Used to be oil pumpers could be spotted two blocks away, belching blue
smoke. These day they are e x t r e m e l y rare indeed. Why?

I know oil compounding has improved and so have oil and air filters. Even
metallurgy may be better than in the "old days" of the '50s through '70s,
but can all this account for cleaner exhausts? I almost left out law
enforcement of pollution regs which may also have helped. Anything else or
have I covered all bases?

Super heated catalyst converter burns up everything until it get clogged.

Coasty

"Nomen Nescio" <nobody (AT) dizum (DOT) com> wrote

Nomen Nescio wrote:
Surely you're kidding? Not a day goes by that I don't see some old
beater, usually a Chrysler product (I'm assuming with Mitsushitty
engine) belching blue smoke.

nate

--
replace "fly" with "com" to reply.
http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel

Nomen Nescio wrote:
The catalytic converter helps burn the excess oil also. The other
reason is that many states now have emissions inspections that take
these smokers off the road.


Matt

"Nomen Nescio" <nobody (AT) dizum (DOT) com> wrote

Then there are people like me who when we see smoke belchers, we call it in
to the telephone number that our state emissions program has set up for this
purpose. (since in this state it's illegal to have visible smoke)

I figure that by God I pay the money to make sure my vehicles are clean,
everyone else on the road can do the same.

Ted

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
Smoke Nazi!! 8^)

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

Good for you Ted. I wish my state had such a law.

It's disgusting to see a car belching blue smoke and clogging up the air for
the rest of us. Driving a car, as necessary in today's age as it is, is a
privilege and not a right. If a person wants to operate a car on the road,
he needs to keep it in a safe, clean, workable order; if not for his own
concerns, then for the rest of us. If not, then get the damn junk off the
road.

Dennis wrote:
That's right. Get those poor folks off the road that can barely afford
a car at all, let alone a new one that burns no oil. Better to have
them sitting home on welfare than driving an old smoking car to work.

Matt

"Matt Whiting" <whiting (AT) epix (DOT) net> wrote

Don't take up for them! They could buy a brand new car if they didn't blow
all their money on cigarettes and lottery tickets.

"Matt Whiting" <whiting (AT) epix (DOT) net> wrote

Well, perhaps they shouldn't be spending that welfare money on a
home that is 10 miles away from their job, don't you think? Maybe if
they moved within bicycling distance, and rode a bicycle every day,
not only would it save them a lot of money they don't have, but it
would give them some needed exercise and that might help them to
feel better about themselves.

The local government here extracts a noticeable percentage of my
tax dollars to fund one of the
largest and most extensive mass transit systems in any major city
on the West Coast. Our bus and rail lines are as extensive as the
NYC subway system and surrounding rail lines, factoring in the
smaller area of course. All the buses have bicycle racks, making
it rediculously easy even for the lazy to ride a bike to the bus stop,
take that to another stop close to their job, then ride to that job.
I could even do that myself, although admittedly I'm not in the
shape to do it nowadays.

And in any case, it's not like I was born with a silver spoon either.
I went through that period of time in my 20's that I was making so
little money that I was lucky to have $20 a month left over after
paying for rent and food, fortunately at the time I worked in a
hotel that had an attached restaurant. Yet I managed to tough
it out on the bus system when I couldn't afford gas, and I also
learned to fix my own damn car. I have never, in fact, driven
a vehicle for any period of time that failed emissions, I learned to
repair them. So no, I really don't have a lot of sympathy for that
line of argument.

Frankly, I really don't see that being poor is all that noble. Poor
people are generally a drain on the economy and someone who is
poor should have as the entire focus of their life, either learning
how to live within what small means they have without depending
on the rest of society paying their way, or they should be focused
on bettering themselves so they can make more money and not
being poor any longer. The only exceptions are the sick or the
disabled, and the handful of people who have truly committed
themselves to serving the greater good of society, such as the
people who spend 16 hours a day, every day, volunteering in
the soup kitchens, the people who go to Africa to help build
water systems, etc. etc. etc. Motor vehicle ownership really
does not help most of these exceptions, it is rather more baggage
holding them down.

Ted