03-29-2018, 01:50 PM
GM was working on emissions control engineering back in the early '60s, I believe, the first thing they developed was the pcv valve which took blowby gases from the crankcase and fed it into the air intake and back into the combustion chamber to burn off aforesaid gases. Next was the air pump which basically took outside air and pumped it into the exhaust manifold to dilute SO and NO levels. I know GM cars fairly well and I'm sure it was the same with the other US automakers. There had been studies done in the '50s and 60's on the adverse effects of auto pollution. CARB, the Ca air resources board was established in 1967 but, the State legislature was passing laws that affected vehicles from 1961! (PCV). NY followed and by the mid sixties all cars had PCV. The problem US automakers were facing was; Customers wanted large comfortable cars with big enough engines to move up to almost 3 ton luxobarges. They knew that to do this they needed technology that was not there yet. The first true electronic fuel injection actually came out on the 1957 DeSoto Adventurer, trouble was no one knew how to fix them except the people at Bendix that made the efi. Most were converted to dual quads. What really hurt was the Congressional hearings where the Big Three execs pleaded for more time. They almost got it when Soichiro Honda nodded and said in broken English "yes, yes we can do this". Honda had developed an engine, CVCC, that met emission levels without a catalytic converter. If you've drove a 1976 Buick Limited with a 455 big block choked by the emission controls of the day you'll understand the Big 3s position. It took until the late 90's before GM built an engine as powerful as the 1970 LS6 454 ci. Gosh I am a car geek!