When did common rails come out?

Ugh... Pilot injection.

Something else invented for no other reason than to appease snowflakes, that I now have to deal with.

 

That’s basically why diesels don’t sound like diesels anymore.

Each cylinder gets multiple shots instead of just one. It serves no other purpose than to control engine noise.

 

Then how did diesel engines make it all these years so far without that?

 

Well, fuel delivery and exhaust aftertreatment are two different systems, so no real relationship there, and pilot injection is easily turned off with a tuner for those who may be so inclined.

The only real difference I see between a common rail engine and an older design, which incorporated a pump similar to a distributor, is instead of 6 lines coming out of the injector pump going to each cylinder, you have one, and it splits off downstream to feed each cylinder with a return line back to the pump, so it recirculates.