30

Product Range
Exhaust System Assembly

This consists of exhaust manifold, catalyst, center muffler, rear
muffler and exhaust.










31

Automobiles Part Business
Contributing To Both Improved Engine Performance and Lower Noise

1 Role of Product ,Exhaust Pipe
These parts are mounted beneath the floor of the automobile and their role is to
cleanse the exhaust gas coming from the engine, mute its sound, and then
discharge the gas from the rear of the automobile

2 Required Elements of Products
The exhaust system products are required to discharge the exhaust gas from the
engine both smoothly and quietly to satisfy the competing demands for improved
engine performance and quietness. In addition, these products are exposed to
high temperatures and a corrosive external environment, so it is also essential
that they have good heat resistance and corrosion resistance.

3 Unique Strengths of Our Products
We make full use of analysis technologies and carry out optimized design to
reduce the effects of exhaust gas heat and improve the noise reduction.

4 Direction of Product development
These products have a large impact on the amount of CO
2
emissions from the
automobile and so the performance of these products largely controls the overall
environmental performance of the automobile as a whole.
We are advancing and promoting research and development for the purpose of
reducing CO
2
emissions even further
32

Exhaust Manifold

In automotive engineering, an exhaust manifold collects the exhaust gases from
multiple cylinders into one pipe. The word manifold comes from the Old English
word manigfeald and refers to the folding together of multiple inputs and
outputs.
In contrast, an inlet manifold is the part of an engine that supplies the air to the
cylinders.
Exhaust manifolds are generally simple cast iron or stainless steel units which
collect engine exhaust from multiple cylinders and deliver it to the exhaust pipe.
For many engines, there are aftermarket tubular exhaust manifolds known
as headers in US English, as extractor manifolds in British and Australian
English, and simply as "tubular manifolds" in UK English. These consist of
individual exhaust head pipes for each cylinder, which then usually converge into
one tube called a collector. Headers that do not have collectors are called 'zoomie
headers'.
The most common types of aftermarket headers are made of mild steel or
stainless steel tubing for the primary tubes along with flat flanges and possibly a
larger diameter collector made of a similar material as the primaries. They may be
coated with a ceramic-type finish (sometimes both inside and outside), or painted
with a heat-resistant finish, or bare. Chrome plated headers are available but they
will tend to blue after use. Polished stainless steel will also color (usually a yellow
tint), but less than chrome in most cases.
Another form of modification used is to insulate a standard or aftermarket
manifold. This decreases the amount of heat given off into the engine bay,
therefore reducing the intake manifold temperature. There are a few types of
thermal insulation but three are particularly common:
Ceramic paint is sprayed or brushed onto the manifold and then cured in an
oven. These are usually thin, so have little insulatory properties; however, they
reduce engine bay heating by lessening the heat output via radiation.
A ceramic mixture is bonded to the manifold via thermal spraying to give a
tough ceramic coating with very good thermal insulation. This is often used on
performance production cars and track-only racers.
33

Exhaust wrap is wrapped completely around the manifold. Although this is
cheap and fairly simple, it can lead to premature degradation of the manifold.
The goal of performance exhaust headers is mainly to decrease flow resistance
(back pressure), and to increase the volumetric efficiency of an engine, resulting
in a gain in power output. The processes occurring can be explained by the gas
laws, specifically the ideal gas law and the combined gas law.




The role of the exhaust manifold is to send the high-temperature exhaust gas
from the engine onto the exhaust system (catalyst). In the past this part was
made from cast iron, but here at Futaba we began producing exhaust
manifolds made from stainless steel pipe and sheet metal in the spring of 1989,
long before any of our competitors, and now it has become the mainstream
material for this product.





34

Exhaust System
An exhaust system is usually piping used to guide reaction exhaust gases away
from a controlled combustion inside an engine or stove. The entire system
conveys burnt gases from the engine and includes one or more exhaust pipes.
Depending on the overall system design, the exhaust gas may flow through one or
more of:
Cylinder head and exhaust manifold
A turbocharger to increase engine power.
A catalytic converter to reduce air pollution.
A muffler (North America) / silencer (Europe), to reduce noise.




