aidandj

iTrader: (5)

<p>So basically because california sucks everywhere else gets awesomer cars and can do whatever they want with them?!</p><p>Win-win in my opinion.</p><p>Until the californians start moving here :(</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

KMiata

Thanks, it was great to meet everyone as well. It will be an annual event for us.

Not sure what just happened in this thread... But if a CARB certification if possible, it will eventually get done. Right now we are having enough trouble keeping up with demand. Plus all the people emailing me for RHD swaps and A/C kits every day puts those items a lot higher on the list.

jmann

Tagin along

K24A2 MX5

An enlightening discussion about motor vehicle exhausts and air pollution control. California has led the nation in reducing per unit motor vehicle emissions. Every state would do well to improve air quality and reduce the risks to public health. But the motor vehicle standards are penny wise and pound foolish. Light trucks and SUVs are held to a lower standard than sedans. Diesels are exempt altogether, at least in New Jersey. I could have a little 1-liter Metro with a bad OBD sensor and be hounded by the emissions inspection officials. A guy with a massive pick-up truck and heavy black diesel exhaust gets off scott free. Add to this circus the emissions from aircraft, trains, ferries & ships, and cars are just a small part of the problem. Massive amounts of methane are leaking from the tens of thousands of fracking wells and their faulty compressors. We burn a billion tons of coal annually in the US for electric power and that industry accounts for a substantial proportion of acid rain. So what should we do about race cars (Indy? Daytona? drag strips all over the nation?)? What about the large industry that caters to auto modifications by car enthusiasts? How about the oil industry itself? Their refineries are notorious polluters. Let's face it, a few guys tinkering with their hobby cars are not the problem. Your average well-tuned K-swap is going to produce no more pollution than your average family car with or without a catalytic converter. Should we be putting cats on motorcycles? There are millions of those on the road with precious little air pollution controls. How about off-road vehicles? Construction vehicles? Millions of these on construction sites. How about chainsaws? Leaf blowers? Lawn mowers? Outboard motors? Generators? Taken together with zero pollution controls these smaller gasoline-powered items pollute far more on a per-unit basis than automobiles. Wagging a finger of admonishment about air pollution to a few do-it-yourselfer car enthusiasts is an exercise in pettiness. I'll worry about how I may be diminishing air quality with my little K-swap when I see leaf blowers banned, diesel trucks with real particulate filters, the retirement of the coal industry, and real reductions from petroleum refineries. Let's see if the air pollution police will go after NASCAR or the NHRA? Or the millions of people igniting their grills with charcoal lighter fluid? My 2.5 liter K24A2 burns gasoline with an efficiency far great than a lot of 5 and 6 liter and greater sized engines running around all over the nation's highways "legally." Everyone knows that air quality regulation is haphazard, inconsistent and capricious. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

Don't you hate it when you lose the "enter" key off your keyboard?



Man that stinks

PatCleary

First, CARB goes well beyond cars, it also applies to many of the polluters you're talking about. People just aren't taking the cats off their power plant. And those industries are cleaner for it. Many of those are also set point devices where your process runs at its peak efficiency and can be tunes at that one point for emissions, auto engines are more dynamic and can't.

It's not perfect, but it is something and as Emilio mentioned, it has solved very real issues.

Would it be nice to set limits not the BAR/EO system? Sure. But it makes enforcement of the law hard. Just testing makes swapping parts around, running multiple tunes, etc, only to pass smog far harder to catch. As to requiring newer engines, they tend to be cleaner than older engines. The alternative is a huge matrix of what you can and can't do. This rule is nice and simple.

The other unintended benefit is that at inspection time, all they look at is emissions. Want race seats, no airbags, 5 points and a cage? No problem as long as it's clean.

asmasm

iTrader: (1)

FWIW most inspection places here don't care if you have a cage or no airbags.

My problem with carb is the limits on the aftermarket, which I have a hard time believing are responsible for a large percentage of pollution. It would be great if the state offered an alternative testing method, perhaps more expensive, where the car owner could do a tail pipe sniffer test instead of needing carb certified parts. I'm sure most people would be happy enough to shell out a few hundred extra at inspection time in exchange for being able to run whatever parts they wanted.

Sparetire

Holy thread derail.

I am sorry people, I did not intend to screw up the thread, I was just pissed and venting like an angry spouse. So I am going to try and clarify why I was aggravated and sort of synopsize what I think we all agree on.

My whole point was that yes, emissions regs are great, and they have created cars that are far, far cleaner. They have played a huge role in efficient cats, direct injection, low friction bearings, variable valve timing, and other goodies that are fun for us and cut the smog. I love that. Take a look at aircraft emissions since the 70s. It is unbelievable how much progress has been made.

My problem is with the process that we specifically deal with, and the ridiculous exceptions some vehicles get.

Swapping a 1980s truck motor BP for a modern K, with a cat, with good engine management, that we all know damn well will pass a sniffer test where a crappy BP might not, should not receive the regulatory shellacking it does. If it passes the sniffer on the same standards the chassis would with the original engine, and EGR/CAT/02/PCV/Fuel Vents/charcoal canister are there, they should not be jumping down your throat about if the CAT is OEM, if the ECU is absolutely stock, and so forth. The damned car is running cleaner, stop busting peoples asses over it. If its gone from MAF to Speed/Density, so what? That's what the sniffer is for.

Similarly, screw this light-truck loophole. Subaru Foresters are light trucks in the eyes of Federal regs IIRC. What a joke.

jacob300zx

Wtf just happened in this thread? Somebody clean this up.

K24A2 MX5

What happened here is an honest exchange about something that anyone of us who is having fun with our cars should care about. Nothing here to "clean up." If you think that rules have been broken then report it to the administrator. No forum rules have been broken here that I can see. Happy motoring friend.

kotomile

iTrader: (24)

Got a ride-along in the K-Miata demo car at MRLS this weekend. May look into doing this swap in another couple years. Would have to buy another Miata first, though...

EErockMiata

#would

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Signed up for a ride along but it was cancelled due to their timing chain tensioner issues caused by massive cams. Bummmmmer. David is a super nice guy though, great to meet him and check out the car.

KMiata

Next time! Yeah these new Skunk2 Ultra cams are apparently eating tensioners everywhere. We never had issues with our old set of cams. I think its time for an Inline Pro tensioner.

We'll get you in the car next year

kotomile

iTrader: (24)

Helmet cam from my ride-along

18psi

iTrader: (76)

The more I look at it. The cooler it looks

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for posting Kotomile. That thing sounds absolutely fantastic.

What was that, a 1:50?

KMiata

Probably a 1:46. Lots of traffic as you can see, with lots of off line driving.

kotomile

iTrader: (24)

I didn't even bother trying to find the shortest lap, since it was such a casual setting. I mean we were going around and having a conversation through the headset, he wasn't really trying to set a number. Still very quick though, watching from the pits he was just picking off the stock-engined cars left and right.

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Oh totally -- it's just impressive how effortless it looked. The whole time during the video i was thinking about how much I could get parting out my turbo bits so I could swap in one of these motors. That sound. That RPMS. That glory.

Much want.