A&Q about 350Z
Q:
Whoodathunkit?
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060629/APF/606290980
http://cleanairarticles.blogspot.com/2006/03/few-stories-on-national-research.html
"-- March 17, 2006A National Research Council panel on Thursday overwhelmingly endorsed California's tough air pollution regulations, saying the state had served as "a proving ground for new emissions-control technologies that benefit California and the rest of the nation."
"The federal government may use California's strict pollution rules for lawnmowers and other small-engine machines as a national standard, a top Environmental Protection Agency official said Thursday. While environmentalists and air quality regulators would welcome the development, it would be bad news for much of the small engine industry. California aims to cut smog emissions from the highly polluting engines by about 35 percent. Margo Oge, director of EPA's office of transportation and air quality, said implementing California's standard nationally could work well, though no final decision has been made. "We believe harmonizing with California will be cost-effective, good for the environment, good for the industry, good for all the stakeholders," Oge said after a hearing Thursday on California's request for an EPA waiver so it can implement the rules. "We are concerned that as other sources are being controlled, this source is going to continue to be a bigger source for air pollution, so we are pretty interested in finishing our work and putting forth cost-effective standards for the country," she said. "... A strong option that we're considering is harmonizing with California."
I figured he was right, I was just hoping he wasn't...at least not for a few decades.
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'82 280zx -- 400+hp 355 sbc / T-56
'72 240zt - T3/T4 hybrid / TEC-II / not much stock
'82 280zxt - Stock...for now
'77 280z 2+2 -- Ongoing battle; currently in the process of "ricing
A:
bet you thought he just pulled that stuff out of his hat , huh!
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1980 280ZX coupe
2001 maxima
1994 F150 4x4 van works custom truck
170000 and never needed mech repairs
1996 ford explorer -they cant all be good
A:
smog check on my lawnmower? yea right. they can kiss my butt.
A:
Not before they start smog-checking everyones a**es while they're at it.
A:
Hopefully they'll exempt our 'antique' Z's by the time this rolls out nationwide (IF it does).
Car makers are probably lobbying for this because they just want to kill old cars, making people buy new ones and "revitalize our economy"
1980 280ZX, now with L28ET and Megasquirt 'n Spark Extra
Pallnet Fuel Rail, KYB Gas-A-djust Shocks, Advan A048 Tires
ACT Clutch Disc & Pressure Plate, Steel Braided Brake Lines
A:
"TONY TOLD US that this would happen some day, and to hold on those useless EGR's etc!" Meanwhile I hear you can "turn in" your lawnmowers and buy the "offered" electric models, like here in sunny "bra cup" California. Here-it's 11:35pm and South Park is on! Have you seen "Sadam and the Devil" where Cartman say's "Just put a dollar in this box" and you will be free? Free IS expensive... Norm K
Norman Krell
A:
Astroturf and plastic plants.
Ed and Jeanne's
ZXelda 1981 280 ZXT: ZXena 1990 300 ZX
1941 Buick Special Sedanette (Betty)
1956 Dodge Royal (Dorothy)
1971 Buick Riviera (Rita)
1975 Ford F-150 Stepside (Fiona)
1992 Firebird (Frieda)
A:
I guess it's warranted in some respect, some of the really old farm style mechanical equipment chugs out black smoke like there's no 2mora lol The real old school buses are bad too, cant be good for kids either to be breathing that sh!t in each morning and afternoon lol
85' 300ZX NA
86' 300ZX Turbo
88' 300ZX Turbo
89' 300ZX Turbo
300ZX Turbo Project
A:
Of course, all government agencies are exempt...
A:
You give TonyD to much credit. Anyone with half a brain knows that Cailforna's smog laws are the cutting edge of USA's pollution laws. Its been in the news for years. Those 2 cycle lawn mowers should be banned worlwide. Once they get out of tune or someone over ratio's the fuel oil mix they are like a fog machine.
This whole world smells bad, I'd buy another if I had
back what I paid for another mother@#$%@# in a motorcade
A:
I don't think I have ever seen a 2 stroke lawnmower. Really it is a little funny to me. smog your lawnmower, or go electric. Electric is not basd I guess, but look at how much the average mower is run. Seems to me there are better places to spend money and time on.
anyway, lets here it for freedom!
signed pseudotechnician view point, Sniper S^$ker, with girly arms : UCC 1-207
A:
I think its great news.
88 300ZX Turbo Shiro Special (SS): K&N filter, HKS Exhaust.
