i keep hearing this thing about the air pumps being there to "dilute" the
exhaust. this is not their purpose. their intended purpose is to inject
air into the exhaust stream for the purpose of "burning off" any
remaining unburned hydrocarbons. i think trevor was the only one who hit
the nail on the head. my chevy uses a fairly complex a.i.r. (air
injection reaction) pump system that has a switching valve controlled by
the computer that sends the air either to the exhaust ports or the cat.
depending on temperature, as well as sending it to the air cleaner during
deceleration to prevent backfiring. fortunately i've never had problems
with it (not watch it fry it's bearings tomorrow morning ).
my personal opinion on all this emissions stuff is this- the best
emission control devices are not gadgets that hang on your engine or laws
or reformulated gasoline or least of all the damn epa. the best emission
control devices are people. people who keep their engine well tuned,
ensure the compression is up to snuff, and who drive like they have an
egg on the accelerator pedal. in other words, it's people who take good
care of their wheels. i think john muir said something like that in his
volkswagen idiot book. very good book by the way.
Glen Christian
Mechanical Engineer Graduate in search of Work
"So many cars, So little time"
On Mon, 8 Sep 1997 07:57:29 -0500 (CDT) Lynn Alan Eubank
<eubank@jove.acs.unt.edu> writes:
>I just read the post on air pumps. It is quite true that air pumps are
>not there just to dilute what comes out of the combustion chamber.
>Lynn Eubank
>eubank@unt.edu
>
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