Grunff wrote in message ...

Yes, and all knives should be sold with corks on the ends.

A spigot that denotes diesel and sends a sensor deeper into its tank
would be ideal as most new diesel owners insist on overfilling their
tanks until the penny drops.

A diesel works on pre-ignition and relies on the fact that the fuel is
not of a high flashpoint. This allows a pressure of 25 to 1 to be
utilised and is the reason for their efficiency. Petrol engines used
to run at 10 to 1 using 4 and 5 "star" but these days their
compression ratios are in the range of 6 to 7 or to 1.

Petrol will pre-ignite in the cylinder of a diesel long before the
piston is near Tdc. The resulting pressure will crack a cylinder-head.
In the good old days (and even now if the engine temperature is low
enough) the problem was minimal enough in winter to allow petrol or
preferably paraffin to be used as a solvent. But nasty things can
happen and be very expensive.

A diesel requires as much maintenance as a petrol machine but can run
forever without it as it is not running a caustic fuel. The reason for
pollution from a diesel is lack of maintenance not poor design. If you
see a diesel belching smoke, inform the driver and if you see it doing
so again, inform the police, there is a phone number for such reports;
I believe it goes to your local council.

It is an offence under the clean air act to pollute the atmosphere
with a badly maintained engine of any sort. That's what the MoT
emissions test is set up for.