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Air injection
A very early emissions control system, the Air injection reactor (AIR) reduces the products of incomplete combustion (hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide) by injecting fresh air into the exhaust manifolds of the engine. In the presence of this oxygen-laden air, further combustion occurs in the manifold and exhaust pipe. Generally the air is delivered through an engine-driven 'smog pump' and air tubing to the manifolds. This technology was introduced in 1966 in California, and was in use for the next several decades. It is not generally in use any longer, having been supplanted by cleaner burning engines and better catalytic converters.
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I do agree that the original designed purpose of air injection was to burn the excess hydrocarbons in the exhaust gas of an engine, but it isn't particularly effective compared to more modern technologies and US manufacturers persisted with it for rather a long time and in some cases were using it to inject rather large volumes of air.
European and Japanese manufacturers put rather more R&D effort into their engines than their US counterparts, the US manufacturers tend to do things when they're forced too, either by laws that they can't buy their way out of or by competition. Air injection was cheap and convenient and didn't need a big R&D spend.
Smoking Xantia 1.9TD
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