Diesel News – 1000 Gallon Diesel Heist, Diesel Tesla, and more
Highlights
Van with trap door steals over 1000 gallons of diesel
Just outside Houston Texas a gas station was robbed of around 1000 gallons by thief’s in a “custom” minivan. The manager of Fuqua Express gas station, Jerry Thayil, caught the Mad Max-esque robbers red handed as the vehicle pulled up for the third time and simply parked over the stations tank fill doors: “At first we were like, ‘I wonder what he’s doing there,’ because we didn’t see anyone get out of the vehicle. But then, we realized there’s probably a trap door inside the vehicle and he’s pumping like that,” Thayil told Houston’s KPRC news. In the end the crew stole fuel on three different occasions at roughly 350 gallons each time. That equals a little over 2400lbs worth of fuel alone, per trip…
Highlights
Diesel Dually Tesla Model 3
Engine swap fanatics might recognize the YouTube crew at Rich Rebuilds. The guys swapped an LS into a Tesla a short while back setting the internet ablaze. Their next build? A Model 3 powered by the most common diesel swapped drivetrain, a 4BT Cummins. It’s not the first thumb of the nose at electric vehicles, there’s a 4BT Prius out there too, but it might be the coolest yet. The Model “D” as they’re calling it, has a chassis from a Square Body GM and the drivetrain out of an old bread truck featuring the 4BT and manual trans. Apparently the plan is not to leave it stock either with performance upgrades planned. We can’t wait to see this one when it’s done.
Fuel News
Virgina makes the swap from diesel to propane amongst fuel price spike
With the recent astronomically high gas prices, Virginia’s Newport News moves to swap out some of their diesel powered school busses for propane powered ones. Considering the cost of a gallon of diesel is less than half the cost of propane (although we’re unsure about the mileage differences), the city was forced to make the change. Newport News Public Schools amazingly had just been given roughly a quarter million dollars from an EPA grant aimed to help school districts to switch over to clean-energy. Perfect timing, the district’s rep says.
https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/education/newport-news-replacing-diesel-school-buses/
Emissions
New Emissions Standards For Heavy-Duty Trucks Proposed
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed new emissions standards for HD truck and engine manufacturers. The proposed changes would be implemented starting MY 2027. According to overdriveonline.com EPA says “the proposed standards would reduce emissions of smog- and soot-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) from heavy-duty gasoline and diesel engines by as much as 60% by 2045 and set updated greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for certain commercial vehicle categories.” While the specifics are still TBD, changing warranty requirements for MFG’s to match these new regulations was discussed.
OEM News
Virtual Reality Entertainment Option in New Audi’s
According to Newspress USA: “Audi is the first automobile manufacturer in the world to bring virtual-reality entertainment from holoride into series production. Beginning this summer, back seat passengers can put on virtual reality glasses (VR glasses) and immerse themselves in various media formats including games, films and interactive content.”
One thing that really amazed us, the virtual reality will adapt to the vehicle’s movements in real time. We’ve never been gamers, but this just might change our minds.