God created Turbo lag so V8's could stand a chance.
A:
I own a Two-Stroke Lawn Boy.
I will take it back to California as soon as practical! Just because I can.
Currently, it mows the lawn during the summer months at my Cabin on the Lake in Michigan.
It is QUIET! Far quieter than any other Modern Four-Stroke monster. As quiet as any electric, without the bother of a CORD. Having blade phasing to cover the exhause port and muffle the exhaust pulses even further is a great benefit.
(Hmmmm, wonder how safe an electric mower is when you cut wet grass.... extension cord dragging in the dew....)
It has POWER! Much more than I need. And with 7 moving parts, not a lot to go wrong. Being it's older than the hills, I think the formula works!
It also doesn't have a blade brake, dummy handle, or any sort of safety interlock to keep me from walking away from it and leaving it running.
In short, it's a CHEAP LAWNMOWER built before the government decided that people (an individual at least) are too stupid to NOT stick their hands under the deck with the blade whirring by at 3600rpms. Not to say that two determined idiots can't combine forces and have one stick their hand under the deck, while the other holds the blade brake and ignition kill bar solidly on the handle.
What I like about my old lawnmower is that I can start it, mow the lawn, then stick a brick on the handle (or stick the handle under something to hold it down), prop the mower deck up in the air while the motor is still running, (OH GAWD, HOW UNSAFE, GOVERNMENT REGULATOR GOVERNMENT REGULATOR TONY'S NOT BEING SAFE WITH LAWN IMPLEMENTS!!!!!!!) and SPRAY the grass clippings out from underneath the deck with a hose---like I have since I've been 10 years old! Makes the deck last forever, this particular mower being just one example...
If a 10 year old can do this, I fail to see why the government decided that we just HAD to have all these safety interlocks on a mower today...
Oh yeah, and to comment on JohnH's dismissive comment about my prophecy, just remember, there are plenty of idiots out there----who STILL believe it's "never gonna happen here". While you might THINK anyone with a modicum of intelligence would figure this out, such (historically) has not been the case. What is of more importance toward my prophecy is that the legislatures of other states are blindly adpoting California's Legislation and standards without any regard to their own local conditions----and I believe this is what he is referring to as prophetic.
If you think a "one rule solves all" kind of solution is a real answer, then you are sadly misguided, John. Sadly misguided. Even within California, there are regional differences in the implementation of the programs.
Besides, the California programs ceased to be about pollution control at least 10 years ago. Now it is directed more towards social engineering goals, plain and simple.
The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles spew TWICE the pollution into the air every day as the 6 million plus motor vehicles that drive in the basin, and only NOW have they even STARTED to come under regulation.
And now, only because they BOTH agreed to the SAME restrictions because they thought that lowering emissions requirements in one would drive business to the other... Uh, DUUUUH!
And that nice new state of the art port facility at the end of the NAFTA Highway in Mexico is being built now.........
People Are Idiots, Just look around here and you will see!
Tony D: "Knowledgeable but Caustic"... rationull
My brother from another mother calls himself "Willie D"
Post Edited (Jul 5, 9:41am)
A:
AMEN Tony. AMEN.
I just bought a 2stroke Lawn Boy 3 years ago, and talking to a mower dealer here this year, he stopped carrying them because they don't make a 2stroke LB anymore... and that they were no longer different enough any more since they no longer had the 2 stroke. Granted, mine has the engine brake crap on it, but that can be bypassed by a bungee cord wrapped around the handle.
The prior 2stroke I had (Toro) had a blade brake, but the mower engine would stay running. That was at least tolerable.
I, too, wonder about safety with an electric mower going through wet/damp grass. And, how many of those gov't regulators would be willing to 1. buy enough cord to mow/trim a 1-2 acre lot or 2. would like to drag that much cord over it!
Never mind the fact that unless you live somwhere that you have to mow year-round, you use the mower otherwise what 20-30 times during the year? How much pollution does that cause? And of course there's the folks in apartments and condos that don't use mowers at all.
Above all, the government must protect us from ourselves!
Oh well... I still marvel at those who buy gasoline for their lawmowers from a gas station, paying all those highway taxes just to mow their lawn. At least in Iowa, you can find places that will sell without all the gas taxes if the fuel is used for non-road use.
Like I always say.... it's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for.
Roger
1999 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 Quad Cab
1986 300ZX 2+2 NA 5spd
It's funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious!
