RE: Clogged cat?

[Phil Rose <pjrose@servtech.com>]

>Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 11:28:05 -0800
>From: "Dan Sinclair" <sinclair@prospro.com>
>Subject: RE: Clogged cat?
>
>I think I have to agree with Ti on this one.  It is fact, not fiction, that
>modern cars are 7-10 times cleaner (measured by exhaust emissions) than cars
>produced in the 1960s and 70s.  Now, granted, Catalytic Converters are only
>part of that equation, but claiming that their presence or absence is
>inconsequential to exhaust quality is just plain wrong.
>
>Saab engineers captured and tested exhaust gasses emitted from a brand new
>engine prior to the catalytic converter being hot enough to operate and
>compared it to emissions post-warm-up and found huge differences.  So much
>so that they experimented with an emission system that captures exhaust gas
>from the moment an engine is started, to the moment that the catalytic
>converter is up to operating temperature, where it "reburns" the captured
>exhaust.  Saab anticipates a day when they'll make this a production feature
>due to "strict zero-tolerance emissions standards on the horizon."

I was watching the Discovery Channel last evening and saw a program in
which Saab demonstrated this approach (exhaust capture). They claim that
the amount of pollutants emitted during the first (cold) minute of driving
are equal to what  is generated during the subsequent 400 miles!!! However
they did not specify to which exhaust components this statement applies.
They claim to have a workable system that accumulates the first minute's
total volume of exhaust in a plastic bag (where do they put that bag, I
wonder?) and later releases the bag's contents into the (hot) cat
converter.

The idea was submitted to Saab by an elderly woman who wondered "Why
not...?" So they tried it, and say it works! I wonder though, what happens
in this system when you run your car for about a minute and then shut down?
I suppose the system knows this and will bypass subsequent inflation until
a deflation cycle takes place.



Phil Rose				Rochester, NY
'91 200q				mailto:pjrose@servtech.com
'89 100