Greening Classic Cars - Not A Bad Idea

We love our classic cars because they have a lot going for them. They are mechanically and electrically simple and easy to work on and reward their owners with a driving experience that is demonstrably dissimilar to today's vehicles. They also reward their owners with smiles, waves and endless attention from bystanders as they drive along.

There's a downside to classic cars, however. They typically run with carburetors, which means they need to be choked during cold starting and warmed up a bit before venturing out. They need frequent maintenance to operate efficiently and driving them requires the understanding that handling, steering and braking are inferior to the other vehicles on the road. They also pollute terribly.

How much do they pollute? Well, a lot, actually. I did an analysis a couple years ago using EPA data. Using the NOX and other pollutant figures from 1969 (when cars were running most cleanly but before major pollution regulations kicked in) I virtually drove a new car from Capitol Hill in Washington DC to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, about 40 miles away and back to capitol hill, adding up the total pollutants measured in grams-per-mile. Then I virtually drove a new car (2005, at the time) until its maximum allowable pollution output added up to the same amount as the 1969 car.

The results even surprised me! The new car had to be driven from Capitol Hill to Los Angeles International Airport and back again, then to Central Park in New York and back to Capitol Hill, nearly 6000 miles! Amazing, isn't it? New cars are over 150 times cleaner than our old 60s classics, and far more so than cars built in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

Granted, we don't drive the old cars very much but they do produce a lot of pollution. Eventually local, state or federal regulations will limit how much or how often they might be used, and this is already the case in several states. One way to diminish the effects of such regulations would be to clean up our old cars. There are ways of doing it.

Catalytic converters can be added to exhausts of older cars. I know of two projects in the recent past where this was done to a Mustang and a Dodge Charger. In both cases no performance losses were detectable and the cars are running normally. Unleaded gas must be used exclusively, but hardly anyone can find leaded gas anymore. Emissions after making this conversion easily meet mid-1970s standards and beyond, which is a significant difference from pre-emissions days.

Something everyone should do is to convert the old car's downdraft tube (these were used prior to the early 1960s to ventilate the crankcase) to a PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) system. It's not hard to find the parts and retrofit them to an older engine and a lot of the oil vapor and smoke that came out of them would be recycled through the engine and burned.

Speaking of engines, far greater combustion efficiency can be realized by replacing ignition points with modern electronic ignition devices such as Pertronix. By replacing the points with a magnetic pickup and higher energy coil you get the maximum spark voltage to the plugs and eliminate the need to reset the dwell angle on the points. This is a critical adjustment that very few people understand or routinely make and it affects the running of the car greatly.

Synthetic oils can be put into transmissions and differentials instead of gear oils. The synthetics have a much wider viscosity range and don't create as much drag on the components, particularly when cold. They don't deteriorate with age either.

Lastly, put radial tires on the old car if possible. Most popular collector cars can be fitted with radials and the positive benefits (better handling, braking, tracking, wet-weather control, lower rolling resistance, etc.) greatly outweigh the negative ones. In fact, the only real benefit of original-style tires is that they look original. If that's important for shows, okay, but most people drive their classic cars.