Quote:
Originally Posted by SentraSE-R
I know today's cars burn much cleaner than older cars, but I lived through pre-Clean Air Act smog conditions, and I don't like the idea of my car dumping out 3-15X the average air pollution when it's driven normally. I can only guess how bad it is with an unlit cat.
So, P&Gers like me are gross polluters. Lean burn Hondas (including some Insight Is are polluters. The pre-OBDII cars are polluters.
I'm disillusioned by the growing realization that pollution is the hypermiling community's dirt we're sweeping under the carpet.
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Are you really createing 15x the pollution getting double the fuel economy?
lets think rationally. The pollution you create has a weight that is directly associated with the amount of fuel you burn. The dirtier the burn the LESS weight of the pollution but you end up with carbon and aeromatics.
So your imagination is polluting.
The reality is your
overall QTY of all pollution is lower, PERIOD, the amount of certain exotics that are a very small percentage of the makeup of your exhaust are larger.
I wouldn't get too cracked up over it.
NOx by itself is a non-issue.(when combined with other pollutions in a city it is) We regulate the heck out of it but it will degrade in the environment as do aeormatics and heavier emissions, heck A WATER MIST IN YOUR EXHAUST WILL ELIMINATE NEARLY ALL NOX, if you are worried.
Carbon Dioxide in of itself does not degrade a plant must convert it. I disagree with the BS of what we feel must be regulated in pollution and how in our pollution controls, especially in rural situations.
So I think you are worrying about something that isn't that important.
Afterall your exhaust and pollution levels are probably STILL 100x cleaner than the people driving 4x4s around wisconsin, including me in my cobalt during sub freezing weather on short trips. I doubt my CAT reaches operating temp on any of my trips with or without P&G in the winter and usually I don't P&G in the cold because its too hard on my battery and motor. not that it matters on short trips anyway.
If I were you I would worry more about the overall cost, does P&G cost more to you in maintenance than if you did not?
Are you REALLY polluting more than the average american driving their large 4x4 on short trips in sub zero weather?
I bet not.