EPA Report on Diesel Tuners Leaked

[Dougeco]

The NYTimes is running the following article. Apparently an draft EPA report was leaked by staff. The report says diesel tuners are increasing nitrous oxide emissions. Buried in the article is this nugget: the devices are not detected because most states don't do tailpipe detection, they rely on the vehicle's computer to detect emissions problems. If the computer has been modified then the emissions are not reported.

Illegal Tampering by Diesel Pickup Owners Is Worsening Pollution, E.P.A. Says (Published 2020)

An E.P.A. investigation has found that the owners of more than half a million diesel pickup trucks have installed devices to defeat emissions controls and boost pollution.

www.nytimes.com

 

[1shadowsabre]

The report is probably pretty accurate!

 

[Dougeco]

As an asthmatic, I fully support the effort to enforce strict environmental regulations, including those on diesel engines. My wife would have killed me if I bought a diesel 20 years ago. They stank she said. I only came round to buying one because they are cleaner now. But I support their use only as originally manufactured, with the pollution prevention equipment fully in place and functional. I also support major increases in taxing pollution. I got militant about pollution and the environment growing up in what was one of the most polluted areas of the country: Syracuse NY in the 1960s. Before the Clean Air Act. Before the Clean Water Act. Before the EPA. I lived two miles distance from from Onondaga Lake, the most polluted lake in the country 50 years ago. (Google it). A city that had such high levels of air pollution that 1/3 of the kids in my elementary school had asthma and 10% had high levels of lead in their blood. Now that Allied Chemical is closed and the old polluting steel mills have been rebuilt (yeah there are still mills in Syracuse), you can both swim in and breath above the lake. What remains to be cleaned up is auto exhaust. The most polluted area is now downtown where I 81 and 690 meet up. Where there are still enough traffic, diesel trucks and older cars jamming those highways, keeping Syracuse on the polluted air list. But almost all medium and large cities in this country suffer from auto and truck sourced air pollution, still.

 

[GearHead]

As an asthmatic, I fully support the effort to enforce strict environmental regulations, including those on diesel engines. My wife would have killed me if I bought a diesel 20 years ago. They stank she said. I only came round to buying one because they are cleaner now. But I support their use only as originally manufactured, with the pollution prevention equipment fully in place and functional. I also support major increases in taxing pollution. I got militant about pollution and the environment growing up in what was one of the most polluted areas of the country: Syracuse NY in the 1960s. Before the Clean Air Act. Before the Clean Water Act. Before the EPA. I lived two miles distance from from Onondaga Lake, the most polluted lake in the country 50 years ago. (Google it). A city that had such high levels of air pollution that 1/3 of the kids in my elementary school had asthma and 10% had high levels of lead in their blood. Now that Allied Chemical is closed and the old polluting steel mills have been rebuilt (yeah there are still mills in Syracuse), you can both swim in and breath above the lake. What remains to be cleaned up is auto exhaust. The most polluted area is now downtown where I 81 and 690 meet up. Where there are still enough traffic, diesel trucks and older cars jamming those highways, keeping Syracuse on the polluted air list. But almost all medium and large cities in this country suffer from auto and truck sourced air pollution, still.

You refer to and yet denigrate the success of the EPA air pollution controls since the mid 1970's. Vehicle exhaust emissions have been reduced by a factor of several 100's, yet you state that vehicle exhaust is still the big bad source. What you may have missed during the years is the change in air pollution standards that have come down the pike. Example the ozone standard, the standard was tightened and the LOC (Level of Concern) was cut from ppm (Parts Per Million) to ppb (Parts Per Billion) which placed many cities back on the offender list. All classifications of pollutants on the CAA (Clean Air Act) LOC have been tightened as the years have gone by. Yet the positive changes to air pollution levels are left in the mirror with the continued siren song from the environmentalists.

We have done a great job over the years to clean up the environment in the U.S. since the 1970's and we need to celebrate this. I can remember the red cloud (ozone) over Chicago in the 70's and 80's that could be seen from Springfield IL and was the cause for much irritation to my wife as we traveled through the city, which is not visibly apparent today. Examples continue for as long as I want to write them.

With that being said, I agree there is still room for improvement. My gripe is the diesel crowd that feels that "rolling coal" is the only way to prove your hp gain. I am a firm believer that all that black exhaust is wasted fuel and hp. I am presently in a conversation with a youngster who wants to strip all the emissions from his Ford Powerstroke, which will ultimately net him a loss in hp and torque without appropriate tuning of the ECM, which is now unavailable. When I was active in my machine shop and racing as a Pro in AMA competition I constantly lobbied for efficiency in fuel and exhaust as well as volumetric efficiency of the engine, vs only the peak hp on the dyno and the latest magazine article. I remember an engine for an RV built with a camshaft profile more suited for dirt track competition and high compression forged pistons and a double pumper carburetor, brought to me with no compression on one cylinder. A melted piston was located, and I rebuilt an engine with appropriate camshaft, carb, exhaust to provide a usable torque curve vs. peak hp much to the owners pleasure. Much less wasted fuel which also is less polluting. I still have all the exhaust emission equipment on my eco and I studied the GDE tune before buying it along with the Bullet from Banks Power.

