4.11.11 Fuel
Diesel engines, as you might guess, use diesel fuel (often referred to as "heavy fuel"). Its quality is reflected by the cetane rating.
Note
The cetane rating is a characteristic of the flammability of diesel fuel, which determines the delay period of the combustion of the working mixture, i.e., the fresh charge (the time interval from fuel injection into the cylinder until the start of its combustion). The higher the cetane rating, the less the delay and the more calmly and smoothly the air-fuel mixture burns.
Heavy fuel oil contains wax products and sulfur. The more of them contains a diesel fuel, the worse, because sulfur reduces the ability to self-ignite, and wax products affect the operation of the fuel at low ambient temperatures. In case if a diesel fuel contains a high content of wax products, but does not contain the necessary additives, then after spending the night in an open parking lot at -15 °C, it will not be possible to start it, since the fuel itself in the pipes will turn into a kind of gelatin or solid oil. This, by the way, is one of the reasons for the installation of fuel filter heating systems and preheating glow plugs on many modern cars.
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