Gearhead Ignition Q

[ceagle]

Allo..
I'm roughly familiar with many things under the hood, but not too sure about this one:

I've been trying to get my car cleaned up and better with the smog stuff, and have put a new catalytic converter on, changed oil, run detergents, etc. It's having a good effect, as my HC and CO is way down to near nothing, but my NOX is still a bit over the margin.
I'm told by my mechanic that this can be reduced by getting the engine to run cooler.
Right now, he did retard the timing to get the emissions a bit better, but with the new catalyst I'm thinking I should have some latitude for adjustment if needed... ergo my my question --- will the engine run cooler (and possibly have far less NOX) if I bring the timing back closer to normal?

Comments

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Wow that is Lovely!

Thanks for posting it here for us CE pals to enjoy :)

CYa!
Mako

ooo.. tremendous!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

That really pumps up the cheer... thankYOU!!!!

[jamesb]

Engines tend to run cooler as the timing is advanced ... right up to the point where they detonate ... But IIRC, one of the things they did on earlier cars to get them to meet pollution figures was retard the timing and make them run hotter.

The decal affixed to the hood of my 1979 vintage car says that the engine is supposed to be set at 6 degrees advanced, but when I got it, I was told that it'd never make it through summer at that setting and I needed to statically time it to at least 9 degrees BTDC (or even better, fit water injection and take the timing to 13 deg BTDC).

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

*flap*
Well, that helps greatly.. right to the point..THANKS!
I think I'll advance it back again then.. and hope it's not too much to shoot the HC and CO up past the allowable numbers, if only to get that pesky NOX knocked back down proper.

Indeed, the timing is retarded, as it were :D
...but if it needs to be cooler, I'll inch it up.
I think mine is rated to be 18btdc, but noone can read it anymore, so we have to wing it... (I'd like to hear about this water injection of which you speaketh)... :>
I've got two more months to try things, during which I'll also have to consider a valve job or a new engine if needed. All in all it's still cheaper than a new car. And this baby still gets 47 mpg when it's running fine, which is nearly all of the time ^v^ .

[jamesb]

Water injection is a method of artificially creating the same effect as raising the octane rating of fuel, by slowing down the rate of travel of the flame front in the combustion chamber. By slowing down the flame front, you can increase the ignition timing advance that the engine can handle before detonation, and hence get more power and/or a cooler engine. If you have an engine that has a knock sensor type ignition advance control, the same effect should cause the engine to run just a little bit better when the humidity is high.

It's a lot simpler to set up water injection on turbocharged engines, as all it takes for a basic system is a pressure switch attached to the intake manifold, a small electric water pump attached to a water reservoir, and some kind of nozzle to squirt the water into the intake air stream. There are more sophisticated systems, but mine switches on a small windscreen washer pump at about 4 psi positive boost, and squirts the water down the throat of the carburetor via a 0.028" jet.

It's a bit harder to do water injection on normally aspirated engines, but there are kits available.

For more power, some setups use a water/alcohol mixture or even straight alcohol instead of straight water.

[makovette.livejournal.com]

CA has funky rules about bolting on stuff like that. I suspect the car would fail visual inspection with it on, as the inspector would think it's a NOS setup, which, if you know this car, is hysterically punny :)

Tnx for all the good advice and words of wisdom!

Mako

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Put the timing back for mormal operation.

You will get back more power and better milage.

Retard it when next smog time comes only if necessay. Alky is your pal :)

CYa!
Mako

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

For normal operation, the timing will be back for better power and efficiency, yep.
But it is retarded right now *heh!*... and still getting too much NOX, which is why I put the questioney out thar... ;>
*wingfuzzles your ears*

oooo, and just incidental!... GC says he tried to get you on Skype, but didn't get any response, so mebbe some tweaks are kneaded?

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Alky then. That will put more O2 into the cylinders and raise octane which will allow you to pass the sniffer.

This on the the olde Honda of your yes?

Skype: Yay for the Meow using it! I left it running on my 2nd machine, which has the headset plugged in so I didn't hear the ring. Doh!

Tnx!
Mako

[rubbertexcooper.livejournal.com]

The answer is always 42.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I cannot do that, Dave.