the manufacturer made some cleaner and some not as and then averaged their emissions. The Mercruiser V6s of today are an example of this type of exemption. They cleaned up the V8s more than they had to and then used those "credits' to sell the V6s. Sort of like a bank and trade scheme but internal to that manufacturer.
