Fuel quality 1984 vs today

(I had tailpipe emissions tests in Virgina in the early 90's)

Tailpipe testing started in the Northern Virginia area (to date, the only part of Virginia that requires emissions testing) around 1985 or so. There's some archived Washington Post articles about it, at the time that it started. They listed all of the testing stations (which were and are in repair shops and dealerships--Virginia never ran their own testing facilities).

About the same time that it started in the Chicago area, perhaps not coincidentally. I remember going with my mom when she went to get the car tested for the first time. In Illinois, the testing facilities are run / owned by the state.
 
Tailpipe testing started in the Northern Virginia area (to date, the only part of Virginia that requires emissions testing) started in 1985 or so.

About the same time that it started in the Chicago area, perhaps not coincidentally.

Even here in NY there is no tailpipe emissions testing, only computer monitor testing. I forgot I had reset the battery on my mother's Mercury hybrid and even weeks later she couldn't pass inspection because she drives only short trips around town and the monitors hadn't reset until I took it out on the highway...
 
If you remember, gasoline before the 1990s had an amber color. It all looks clear now.

Amoco ran TV ads in the late 1990s talking about the amber color in competitors' gasoline coming from impurities. If those ads told the truth, then today's clear fuels would in theory be better in quality (more pure) than '80s stuff.

Fuel is dyed. Pure gasoline is colorless and any impurities isn't likely to make much of a difference. There are all sorts of fuel dyes - red, yellow, green, purple, blue (fairly common with racing gas), etc.

 
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Even here in NY there is no tailpipe emissions testing, only computer monitor testing. I forgot I had reset the battery on my mother's Mercury hybrid and even weeks later she couldn't pass inspection because she drives only short trips around town and the monitors hadn't reset until I took it out on the highway...

It's kind of odd with Smog Check here in California. For the most part it's all shifted to plugging into OBDII now, but perhaps some older cars still get the tailpipe treatment. And they all have dynos now even if they're rarely used. I had a test where the tech drove it onto the dyno, but only to park it. It used to be just flat on the ground with a tailpipe sensor attached.
 
Even here in NY there is no tailpipe emissions testing, only computer monitor testing.

It was the same in Virginia until sometime around 10-15 years ago. When OBD-II vehicles started to become the majority of vehicles on the road they switched to computer monitor testing for OBD-II vehicles, and tailpipe testing for pre OBD-II vehicles.

Since all pre-OBD II vehicles are now older than 25 years old, and in Virginia are considered antique vehicles and therefore no emissions testing required, I asked the guy at the shop if they still used the dyno emissions tester. This measures tailpipe emissions under load, compared to the idle-only test they used to do before.

He said that sometimes the computer will tell them to dyno-test a vehicle. But he didn't know why that would happen.

Would be interesting to find out. Virginia does do roadside emissions testing, and I wonder if maybe a vehicle fails one of those tests it will be required to get the dyno test?
 
It's kind of odd with Smog Check here in California. For the most part it's all shifted to plugging into OBDII now, but perhaps some older cars still get the tailpipe treatment. And they all have dynos now even if they're rarely used. I had a test where the tech drove it onto the dyno, but only to park it. It used to be just flat on the ground with a tailpipe sensor attached.

Yes, they plug into the OBDII so it's hard to get around that if not impossible. But no check engine light and you generally pass, unless the monitors need to be reset (30-50 miles on an older car after battery disconnect) The older cars are grandfathered, I think maybe 1996 is the cutoff IIRC
 
Fuel is dyed. Pure gasoline is colorless and any impurities isn't likely to make much of a difference. There are all sorts of fuel dyes - red, yellow, green, purple, blue (fairly common with racing gas), etc.

I'm positive the amber color was not a dye. It would be best described as "amberish" and varied a lot. In retrospect, it was probably from impurities, though maybe tetraethyl lead imparts a color, I don't know. Clear "white" unleaded gasoline was available from Amoco as far back as the 1930s.
 
Being about 90% positive that I've met an delt with more EPA beauocrats than you ever will, I would never, ever say anything of the sort. A bit of cheeky strawman there actually...


I generally agree. But remember elected people need generous donations to keep being elected...


Ahh yeah right....

Hate to say it but your pals at the EPA routinely make their laws aka rules up as they go........


Because.... They have the ability and delegated authoritization to do so. .


And they are HUMAN..... Which invariably equals bad decisions and big mistakes...

I am not saying that those mistakes happen a lot of the time.... No probably not.

But I guarantee they happen at times...
 
Ahh yeah right....

Hate to say it but your pals at the EPA routinely make their laws aka rules up as they go........


Because.... They have the ability and delegated authoritization to do so. .

They're "not my pals". They above seems a bit obtuse, do you have any specific examples of this?


And they are HUMAN..... Which invariably equals bad decisions and big mistakes...

I am not saying that those mistakes happen a lot of the time.... No probably not.

But I guarantee they happen at times...

Of course they make mistakes but you have to balance things on a whole. I mean do you really want to go back this:

59de460b92406c1e008b5d19
 
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