This system is composed of parts such as the exhaust manifold, catalyst, center
muffler, rear muffler, and the exhaust pipes that connect these parts together.
The role of the exhaust system is to reduce both the temperature and the noise
of the exhaust gas, as well as to remove any harmful components of the gas.
This system is one of the most critical parts of the automobile because it has a
large effect on the tone of the exhaust noise and the power performance


35

Truthfully, an individual car's emissions are relatively low, compared to other
sources of pollution. But when hundreds of thousands of people are each sitting
in a car, packing a highway to capacity, the cumulative effects are enormous. As
you're sitting in a traffic jam, gazing at the smoke coming out of the tailpipe in
front of you and rising to join the smog in the sky, think for a moment about what
that smoke is. It might not look like much, but that smoke has come a long way
since it was pushed through the car's engine just moments before.
Concern about our automobiles' effect on the environment is nothing new. The
1970 version of the Clean Air Act gave the EPA its sweeping authority to regulate
automotive emissions. As technology advanced, the EPA pushed for more strict
standards. And while new cars are much cleaner than those of 40 years ago,
people tend to drive greater distances and a lot more often today, contributing to
a lot more pollution. The Clean Air Act was revamped and increased in scope in
1977, and then again in 1990.
Automotive manufacturers and parts suppliers have had to keep pace with these
changes, and as you can imagine, a car's exhaust system has had to evolve
considerably, too.




Components of an Exhaust -- Smokin' Pipes
The exhaust system is comprised mainly of pipes in several different shapes, each
designed to connect to one another, and each shaped to conform to a specific
part of the underside of the car. (The pipes are often bent to wrap around or
otherwise accommodate other nearby components of the car, such as the axles.)
Each pipe is responsible for moving the exhaust gases toward the back, but many
of the segments are specialized. In other words, from the exterior, the system
simply looks like a bunch of connected pipe segments that run from the engine
36

bay to the back bumper, though some serve an additional purpose as the exhaust
flows through that particular pipe.
For example, the Y pipe (which is simply, well, a Y-shaped pipe) might be installed
so the end with two openings bolts up to two corresponding openings in the
exhaust manifold, combining the engine's waste to progress through the system.
Or, when installed at the back end of the car, a Y pipe can help create a dual
exhaust system with a tailpipe on each side of the car (for an often sought-after
sporty look). Intermediate pipes might be attached to the muffler or resonator,
which are other important system components (we'll get to these on the next
page). Balance pipes, found in dual exhaust systems, help equalize the exhaust
pulses traveling under the driver and passenger sides of the car. Air gap pipes are
specialized nested pipes that act as a heat shield and insulator by providing an
extra layer for airflow. And the tail pipe, which is typically peeking out from
underneath the rear bumper, usually has a larger opening and might be made of
more substantial-looking metal, to give the appearance of a performance exhaust
that's a common feature of high-end cars.
Though it might seem inefficient to have a ton of pipes instead of just one, really,
all those segments serve a purpose. For one, bending pipes is hard work, and it's
easier to connect small angled segments to straight pipes than it is to shape one
long, expensive, heavy pipe to fit every contour of a car. Also, exhaust system
components wear out at regular intervals (depending, of course, on the
manufacturer, its materials, driving conditions and environmental factors). It's
easier and less expensive to replace one rusted-out segment of pipe, banged-up
muffler, or worn-out catalytic converter than it would be to install a whole new
system.
You might wonder how all those pipes fit together. Well, some ends overlap,
while others are mated end-to-end; but not without a little bit of assistance.



