[Healeys] SMOG TESTS SB 1549 Senate Bill

Richard Ewald richard.ewald at gmail.com
Fri Apr 4 20:48:03 MST 2008


See right here is the crux of the problem.  A very dirty car (A big Healey
for example) puts out a very high amount of carbon monoxide, and unburnt
hydrocarbons.  I've never had a 3000 on a smog machine, but I have had
plenty of MGs and Sprites.  They love to run about 7-8% CO when set up
right, and the HC at maybe 300-500 PPM.
Contrast that to my late model Volvo.  CO is about 0.00%-0.10% and will
probably run closer to the 0.00.  HC will be somewhere between a -15PPM to
maybe +15PPM.
So how do they get such clean results out of the new car?  Well EFI is one
answer, New engine designs is another but a fair part of it is the Cat
converter.
The cat has two parts one part oxides the HC and CO the other Reduces the
NOX.
HC + O2 = H20 + CO2
CO + O2 = CO2
In both cases CO2 is made in the converter.
So the deal is if you are trying to keep CO2 out of the air, your old Healey
is better at it than a new car.  A new car exhaust might have 13-14% CO2 in
the exhaust, an old British car might have 7-9%
If however you are trying to fight smog, the new car is better.
My personal opinion is that the SJ valley should be subject to biannual smog
checks just like the non-attainment areas (So Cal) using the exact same
rules.  The state should not try to re-invent the wheel here.
$.02
Rick

On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 8:22 PM, Alan Seigrist <healey.nut at gmail.com> wrote:

> > The worst part of all of this is they are using "Climate Change" as an
> > excuse to do this, but legislators don't understand the science


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