Where the heck are you getting figures of any engine - gas or diesel - with 80% efficiency? That's a dream. Some of the most fuel efficient gas engines are reaching 35% and the best diesels around 45%.
If a farm tractor company today was offering a gas engine, I don't know what the price difference would be (as compared to diesel. During the 70s and 80s, many auto companies were using converted gas engines for diesels and the price difference was lower. That includes the Isuzu 1.8 and 2.2, Ford-IH 7.3, VW 1.6, GM 350, etc. Tractor companies in the 60s and 70s were also making "same engine formats" in gas or diesel. If done now- I don't know what would be used? I suspect rather then retool, the engines today would be totally different.
I suspect that if the best technology was used on a gas tractor today and used here in New York where gas is $3.75 and diesel is $4.35 - fuel cost versus work done would be near the same with diesel winning a bit.
The Oliver 1800 gas tractor made in 1960 held the world's record for fuel efficiency in a gas tractor. Made 74 horsepower at 13.2 horsepower- hours-per-gallon. Mainly due to using high compression that was usually taboo in a farm tractor. That 1800 gasser had the same or better efficiency rating at max power then many diesels at that time including the Farmall 706, Allis Chalmers D19, Ford 6000, Deere 3020, etc.
Diesel fuel has more energy per pound as a fuel But diesel compression-ignition is less efficient then spark ignition in a gas engine IF compression ratios are the same. So far, there are no working gas engines with CR ratios like 18-1 like many diesels are using. So, we'll see.
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Today's Featured Article - A Lifetime of Farm Machinery - by Joe Michaels. I am a mechanical engineer by profession, specializing in powerplant work. I worked as a machinist and engine erector, with time spent overseas. I have always had a love for machinery, and an appreciation for farming and farm machinery. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Not a place one would associate with farms or farm machinery. I credit my parents for instilling a lot of good values, a respect for learning, a knowledge of various skills and a little knowledge of farming in me, amo
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