Uh oh ,watch those tuning "improvements"

[pjtoledo]

the man is gonna getcha

US files charges in Michigan over diesel engine tampering (msn.com)

 

[pjtoledo]

on a related note, New Jersey monitors facebook adds for modifications & deletes on private diesels and goes after the owners.

 

[G8orFord]

Just another example of our government pushing jobs out of the country. The tuners aren't going to stop, they'll just move to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, pick one. It's all done online now anyway.

 

[holyford86]

Just another example of our government pushing jobs out of the country. The tuners aren't going to stop, they'll just move to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, pick one. It's all done online now anyway.

It's relatively common for trucks around my area to be brought to Canada to "Have engine work done" and they have emissions deleted up there. Working for a fleet that plays by the rules i understand why it's done, we run 5 diesels and each one has been sitting at the dealer for over a month during the past year over emissions related concerns... these are all buses with under 100k on them. if you can't afford the down time I can see why deletes and tuning are done.

 

[pjtoledo]

a quote from the article....

The changes can “improve the horsepower, torque, fuel efficiency or other characteristics of diesel engines,” the government said in the charging document. “These unlawful modifications result in a dramatic increase in multiple pollutants being emitted by each vehicle.”

perhaps the government should "help" these companies to keep the efficiencies while limiting alleged increased pollutants?

 

[sgtsandman]

I’m on the fence about tuners. They can be a benefit. But they mess with operating parameters of the vehicle. I don’t know. They aren’t for me.

 

[Roert42]

I'm a big fan of not leaving well enough alone, but I have always drove gas stuff.

My understanding is the testing and restriction are handled completely different. I've always been surprised about the stuff it seems like the light duty diesel guys got away with. Any of those types of emissions delete mods on a gas vehicle, around here anyway, and you would auto fail a yearly inspection.

 

[holyford86]

I'm a big fan of not leaving well enough alone, but I have always drove gas stuff.

My understanding is the testing and restriction are handled completely different. I've always been surprised about the stuff it seems like the light duty diesel guys got away with. Any of those types of emissions delete mods on a gas vehicle, around here anyway, and you would auto fail a yearly inspection.

At least in my state up until recently diesel emissions was kind of a joke, now they're cracking down on deletes and such by making them.unlawful to purchase in the state, it hasn't done much. Once emissions testing on diesels becomes a thing here I'm just going to grab my popcorn and watch the show, because it's coming. It should be noted that I am a licensed motor vehicle inspector in my state, I just see the state slow walking regs in. With the new inspection equipment coming along in a couple of months its only a matter of time

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Just another example of our government pushing jobs out of the country. The tuners aren't going to stop, they'll just move to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, pick one. It's all done online now anyway.

Abortions and diesel tunes.

 

[bobbywalter]

At least in my state up until recently diesel emissions was kind of a joke, now they're cracking down on deletes and such by making them.unlawful to purchase in the state, it hasn't done much. Once emissions testing on diesels becomes a thing here I'm just going to grab my popcorn and watch the show, because it's coming. It should be noted that I am a licensed motor vehicle inspector in my state, I just see the state slow walking regs in. With the new inspection equipment coming along in a couple of months its only a matter of time

its a non issue.


there is mechanical technology now that negates it....there is piston technology that will make the early 7.3 and 6.0/6.4/6.7 and the cummins and duramax engines cleaner then stock.....


the rube Goldberg garbage with scr and urea in the modern engines is reduced in actual operating time to nothing with it.

reliability is increased and cleaner .... nothing but win.


you can retroactively clean the fleet with just piston swaps on a reman....saving the pollution created casting new blocks and crankshafts. so....those minty old trucks will just go up in value.....which sux.

 

[holyford86]

its a non issue.


there is mechanical technology now that negates it....there is piston technology that will make the early 7.3 and 6.0/6.4/6.7 and the cummins and duramax engines cleaner then stock.....


the rube Goldberg garbage with scr and urea in the modern engines is reduced in actual operating time to nothing with it.

reliability is increased and cleaner .... nothing but win.


you can retroactively clean the fleet with just piston swaps on a reman....saving the pollution created casting new blocks and crankshafts. so....those minty old trucks will just go up in value.....which sux.

