RE: Some details of why

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

> I don't want to carry this emissions mods thing too long, as its
> somewhat off topic...

If the emissions are coming out of an Alfa, then it's not off topic.

<snip>
> Next, for the emissions tests I've seen, you get 2 points, steady
> state- one idle, one either high idle or light cruise.  To really
> pass the standard, you need to keep low output during a long
> drive cycle, including all accels and decels, marinating the
> catalyst temps so that they work.  I could go on, but needless to
> say, just passing a sniffer test means that your hardware is
> worth *&$*^&.  On top of all that, to meet the law, we have to
> pass at 100k miles.
<snip>

So you design your test stations to test for all of this.  Supposedly that's
why I'm now paying 3 times as much and having to schedule appointments for
rolling dyno time here in Mass.

And if I bring my 100k car into one of these test stations, and pass,
haven't I just proven that my car can pass emissions with 100k miles on it?

> Now, can an electromotive system do this?  No.  It does not
> control EGR, Purge, rear O2 sensor, nor is the base closed loop
> control very good.  I've looked at it, it works, but by no means
> is it designed to pass a full test.  And if you drive your car in
> any manner except a light idle or cruise, then how can you prove
> that you really are passing emissions.

Question - can an Electromotive system do better than Spica on, say, a 1977
Spider?  Can a modern cat perform better than a stock, OEM cat on the same
car?

> The test is in place to spot check the system quickly.  New cars
> also come with OBD, which "tests" the car away from the testing
> facility.  MUCH more goes into this that you may think...

Not where I live.  The test was re-designed, and the infrastructure
completely replaced, under the premise that it was simulating real world
conditions, as opposed to simply testing at idle.

Fwiw, I think the data shows that the new, expensive system isn't rejecting
any more cars than the tail pipe sniffer was..

<snip>
> Sorry, but this is what I do for a living.

I'm not sorry that you do it for a living..

;)

bs
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