In relation to the NYT article I feel like it is the ground work for a new push for Federal intrusion into your personal life. At present the EPA allows each state to enforce the Federal CAA, exception CA which enforces its own version, which allows for each state to determine the level of enforcement. Exception business that change large nationwide populations, eg: tuners and programmers, in the U.S. which became the target of enforcement in January of this year. This leaves the state governments to find and enforce against the small business that tunes or modifies emissions systems locally or the individual. What this article is leading up to is the Federal agency, EPA, to knock on your door and test your vehicle and enforce remedies, for good, bad or indifferent effect.

 

[Brady]

Should just go all electric inside the big city limits and leave the diesels to be out in the county where the NOx breaks down and goes away after a couple of days.

Choking these engines with problematic emission equipment that negate the benefits of running diesel in the first place is not the answer. I would like to see a breakdown of the carbon footprint of a modern diesel having emission problems, parts replaced, reduced efficiency, and shorter lifespan vs. a good, long running tuned diesel. I'm betting that in the grand scheme of things the tuned diesel is more environmentally friendly than its 'clean' counterpart.

 

[Dougeco]

The rest of the country may have to do what several states do now, annual emissions inspections. Even so, VW was able to cheat because current tests simply hook the car up to a computer and look for faults. If we have to put all cars on dynos with sensors stuck in the tailpipe to catch cheaters, the tests are going to get more expensive. For a while Virginia was requiring all vehicles in the Washington, Richmond and Norfolk area to be so tested. I can see that happening again around metro areas that currently don't meet EPA standards. The problem is that people drive all over the country, and if rural untested cheater vehicles can enter metro areas, we are never really going to completely get rid of vehicle air pollution. Plus air pollution is not local. Pollution from California doesn't stay in Cali. It ends up in the Rockies and as far east as Maine and Florida. Texas pollution moves east across the Gulf and up the east coast. Much of the ozone in Baltimore, Philadelphia NY and Boston starts upstream as far west as Chicago and south as Charlotte. The atmosphere is more of a river than it is a lake.

 

[GearHead]

Should just go all electric inside the big city limits and leave the diesels to be out in the county where the NOx breaks down and goes away after a couple of days.

Choking these engines with problematic emission equipment that negate the benefits of running diesel in the first place is not the answer. I would like to see a breakdown of the carbon footprint of a modern diesel having emission problems, parts replaced, reduced efficiency, and shorter lifespan vs. a good, long running tuned diesel. I'm betting that in the grand scheme of things the tuned diesel is more environmentally friendly than its 'clean' counterpart.

With the advances in electric mileage between charges it looks like that may be happening by default as well as local government fiat. As long as no looks behind the curtain at the abysmal environmental impact of mining and production of Lithium Ion batteries and definitely not at disposal issues.

I believe that a tuned modern diesel is cleaner than an EPA model modern diesel. I have seen the research from two manufacturers showing improved exhaust emissions by removing the EGR, but the EPA mandates the EGR citing "their scientific evidence". If the intended result is to reduce exhaust emissions then let the market research alternative methodologies and stop mandating in lock step. The two big issues with diesel is Oxides of Nitrogen and solid particulate matter (soot) the present SCR and DPF handle those issues and can be made more reliable by allowing the removal of the EGR and tracking fuel maps, injector timing, and proper turbo sizing. Of course the driving style and usage of the vehicles is still going to favor longer highway time and less stop and go time.

Anyway I really enjoy the way my truck runs now and I appreciate the cleaner exhaust and plenum provided by the GDE tune along with the extra horsepower and torque. Of course it helps that the increase from stock is at RPM levels that are more reasonable than the OEM tune.

 

[Dougeco]

If the EPA is mandating the method of exhaust reduction, I too wish the EPA would instead simply mandate the pollution number manufacturers have to hit. And that's coming. When I lived in Virginia they were setting up automated exhaust testing at intersections and on highway ramps. You drove by and the system and it supposedly tested your exhaust. I even got a letter saying my car had passed. I expect that this is where we are going to end up across the country. Its the only way to test vehicles and be sure they are not polluting, whatever tune the car is running. In Virginia the system was called RapidPass.

 

[Tremper126]

I work on Hvac for a living and I’ve been told from the start the epa thinks we’re the worst thing for the environment. Everything in the end leaves a foot print on this earth. Hell the epa is mandating outdoor wood stoves have certain output levels of their emissions. If my tune is more efficient and doesn’t require a device on my engine to make it self destruct or cause the truck to go up in flames, I’m gladly going to install it. The only reason I went diesel was cause it was quiet, didn’t stink, and didn’t smoke like my dads old 12v cummins he had.