IF you ever need to remind yourself why we have emissions controls

Saturday I took my mom out to breakfast before we stopped out at the Gallery where she has a few paintings hung. We got stuck there as the NJ Hot Rod association was having their annual get together in the park down the street. At noon they pulled out parade fashion and rumbled down "Main street" in Ocean City NJ

While a wonderfil display of older metal (mostly 40sish) with very few "rat rods". The Uncorked and unemissions laden exhausts on these cars had our eyes and throats burning by the time they had all passed.

They looked, sounded, and even smelled glorious, but it was too much and made me look a lot more fondly on the catalytic converter

Sounds more like people who bolt on out of the box carburetors and never tune them because they can't.

I have the same thought when I end up behind an old car... and image those behind me... oh well, maybe it will discourage tailgaters.

Ranger50 is right.

I've been behind plenty of gasoline "hotrods" that puff black smoke.

They're probably using the "bigger is better" theory of carburetion and running an 850cfm double-pumper on a stock 350.

Carb sizing and cam profiles are the two things that ham-fisted "mechanics" alwayss manage to screw up.

In reply to Ranger50:

That, exactly.

Ranger50 wrote: Sounds more like people who bolt on out of the box carburetors and never tune them because they can't.

I've been to meets where plenty of guys in cars made after 1995 without CATs will still make you very comfortable. It's not just a tuning issue.

Maybe growing up going to a rural school riding the bus, just pre low sulfur diesel, and having a bus toward the front of the line, so I had to walk past a dozen idling IH diesels 2/3s of the year, every day m-f from the age of 5-17 made me a bit hardened.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Maybe growing up going to a rural school riding the bus, just pre low sulfur diesel, and having a bus toward the front of the line, so I had to walk past a dozen idling IH diesels 2/3s of the year, every day m-f from the age of 5-17 made me a bit hardened.

Or perhaps the oxygen-deprived euphoric high has caused you to overlook the accelerated inevitable.

BAN RACE FUEL! IT MAKES MY VAGINA HURT!

Trans_Maro wrote: Carb sizing and cam profiles are the two things that ham-fisted "mechanics" alwayss manage to screw up.

Even if it's right, without a cat, it will still smell like unburned fuel. Like PD said, even a modern car without a cat will smell like it's way rich.

In reply to Zomby Woof:

Hmm.. I must be tuning all my stuff wrong then..

Trans_Maro wrote: In reply to Zomby Woof: Hmm.. I must be tuning all my stuff wrong then..

ditto.. my carbureted vehicles without any cats don't smell any worse than my modern fuel injected daily driver that has a cat.. what am i doing wrong?

Yet sniffing burnt 100 octane Low Lead gas fumes at an airport smell great.

poopshovel wrote: BAN RACE FUEL! IT MAKES MY VAGINA HURT!

You know how to cut right to the heart of an argument.

Zomby Woof wrote:

Trans_Maro wrote: Carb sizing and cam profiles are the two things that ham-fisted "mechanics" alwayss manage to screw up.

Even if it's right, without a cat, it will still smell like unburned fuel. Like PD said, even a modern car without a cat will smell like it's way rich.

Probably because it is for some cat related berkeleyery. I often wonder how much efficiency is left on the table to keep even the most modern emissions controls happy.

Funny, I got behind a '68 Camaro the other day in traffic. I had my window down, and smelled the distinctive odor of race gas.

I love that smell. I actually tried to stay behind him as long as possible, just so I could keep the olfactory glands immersed in that pleasing aroma.

Ranger50 wrote: Sounds more like people who bolt on out of the box carburetors and never tune them because they can't.

Pretty much this. There are more then a dozen guys locally with double 850 demons on tiny little motors that need maybe 450cfm to run right.

Or I could point the finger at myself and say 6 strombergs on a 4 liter flathead.

wearymicrobe wrote: Or I could point the finger at myself and say 6 strombergs on a 4 liter flathead.

With tiny pistons and a stroke as long as your arm producing insane piston speeds causing extreme velocity through convoluted ports and a massive vacuum sig.....did I just jack this thread? Sorry.

Modern short stroke motors are a different standard entirely, in my uninformed opinion.

The big difference is modern motors are designed to produce fewer emissions in the combustion chamber itself, rather than the old add-on stuff from the late '60s and early '70s. So they may smell cleaner than the older stuff.

That being said, a little carb tuning goes a long way. Also, a Holley is more like an on-off switch and really doesn't enjoy part-throttle. That's the Rochester's domain. However, you don't see many well-set-up Rochesters because they're more complicated and harder to master.

Most of these rod-run-type cars aren't daily drivers so the owners don't care all that much about gas mileage or tuning to the nth degree. Few of them see a drag strip either. The ones that do will be jetteed for more power and run fat on the street.

In reply to poopshovel:

I had that experience on friday at the strip......someone let a tri-five chevy into the "True Street" class, turbo to hell, race fuel, wheelie bars, parachute, etc.....it was a prostreet car with a valid license plate. Oh, they were having to use the chute as well

yep, I vote the poorly tuned / built route.