A:
I still dont see it happening in North Dakota tho... we have about 750,000 people in the WHOLE STATE. thats less than most medium sized cities.
oh well, I guess I'll have to find my catalytic that I took off my car, eh? actually, I was gonna put a new high flow on when I installed my header. No reason not to as a high flow cat on a 900 some odd horsepower big block was shown to kill only 2hp over a straight through hi perf exhaust.
smog checks for lawn equipment is a new one. if you use it once a week, how much can it actually reduce pollution?
as far as getting rid of older cars, the new car manufacturers have already done that. The used car market is toast, thanks to 0% financing, huge discounts and financing for anyone. When the big three decide to clear out inventory, you can often pick up a brand new truck/car for far cheaper than a 2 year old model, after you take into account all th factory rebates, employee pricing and what not.
McAdam
1980 280zx with a mildly ported N47 maxima head, 60mm TB, -C- stamp 256 degree camshaft, and a 2.5inch mandrel bent exhaust. yeah, its quick, and yeah, its a 2+2. NOW with MSandS_E power!
A:
lol, smogging lawnmowers! That'd be a hell of a job. And the energy to power these electric lawnmowers is coming from were?
Matt
A:
"...fogging mowers"! haha...for you TonyD and some of the rest in the North, what else keeps those mosquitos away...why do you think the old smoking mowers always end up at the cabin?
The Tecumseh engines have had safety recalls regarding plastic hoses
on plastic gas tank nipples.....(I know, it emptied out on my garage floor
when the gas fumes in tank expanded....How could I figure them to get into emmision controls when they can't figure out how to make a gas line
stay attached? Ahhh, I'm beginning to get it now, no gas, no emmision!(and isn't it wonderful that we should be researching our products for safety recalls before we even buy them...)
Maybe some day we'll all have lasers mounted on a track, groundlevel+, that makes one pass to cut your entire lawn...incinerating any debris and leaving it nice and level......range?, hmm, that's an issue
'73 240z, sitting 16 years in garaged storage...Spring 2005 endeavor...
Twin Cities, Mn
A:
Roger509 ".....At least in Iowa, you can find places that will sell without all the gas taxes if the fuel is used for non-road use."
Seems I remember out East in Chesapeake Bay, boat owners kept track of gas used on water for the same reason......I heard then (Early 80's) they could deduct taxes from total consumed.....some states just don't budge
though.
'73 240z, sitting 16 years in garaged storage...Spring 2005 endeavor...
Twin Cities, Mn
A:
I was being told as far back as the mid 70's to leave all the smog emissions stuff on all my performance cars. Of course I removed it all on all of them then and through morew recent years removed stuff as I bought up until last year on a few and to this day have not run into any problems registering them and have never been hassled. Im not worried one bit on not having engines with equipment removed whether it be small engines or automobile engines. There are always loopholes around everything and there always will be.
The government dont scare me one bit and they never have with their threats against the car collector crowds.
A:
I can't put my riding mower in reverse with the cutting deck engaged or it will stall and die.
It's not a safety device, but what we call a lawyer device. I don't even want to know who backed over their two-year-old to make this a standard "safety" device.
Pretty soon we will have to fart into a catylitic converter unless we all stand up and say ENOUGH!
02/1976 280Z
An amateur trying to restore the Z. I should have taken the blue pill!
A:
they ll have to pry my lawn mower from my cold dead hands!!! HA!HA!
all the farm equipment in this area pollutes more than probably all the lawn mowers in the rest of the country put together. just get behind some pos tractor driving down the 4 lane and breath the fumes once and youll know!!
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1980 280ZX coupe
2001 maxima
1994 F150 4x4 van works custom truck
170000 and never needed mech repairs
1996 ford explorer -they cant all be good
A:
Come on guys, do it for "da Fatherland." NK
Norman Krell
A:
I would say just get a goat or two.
But then the government would put an "emissions" law on them.
Ed and Jeanne's
ZXelda 1981 280 ZXT: ZXena 1990 300 ZX
1941 Buick Special Sedanette (Betty)
1956 Dodge Royal (Dorothy)
1971 Buick Riviera (Rita)
1975 Ford F-150 Stepside (Fiona)
1992 Firebird (Frieda)
A:
Shakespeare had it wrong when he said "First we kill all the lawyers"
He should have said "First we kill all the bueracrats!!"
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12.804 @ 107.26 mph on crappy street tires with Dual SU Powered 2.9L Stroker!
ZCAR.COM member since Aug 1998