37

Other Exhaust Components -- Headers,
Hangers and More
We discussed the various pipes first, because they're the most visible and
prevalent components of the exhaust system, and because they're all over the
place. But the exhaust system really starts at the exhaust header (also known as
the exhaust manifold). The header looks like a series of adjacent tubes stuck
together (though it's often made of heavy-duty cast metal). It collects the exhaust
directly from the engine, so it's designed so each opening mates up with one of
the engine's exhaust ports, with flanges that form a tight seal to prevent exhaust
from escaping. From here, the exhaust begins its flow through the various pipes
and other components.
The gaskets that are fitted between each pipe play a very important role. It's
difficult, if not impossible, to form a flawless metal-to-metal seal, so gaskets are
sandwiched between each connection to prevent the poisonous gases from
escaping prematurely. They're made of fiberAd by save net or other heavy-duty,
heat resistant materials, which have just enough flexibility to compress slightly
when the pipes are clamped tightly together. This helps form a tight seal.
The muffler is another key part of the exhaust system. It looks like a large round
or oval chamber (usually, but not always, found near the back of the car). That
chamber has a very complex design, though -- it's responsible for silencing most
of the engine's noise, even though it has to allow the exhaust to continue flowing
smoothly. A series of chambers and tubes, filled with rock, wool, or synthetic
fibers, absorbs and controls the noise. And that's not all -- the muffler must be
reasonably resistant to damage, corrosion and heat retention. The resonator is a
secondary or substitute sound elimination component, used to augment the
muffler, or in cases where space is at a premium it might even be used instead of
a muffler.
Catalytic converters, which became commonplace in the 1970s, are the primary
and most efficient means of reducing the level of toxins in a car's exhaust. The
38

innards of a catalytic converter (or "cat") are coated with metals. Different types
of catalytic converters use different combinations of platinum, palladium and
rhodium. Before the exhaust reaches the cat, it contains a potent, super-toxic
combination of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons. (When you
take your car for its emissions test, these are the chemical levels that are being
tested.) When these poisons come into contact with the metals coating the inside
of the cat, a chemical reaction takes place that makes the exhaust gases less
harmful. As the exhaust passes through the cat, the level of chemicals should be
reduced enough to comply with government regulations.
We already talked about gaskets, but the exhaust system requires other basic
pieces of hardware. Flanges generally serve the same purpose as gaskets, but
these are made of metal (and are sometimes formed right onto the end of a
pipe). Assorted clamps and brackets mount the exhaust pieces together and hold
them to the vehicle, and exhaust hangers literally hang the pipes from the
underbody of the car, with enough strength to keep them in place but also
enough flexibility to withstand movement caused by driving. And last, but not
least are the heat shields: Metal (sometimes insulated) plates that are used as an
extra barrier whenever hot exhaust parts are particularly close to another part of
the car or directly below the passenger compartment.



The Exit Route
If an engine ran perfectly, it would combust all its available fuel as it ran through
its cycles, converting all the dirty bits to a source of power. However, leftovers
exist as pollutants because an engine simply cannot be engineered to run
perfectly -- there are far too many variables. Some amount of fuel will always
remain unburned or partially burned, and these remnants must be quickly
39

processed out of the vehicle, in the form of exhaust, to make room for the next
cycle of engine combustion.
As we mentioned earlier, the exhaust first exits the engine and enters the system
through the exhaust manifold. From there, it travels down the system through
interconnected pipes until it exits through the tailpipe, near the back bumper. The
pipes themselves actually help cool the exhaust, but they're mostly a way for the
exhaust to travel to (and through) the catalytic converter and muffler.
The cat has to be as close to the engine as possible, because it isn't fully
functional until it rises to operating temperature. In many cases, the
manufacturer places the cat shortly after the manifold, so heat from the engine
helps warm the cat and quickly bring it up to temp.
After the gases pass through the cat, which will burn off and remove up to 90
percent of the exhaust's toxins, the next priority is to filter the engine sound
[source: Allen]. The muffler and resonator are usually situated right beyond the
cat. There are many variations on this combination -- some will soothe the
exhaust as much as possible, while others are specifically tuned for aggressive
tones. From there, the exhaust moves through the remainder of the pipes until it
exits the car.
With all those chemicals swirling around, it's quite a feat that the exhaust system
actually works as well as it does. A well-maintained exhaust system should last
two to three years, but the pipes incur damage both inside and out. On the
outside, they're susceptible to road conditions, such as impact from debris and
environmental factors, such as snow, ice and road salt.
However, a more substantial cause of exhaust system degradation is internal, and
it can't be seen until the pipes have corroded through with rust. We know that as
the engine combusts fuel to make power, byproducts of this process are left over
-- that's why the exhaust system is needed. One of these byproducts is acidic
moisture, and it's really damaging to metal. Unfortunately, there's really no way
to keep the insides of the pipes clean.
40

