Greetings from Poland

[dieseltech]

Hi everyone. My name is Peter and I'm from Poland.

I'm currently working on a diesel bike using the 1.6L Ford Fiesta engine and gearbox. You can read about it in the bike building forum - I'll post the details there shortly.

I have plenty of experience working with diesel engines and cars in general. Do note that I absolutely despise any and all engine- and drivetrain-related electronics. The fact that I have a formal degree in electronics doesn't help - in fact it just further increases and justfies my hate. The only automotive electronics I consider acceptable - and frequently necessary - are those which are not strictly critical to the vehicle's operation, such as the cruise control, windshield wiper timer, alarm/central locking, etc.

To keep a long story short, I only deal with mechanically governed, mechanically injected diesels. They've proven their reliability over more than a century, and that's enough for me. You can't improve that with electronics - only make it worse.
Not that it really matters with modern cars and their 5 year life cycles, which is also why I hate modern cars for that matter. Maybe in other countries the average person can afford to buy a new car every 2-4 years, but where I live we sure as hell can't. So I firmly believe that ALL tools - and a car is really just that, a tool - should be built to LAST, rather than to be replaced every 2 years.

I also worked with spark ignition engines on a few occasions, but that was complete and utter bullcrap and let's not talk about it again. Gasoline is for cleaning parts and LPG/CNG is for stoves. NOT for street vehicles. Period. Full stop.
I hate SI engines on general principles. There's no ideology or fanaticism involved here - they are simply fundamentally flawed from a technological standpoint. Truly accurate (AND reliable) fuel metering is basically impossible, the fuel is extremely flammable (AND explosive in case of LPG/CNG), the ignition systems have a short lifetime, etc, etc. And unless you want to live with a distributor and points (and a carb), electronics are inevitable.
The only cases where I recognize SI engines as appropriate technology is in racing applications and in handheld power tools (ie. chainsaws, weedwackers) - both are cases where the high power/weight ratio far outweighs the poor fuel economy, low reliability and fire hazards.

Well, I think that about wraps it up for an introduction. See you at the build thread.

[coachgeo]

You sir need an old Diesel Unimog or similar to go with with a Diesel Dual Sport bike and you'll be one happy camper lol.

[Stuart]

Welcome Dieseltech and may I say that many here feel as you do regarding electronics controlling Diesel engines