Re: one more thing! sorry! - emissions gear BA

["Brett Anderson" <bretta@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 00:10:08 -0500 (EST)
>From: Alix Kay Sebesta <asebesta@domain.elided>
>Subject: one more thing!  sorry!
>
>I have one quick question before I go... My car is registered in KY,
where
>there are no inspections for environmental complaince.  Is there
anything
>i can/should do to make it a bit more powerful, considering i *can*?
i.e.
>gutting the cat?  YOu know before I joined this list I didn't even know
>that you had to get your car tested annually in some places?  I suppose
KY
>isn't so bad after all...
>
>Alix
>'86 325e
>

The fact that there is no monitoring is not a reason to bypass emissions
controls.
People who disable emissions controls are the very reason Big Brother
forces compulsory inspections on us.

Beyond that, gutting the cat will result in excessive reverberation in
the exhaust, causing a noise that will do two things, one, tell everyone
you drive past that you have gutted your cat, and two, drive you
absolutely nuts.

Gutting the cat will also do very little for performance, unless your
cat is clogged and therefore adversely affecting performance.

Get a chip for the car, put a performance muffler on it and a free
flowing air intake.
Upgrade the handling, and learn how to drive the car somewhere near it's
potential.

Remember, emissions laws are in effect to try and reduce pollution.  We
all know that cars are unfairly subjected to heavy restrictions when
heavy industry is not, but that is not the point. Disabling emissions
controls is a stupid thing to do.

Please note that I use the term "disabling" rather than "altering". None
of the above is intended to dissuade you from modifying emissions
equipment, merely from disabling it or making it less effective.
Unfortunately, the way Federal emissions laws are written, they forbid
ANY modification to the emissions controls of a vehicle, so , I am
breaking Federal law with my 80 Z28 because I removed the antiquated
pellet filled cat and replaced it with TWO high flow honeycomb cats. So
even though my Z28's emissions gear is 50 times more effective than the
factory installed components were, it is illegal.  I am doing the right
thing, regardless of what the US Federal Government thinks of it.


Brett Anderson
BMW and ASE master technician
http://frontpage.bestweb.net/~bretta

Please include all correspondence when replying
to avoid confusion - Thank you

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