Tuning for Power or Safety

The word Tuning is sometimes a misused word when talking about Diesels. Tuning, as most people would understand the term, would mean bringing your engine back to its safe peak standard condition. The ‘loosely’ used version can mean increasing the power well above standard.

The whole combustion principle of a Diesel engine lends itself to being easily over powered. If you think of Grandma's Kerosene lantern, you can remember that turning the wick up makes the lantern brighter and brighter until you get too much fuel and smoke begins to come out of the glass tube. A Diesel engine works similar and the power increases the more you turn up the Diesel delivery until you start to get smoke. Its at this point that a Diesel engine starts to look after itself by telling you visibly that it’s “not happy” and so the ‘Tuning’ should be considered as potentially unsafe. The advent of New technology allows Diesel engines to run even higher power without visible emissions and so the ability to ‘see’ the safety point of tuning is nearly a thing of the past. Higher turbo boost and very high injection pressures assures nearly all the Diesel fuel injected burns cleanly.

Its easy to tune a Diesel in a sense. Its ability to visibly complain through its exhaust emissions can also help protect an obviously overpowered Diesel engine from being left in that condition unnoticed. Seek out your Diesel Expert if you are considering your next Tune or Power upgrade to be sure it’s Safe and Reliable Power.

Andrew Leimroth