Nick? Building High performance NA foci? Hahaha Sorry but Nick is a baller on budget I would say. Right Nick? I mean he has it modded. But I am pretty sure he still has his catalytic converter
Lead was removed from gasoline both to get rid of the toxic emission AND because CAT converters used to reduce pollution have the Platinum "poisoned" by the lead so they won't work after enough leaded gas is used - how fast to total failure depends on concentration used in the fuel, degradation starts immediately. Actual Catalyst is a platinum coating on the ceramic medium, the reason a CAT is so expensive & valuable for recycling.
This is why fuel nozzles at the station are so small & fit in a smaller hole than the cap opening. That was standardized to prevent using leaded in a CAT equipped vehicle during the phase over when both types were commonly avail. & remains a requirement today.
That's not true at all, the newer engines are more fuel efficient, but that doesn't mean they pollute less per mile than before without the catalytic converter to clean the exhaust up, a lot of the efficiency gains can cause the car to produce more NOx due to running hotter etc. The three way catalyst goes after primarily three things:
Reduction of nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and oxygen: 2NOx → xO2 + N2
Oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide: 2CO + O2 → 2CO2
Oxidation of unburnt hydrocarbons (HC) to carbon dioxide and water: CxH2x+2 + [(3x+1)/2]O2 → xCO2 + (x+1)H2O.
I'm not an environmentalist but I don't like gassing my self either from personal experience with a decatted car. With a modern engine it barely even gives more power and it's not technically legal even without emissions inspections.
Just added some extra history to your comments, Jose is in CA & he's got to keep working CATs avail. for testing when needed - they check a lot closer there even if not as often.
IIRC CA gets a break for a few years with a new car, & it eventually goes to every two years for inspection (rough details, I don't keep current on their latest). At that point many end up returning to stock just to get through inspection & any old parts lost or not working is a problem. This year I saw a few that had been OK with aftermarket intakes needing to find replacements for their old stock ones that were thrown away long ago - standards tightened up.
Weird, it's mainly the $.10 more for plus and $.20 (MAYBE $.25) more for premium here in Oregon with the exception being the dealers who simply order far more regular to appease regular people... they then charge the premium on premium so they don't have to deal with ordering large volumes of it for a discount, etc. and keeping their regular prices low.
Wow, is that consistent among the stations in your area? in the comments section of the article posted, a gas dealer said the wholesale price is only $.19 more for him...
Here in Brazil, I only use ethanol in my Focus. It's cleaner than the gasoline that's sold here. It's cheaper too, but burns a little faster.
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