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Post by c64 on Mar 23, 2015 14:21:59 GMT
actually the main reason the US never tried that hot air system is because our emissions people fixated on proportions of contaminants in the exhaust instead of total contaminants. they even went so far as to inject extra air into the exhaust system to give the catalytic converter more to work with. It was a running joke during the height of the Los Angeles smog that certain cars put out cleaner air than they took in. of course, Americans immediately decided smog control stuff was responsible for their cars being slugs - not the fact that they were putting 25% smaller motors in cars that still weighed the same. - so many people tore out whatever they thought was "smog control" - which usually resulted in the cars becoming cold blooded, as part of the smog control was ways to get the engine to warm up faster. No, they want to warm up the catalytic converter faster. And to do that, they make the engine heat up faster - by starving the catalytic converter in this process so it takes even longer until it starts working. In the late 80s, some major car makes researched lean burn technology to save fuel. Then NOx emissions increased dramatically and car makers invented the "glass engine", a laboratory engine with one cylinder made out of glass. This allows to shine laser beams through the combustion chamber to monitor how NOx is created. Unable to find any real cure, the car makers were forced to cure the symptoms. And the method of choice is to dump extra fuel into the engine. More fuel causes CO which steals the oxygen out of the NOx when touching the walls of the catalytic converter. While the warm up process to fulfill the law is running real lean to heat up the engine faster (and starving the catalytic converter), once the engine is warm, it must run very rich to serve the catalytic converter. They also do some dirty environmental tricks to Diesel engines. After discovering “fine dust”, filters were demanded. But filters can't handle fine dust. So they included a throttle flap. The major advantage of a Diesel engine is non-throttled operation which makes it more efficient in vehicles. Now the throttle decreases efficiency just to be able to dump in more Diesel which then reduces the fine dust emissions by creating even more “chunky soot” which sticks to the filter. While this decreases “fine dust”, it decreases mpg as well! The best joke I have installed in my current car. It's a “cold run regulator”. A hose connected between the intake bridge of the engine and a valve. When the engine is cold, the valve opens and lets more air into the engine. The “trick” is to sneak air past the air-mass sensor to make the engine run extra lean to heat up faster. For my last car, I had paid €300 in “stinker tax” because it is so old. My current car is “stinker tax” free because it is equipped with the regulator. Now the old car was running as lean as physically possible most of the time and my current car does not. There is no air-mass sensor in my car. Not even an air-volume sensor! All the car does is measuring engine and air temp, monitoring the accelerator and RPM and then guesses(!) how much fuel ought to be good. If the guess was good enough, it knows when the exhaust gasses pass the lambda sensor. So while the regulator does nothing useful at all, it comes with a certificate which saves me €300 in tax. The only effect the regulator has is that the initial fuel-guess of the ECU is more off than usual. It happens often that right after starting the engine, the engine stalls when hitting the accelerator. That's why I had installed a “green fuse”. The metal is substituted with wood.
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Post by the light works on Mar 23, 2015 14:57:09 GMT
actually the main reason the US never tried that hot air system is because our emissions people fixated on proportions of contaminants in the exhaust instead of total contaminants. they even went so far as to inject extra air into the exhaust system to give the catalytic converter more to work with. It was a running joke during the height of the Los Angeles smog that certain cars put out cleaner air than they took in. of course, Americans immediately decided smog control stuff was responsible for their cars being slugs - not the fact that they were putting 25% smaller motors in cars that still weighed the same. - so many people tore out whatever they thought was "smog control" - which usually resulted in the cars becoming cold blooded, as part of the smog control was ways to get the engine to warm up faster. No, they want to warm up the catalytic converter faster. And to do that, they make the engine heat up faster - by starving the catalytic converter in this process so it takes even longer until it starts working. In the late 80s, some major car makes researched lean burn technology to save fuel. Then NOx emissions increased dramatically and car makers invented the "glass engine", a laboratory engine with one cylinder made out of glass. This allows to shine laser beams through the combustion chamber to monitor how NOx is created. Unable to find any real cure, the car makers were forced to cure the symptoms. And the method of choice is to dump extra fuel into the engine. More fuel causes CO which steals the oxygen out of the NOx when touching the walls of the catalytic converter. While the warm up process to fulfill the law is running real lean to heat up the engine faster (and starving the catalytic converter), once the engine is warm, it must run very rich to serve the catalytic converter. They also do some dirty environmental tricks to Diesel engines. After discovering “fine dust”, filters were demanded. But filters can't handle fine dust. So they included a throttle flap. The major advantage of a Diesel engine is non-throttled operation which makes it more efficient in vehicles. Now the throttle decreases efficiency just to be able to dump in more Diesel which then reduces the fine dust emissions by creating even more “chunky soot” which sticks to the filter. While this decreases “fine dust”, it decreases mpg as well! The best joke I have installed in my current car. It's a “cold run regulator”. A hose connected between the intake bridge of the engine and a valve. When the engine is cold, the valve opens and lets more air into the engine. The “trick” is to sneak air past the air-mass sensor to make the engine run extra lean to heat up faster. For my last car, I had paid €300 in “stinker tax” because it is so old. My current car is “stinker tax” free because it is equipped with the regulator. Now the old car was running as lean as physically possible most of the time and my current car does not. There is no air-mass sensor in my car. Not even an air-volume sensor! All the car does is measuring engine and air temp, monitoring the accelerator and RPM and then guesses(!) how much fuel ought to be good. If the guess was good enough, it knows when the exhaust gasses pass the lambda sensor. So while the regulator does nothing useful at all, it comes with a certificate which saves me €300 in tax. The only effect the regulator has is that the initial fuel-guess of the ECU is more off than usual. It happens often that right after starting the engine, the engine stalls when hitting the accelerator. That's why I had installed a “green fuse”. The metal is substituted with wood. so much for German engineering. the issues I had were that someone who owned my Jeep before me cut off the heat riser, which helped the automatic choke warm up quicker, resulting in it being touchy when it is warming up, taking out the smog pump which caused the checkvalves to be burned out by constant contact with the exhaust gases, taking off the catalytic converters and replacing them with plain pipes, with the wrong flanges, which makes it drop manifold gaskets way too often, and hacking out the restrictor plate which prevented using leaded gas - which makes it spit gas when it hits a full tank. they also jetted the carburator way rich, and cranked the idle mixture way rich, which meant when I first got it, it had single digit gas mileage - part of which was due to the leak in the aftermarket fuel pressure regulator, but just fixing the idle mixture gained me 2 MPG. when I put in the bigger engine, they didn't change the jets in the carburetor - so that problem is taken care of, too.
