RE: Clogged cat?

[Randy Welch <rswelch@wco.com>]

Yes I'm a little behind, but....

>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 answer of where the bag goes is this...

They performed the test on a 9000CSE.  The bag went in where the spare tire
would sit under the floor of the back.  They figured that for production
purposes they could put the bags in the wheel arches.  I might still have the
magazine this was in.  

-randy