Years ago, I read a biography of Cummins - the Diesel Engine
manufacturer.  He got his start before the 1929 depression making
pleasure boats for the paper rich.  He used big diesel engines for power
mills for these things.

When the depression came along, his market died off and he started
looking around for another way to make a few pennies.  He took what he
knew about diesel engines in boats and applied it to diesel engines in
trucks, but he found that the big, slow moving engines that he used in
boats just would not work in trucks - way too much fuel used to move the
engine and no payload.

So in order to get the size down, he had to get the compression up.  But
the problem was that when he tried to get the compression up, he found
that the sulphur in the diesel gummed up his injectors.  He had to fight
with the fuel refiners to get them to get the sulphur out of the diesel
fuel, so that he could make a practical diesel engine for a truck.

Now you are saying that someone is telling you about a high sulphur
diesel fuel, and I'd never heard of this.  Maybe for home heating?  (But
then what about acid rain???  Which is just sulphur in the atmosphere -
and which happens to make pretty good fertilizer, BTW.)  And I've
certainly learned of very good reasons why I would believe it has gone
the way of the wooden piston.

I'm starting to think that someone is pulling your leg on the high
sulphur content diesel fuel -  maybe?  Or if now, what would it be used
for?  Anyway, I'd bet that if you are putting a diesel in a truck you'd
want to stay the devil away from anything except the lowest diesel
content you can lay your hands on.

Interesting thread, though.

HR.
=============

Oh yeah, a diesel sniffer.  This unit  works like a radar gun.  Now they
are combining the two into one unit.  The cops can tell if you are
speeding on dyed diesel at a range of 1/2 mile.  Damn, what is this
world coming to?  If you believe this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that
I am willing to sell you quite cheaply.

On- and off-road diesel emissions are regulated at the federal level through
engine emissions standards that apply to new engines and through regulations
on diesel fuel.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has regulated on-road diesel
emissions at the federal level through the Clean Air Act (CAA) since 1970.
It was only 13 years ago in 1990 that EPA amended the CAA to include
regulations for off-road diesel vehicles. The standards for on- and off-road
engines set maximum allowable levels of emissions for new engines and diesel
fuel.

Current off-road fuel standards allow up to 5,000 ppm sulfur content,
however, EPA estimates current fuel has sulfur levels of about 3,400 ppm on
average nationwide.

Under EPA's new proposal, a limit of 500 ppm sulfur content will take effect
in 2007 for all off-road equipment, the current standard for on-road
equipment. A second step - to limit fuel to 15 ppm in sulfur content - would
take effect in 2010, three years after the 15 ppm standard takes effect for
on-road equipment.