by MonzaRacer » Thu Aug 20, 2015 5:12 am
Moss-Magnuson Act covers you on warranty with aftermarket parts, they have to PROVE you mods destroyed the viability/longevity of said vehicle,,,, kind of like a 175 shot of NOS on a stone stock 305 TPI Camaro, that guy did not get full warranty, he got engine swapped for free, as his warranty was nearly up dealer allowed him to purchase a "crate" forged piston 350 replacement, yes GM did sell for about a year and half, one of those with L98 aluminum heads even.
He had to foot bill for some sundry replacement parts like swapping in 350 Camaro Prom, new injectors and I believe he actually bought EO headers. GM still foot major part of labor bill.
But the Moss-Magnuson Act protected people because it looked like if you used Autolite crap plugs, aftermarket fuel/air/oil filters OEMs wanted to corner OE replacement parts,at least for warranty period.
Honestly if the tail pipe tests clean and no actual harmful emissions come from engine, I say who cares?
Me and a friend were ,at one time working on a vapor recovery system that would retrofit any car, fuel system, computer. Actually work independent of the factory or ECM. and only be reliant upon engine to provie a small vacuum source and vent source to burn collected hydrocarbons. One manufacturer had a very reliable electrically driven pressure/vacuum pump, toyota I believe, as part of their emissions setup. It allowed for sucking up fumes as you refueled, allowed for a tank/system closed test etc.
We had decently sized charcoal canister, would have allowed for up to 60 gallons of fuel load or a dual tanked truck, without adding capacity. It would have allowed convenient sizing but in painted or bare aluminum finish(satin,polished,etc) and actually reduced raw fuel smell, fuel loss due to vaporization sitting some.
It was to be timed appropriately AND we had idea where it might be adaptable to STOCK applications where your computer could use our system in event factory parts were discontinued.
BUT testing, approval, and sourcing the actual parts were leading to a nightmare,,,oh and EPA kept saying that if we sold this kit and let you put it on your 77 Monza, which at best had limited vapor recovery (our system would have made it nearly vapor free) would violate bunch of "laws" on books.
Namely it would allow a person to modify a cars emissions even if not out of compliance/lack of parts/etc.
Even though we would have been help to environment on older cars. They didnt want someone pulling a 2xxx car in, remove all emissions, slap on converters, our kit and expect compliance.
Even though our product was not geared to such plans, it could be used to destroy new car system.
Seems to me they were blaming us for someone breaking law, kind of like liberals blaming a 9mm handgun for jumping into a guys hand and forcing said guy to go on killing spree.
See we had plan of a tank temp sensor, car temp sensor, small controller with timer , an actual tank pressure sensor, vent/purge valves, all of which would be commercially available, OEM grade parts. We had even talked with one fuel cell company that would allow a pass through with tank vents, vapor hook ups and sensor all in one and it would be sanctioning legal for most racing for specific classes.
Like a fuel cell for a 4th gen Camaro but allowed the car to keep vapor recovery to a point, if using stock filler neck.
Going off current refilling requirements by EPA a car can only fill so fast to allow passive recovery to keep up with displacing fumes as tank fills rather than through neck and into air.
by using our setup the pump kept pulling air through filler and fumes from tank as it fills up. After which tank would pull short vacuum on tank to verify no gross leaks, like loose/missing cap, then after time/temp cycle the pump would pull tank down to vacuum and hold.
After startup, allowing for reasonable time for car to go closed loop so as to gain fuel control vent solenoid would open pulling fresh air through vapor canister, and sucking collected fumes into engine to be burned. We even had plans for a race only switch, so it would not affect AFR in competition but still maintain a certain amount of functionality. AND we had self test capability and rebuilding of charcoal canister available/capable. Just R&R the contained module.