Time to crack down on car pollution

[LockH]

... the silent killer with powerful friends:
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_a..._the_silent_killer_with_powerful_friends.html

Written by three Green Members of the Euro Parliament.

Right now Wed.,Feb.3 article splashed with "STOP PRESS - Today's vote
MEPs vote for killer car pollution at double the legal limit."

 

[jimmyhackers]

my friend has an old RX7

they lower the emmisions in that car by using an air pump to pump fresh air into the exhaust pipe to dilute the gases.

AND PEOPLE ONLY RECENTLY THOUGHT WV ETC WERE TAKING THE PISS WITH EMMISSION BS!!!!

what i wouldnt give for the people in charge to be compitent in the things they were in charge of.

 

[Punx0r]

The pump on the RX7 is apparently used to ensure the catalytic converter is hot enough to work properly at low engine speeds.

 

[LockH]

to dilute the gases

Hehe... This on a planet where the breathable air runs out in under four minutes (driving straight up at about 60mph).

So. Where does those "diluted" poisonous gasses go, anyway? Must evaporate into space or something. Good thing everybody isn't burning fossil remains. Oh. Wait a sec... Nevermind...

 

[Dauntless]

I was a licensed smog mechanic, someone who was supposed to make a reluctant car pass or get 10% or tell you it's time to ask for the compensation for retiring your car. While I'm not familiar with this RX7 pump, I can tell you that the meter can tell if you have anything improper improving your exhaust. Even just an exhaust leak can show up and fail you on the test.

If this was the 1950's, I'd agree with the title of the post. But there's been some 60-70 years of improvements in the emissions. I'll warn you, we really didn't know everything that was coming out of the tailpipe back in the 'Happy Days' era. I mean when the show was on. The changes in standards during that 11 years alone. If we REALLY knew just how dirty the cars were back then. . . .

I'll bet it takes longer for a person to commit suicide with the car in the garage now. If only there wasn't, I don't know, 8-10 times as many cars now, maybe. (Wikipedia says 1960 was 126.888 million while 2012 reached 1.114558 billion). But China doesn't have so many cars, look at the air there. Cars are not the leading issue at this point.

There's just not any simple solution out there. No amount of collective complaint groups with cute names will ever change that.

I heard the electric BMW trying to sneak around behind me today. Dang I'll take it. If only I could afford it. But I also want one of these. I'm the answer to the trivia question of what car Archie and Edith sang about in the opening for 'All in the Family.' (On around the same time as 'Happy Days.')

 

[jimmyhackers]

lol thats what MAZDA told the emiisons people....

its adding cold air from atmosphere to the exhaust flow.......diluting the emmisions and more than likely cooling them also . when the engine is at low rpm and/or the main catalytic convertor isnt hot enough.

not sure how one emmision probe could tell if there was a hole in the exhaust or not....:S

the only way a hole could really effect emmisionn is if....1. the hole is precat and large enough to leak enogh gasses so the catalytic convertor doesnt get hot enough to work. 2. the hole is post cat and the extra extra exhuast flow means the exhaust has less time in contact with the catalytic material.....also this could make the CAT not get hot enough......

an emmision tester (the human kind) could and should (tbh) fail a blowing exhaust without even testing the emmissions with a machine...

 

[Harold in CR]

For years GM had an air pump that shot air directly into the exhaust manifold.

 

[gogo]

For years GM had an air pump that shot air directly into the exhaust manifold.

Ford did it, too.

We had a cold snap into the negative teens (Fahrenheit) here which caused the water in the ethanol-blended gas to separate out and freeze. This caused me to research fuels and it made a vision of a world without ICE autos clearer. The vapor exiting exhausts in winter also illustrates the nastiness for all to see.

ICE motors and their technology of late are interesting from an engineering point of view, but I'm not going to miss them when they're off the roads and relegated to auto museums.

 

[Routybouty]

Most (all modern?) motorcycles have a PAIR valve, which injects fresh air into the exhaust. From Google: "The sole purpose for the Pair Valve is to passively "Inject" fresh air into the exhaust system at the exhaust port, to cause ignition of unburned fuel vapor *before* it leaves the exhaust pipes, or to thin out the mixture with enough air to fool the sniffer machines."

I know we always disabled them before running on a dyno to get an accurate AFR.