I agree with you, scr and such is more trouble than it's worth, government doesn't care about that though, I'll stick with my old stuff until I can't. Solving emissions related problems helps pay my bills though

 

[funguy26]

I'm all for Deleted trucks where i live everyone is going with gas trucks, because of the issue the emissions is too much for them. $8,000 for the damn filter and you have to buy whole thing exhaust system compete waste of money. out here breaking down can mean someone is dead. there;s some spots that there's no cell phone signal some a few highways there's no body for hours at a time.

 

[G8orFord]

You know what's completely ironic about the SCR/DPF systems? They use more diesel to burn off the soot from the diesel that caused the SCR filter to clog up to start with. Sure, they throw a little DEF in there to supposedly neutralize the nitrites (or whatever it is they think is bad in the soot), but have they really checked on what that's going to the environment? I see a lot of brown foliage along the interstates now. Could be coincidence, I guess. The fact is, a properly tuned diesel burns cleaner than a gasoline engine. It just looks dirtier.

 

[stmitch]

Diesel pollutants breakdown into two general groups:
1) Smog forming pollutants like NOx and Ammonia stay in the region they're produced. They negatively affect air quality and hurt people with breathing issues like asthma or COPD. US regs focused on NOx reduction over GHGs. This lead to cleaner air, likely at the expense of the environment.
2) Greenhouse gases like CO2, Methane, etc rise higher into the atmosphere and spread more globally than the smog forming pollutants and have more environmental concerns. These are the focus of climate activists. For a long time European regulations focused on GHG reduction over NOx and the air quality in their cities suffered a bunch as a result and humans suffered. (US and Euro regulations now have much more overlap focusing on both smog forming and GHG emissions).

If you reduce the emissions output one category or particular compound, it often results in increases in one of the other compounds. For example, lean burn will reduce fuel consumption and GHG emissions, but it increases NOx and hurts air quality. If you increase fueling to cool the combustion, then you reduce fuel economy and increase sooty particulate emissions. There's a very delicate balance that OEMs have to strike depending on the application and region where it will be sold.

I pay my bills doing emissions systems development on diesel engines. My company spends literal billions of dollars each year on this stuff to make sure they're compliant with regulations while still offering as much quality and performance as possible. Jim Bob with a laptop isn't doing anything better when he illegally defeats emissions systems. He hasn't figured out a trick to make them cleaner than the OEMs and there's no secret piston design that OEMs are ignoring that would prevent the need for DPF/SCR/EGR systems. If there were a simpler, less expensive, more reliable way to meet emissions regulations without completely neutering the engines OEMs would sign up and pay handsomely for the privilege. If you've got better ideas, and can prove that they work, it would literally be worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

There's actual proof that these regulations have cleaned up the air and water. And there's actual evidence that diesel engines have gotten far more powerful since emissions regulations have been enforced. That's not a coincidence. A modern diesel that's had it's emissions systems defeated can easily have tailpipe emissions equivalent to hundreds of stock diesels. They're often worse than the old diesels that had no emissions systems at all. It's no joke, and the "coal rollers" have abused the situation and made it visible enough that it's become a high priority. It's been a priority for a few years now, and it's going to spread into a lot of areas.

All that said, nothing is perfect and these emissions systems are no exception. Lots of people that have issues should probably be buying a more appropriate tool for the job. I see lots of trucks and buses switching to other fuel types around here, and my company is investing heavily into alternative energy options and non-diesel fuels that require less hardware to meet emissions regulations. Diesel is a dirty fuel by nature, and the regulations only get tighter with time. It's going to be decades before diesel is replaced as the primary fuel of "work", but it's being used less and less every day as people choose alternatives.

 

[19Walt93]

I hate those tuners and not just because of the black smoke that rolls out when they accelerate hard, the extra stress causes blown head gaskets and customer complaints. For a while we had to get prior approval for warranty head gasket replacements and as soon as the FSE saw evidence of a tuner the claim was denied. Then the customer who modified his truck would chew me out for not covering the repair.