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Post by c64 on Mar 24, 2015 6:54:52 GMT
When I had bought my current car, someone had switched the cork valve lid gasket with a rubber one without changing the bolts. The engine had leaked a lot of oil. Trying to get the correct ones I had learned that there is a conversion kit but sold out for 15 years. I had got 4 different bolts and ruled out the ones already installed. The first variation I tried worked fine. I had the engine idle for a long time. But there was a catastrophic failure once the engine was running full power. It spilled right into the exhaust heat exchanger. I had installed the correct ones and a new gasket but I had a very smelly car for months!
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Post by silverdragon on Mar 24, 2015 8:43:02 GMT
I need to pressure-wash my engine. During one oil fill, I spilled a little oil... on the engine block. That was over 10 yrs ago, but every time it went for MOT, I get the "You have an oil leak..." I changed MOT tester a while back, they can tell the difference between oli leak and 10yr old oil spill.. But I never got to cleaning up the spill.
I know it aint leaking, I havnt had to put more oil in for about 5 yrs.... [last oil change.] And I know the oil is good, I asked my current MOT tester to have a look, he says its as clean and useful as the day it wented in?
As with the clean air technology, I have a cat, I know my emissions are in the "We need a more sensitive sensor to tell you the exacts its that low" range, I know the air coming out is cleaner than the air in some smog ridden cities, I know the car is old, but....
To change it?. The production of a new vehicle would be more harmful to the environment than keeping what I have got. Even if I project the expected lifetime emissions of the current car to those of a newer one, I am still on a winner. Cheaper road tax?... yeah?.. so what?... I got to pay for a new car, the tax I pay for the current one wont even buy me a new set of boots (tires) for a new car even if I save up the savings in road tax for the next 5 yrs.
Main reason?... I LIKES this car?... Its reliable, its the most reliable car I have ever owned, its good mileage, about 30+ around town on lean driving (Not lead foot) its even better on mile munching at reasonable speed, its comfortable, its in good condition for a 10yr+ age vehicle, in fact, its almost pristine condition compared to others of that age, and its Toyota. Its not built to go round the clock more than mickeys right hand, they dont give a stuff about mickey, its built to last, its built to be reliable. The only thing I could ask for that was better would be the same car as an estate... more luggage space would be nice.
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Post by silverdragon on Mar 24, 2015 8:44:03 GMT
Is it me, or is this clean air stuff more about how to get round the laws than obeying them?...
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Post by the light works on Mar 24, 2015 13:48:23 GMT
Is it me, or is this clean air stuff more about how to get round the laws than obeying them?... for some people it seems to be. and granted, some of the rules are irritating. - for example, the urea injection, where if the urea runs out the engine shuts down, by law. - or, as I have beefed about before, our two "afterburner" engines where when the truck decides it wants to burn out the filters, and the engine isn't running hot enough, it will take over the throttle and rev the engine to make it run hotter. - that the EPA would not allow the truck to automatically sense when it was pumping, and disable the afterburner to prevent accidents from unexpected pressure spikes. (as far as I know it has never been an issue with us even though we tend to forget about the manual override the EPA finally allowed to be installed) on the other hand, the only german car I have driven has been a VW bus - but among the US and Japanese cars I've driven, they always ran best when all the mandatory equipment was in place and functional. sometimes I get the idea if you made a law that people had to breathe in and out, somebody would object.
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Post by c64 on Mar 31, 2015 11:56:35 GMT
Is it me, or is this clean air stuff more about how to get round the laws than obeying them?... for some people it seems to be. and granted, some of the rules are irritating. Just wait a few years and the rules will change. Whatever will make people buy new cars will pass congress by declaring the previous standards as environmentally unfriendly.
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