When an exhaust pipe rots through or a connection comes loose, an exhaust leak
occurs. A leak is almost always immediately apparent with a loud, obnoxious
sound and, possibly, drivability issues like an intermittent fluctuation in power.
But, believe it or not, these aren't the real problems. It gets a little more serious if
the leak occurs before the catalytic converter, which means the exhaust isn't
being properly processed and all those hot chemicals are spilling everywhere into
the atmosphere. It's always a good idea to get leaks fixed as soon as possible to
avoid subjecting yourself, your passengers and your surroundings to unfiltered
exhaust fumes.

















41

Muffler

If you've ever heard a car engine running without a muffler, you know what a
huge difference a muffler can make to the noise level. Inside a muffler, you'll find
a deceptively simple set of tubes with some holes in them. These tubes and
chambers are actuall-y as finely tuned as a musical instrument. They are designed
to reflect the sound waves produced by the engine in such a way that they
partially cancel themselves out.
Mufflers use some pretty neat technology to cancel out the noise. In this article,
we'll take a look inside a real car muffler and learn about the principles that make
it work.
But first, we need to know a little about sound.



42

Where Does the Sound Come From?
Sound is a pressure wave formed from pulses of alternating high and low air
pressure. These pulses makes their way through the air at -- you guessed it -- the
speed of sound.
In an engine, pulses are created when an exhaust valve opens and a burst of high-
pressure gas suddenly enters the exhaust system. The molecules in this gas collide
with the lower-pressure molecules in the pipe, causing them to stack up on each
other. They in turn stack up on the molecules a little further down the pipe,
leaving an area of low pressure behind. In this way, the sound wave makes its way
down the pipe much faster than the actual gases do.
When these pressure pulses reach your ear, the eardrum vibrates back and forth.
Your brain interprets this motion as sound. Two main characteristics of the wave
determine how we perceive the sound:
Sound wave frequency - A higher wave frequency simply means that the air
pressure fluctuates faster. The faster an engine runs, the higher the pitch we
hear. Slower fluctuations sound like a lower pitch.
Air pressure level - The wave's amplitude determines how loud the sound is.
Sound waves with greater amplitudes move our eardrums more, and we register
this sensation as a higher volume.
It turns out that it is possible to add two or more sound waves together and get
less sound. Let's see how.




43

How Can You Cancel Out Sound?
The key thing about sound waves is that the result at your ear is the sum of all the
sound waves hitting your ear at that time. If you are listening to a band, even
though you may hear several distinct sources of sound, the pressure waves hitting
your ear drum all add together, so your ear drum only feels one pressure at any
given moment.
Now comes the cool part: It is possible to produce a sound wave that is exactly
the opposite of another wave. This is the basis for those noise-canceling
headphones you may have seen. Take a look at the figure below. The wave on top
and the second wave are both pure tones. If the two waves are in phase, they add
up to a wave with the same frequency but twice the amplitude. This is called
constructive interference. But, if they are exactly out of phase, they add up to
zero. This is called destructive interference. At the time when the first wave is at
its maximum pressure, the second wave is at its minimum. If both of these waves
hit your ear drum at the same time, you would not hear anything because the two
waves always add up to zero.







44

Inside a Muffler



Located inside the muffler is a set of tubes. These tubes are designed to create
reflected waves that interfere with each other or cancel each other out. Take a
look at the inside of this muffler:
The exhaust gases and the sound waves enter through the center tube. They
bounce off the back wall of the muffler and are reflected through a hole into the
main body of the muffler. They pass through a set of holes into another chamber,
where they turn and go out the last pipe and leave the muffler.
A chamber called a resonator is connected to the first chamber by a hole. The
resonator contains a specific volume of air and has a specific length that is
calculated to produce a wave that cancels out a certain frequency of sound. How
does this happen? Let's take a closer look ...


45

The Resonator
When a wave hits the hole, part of it continues into the chamber and part of it is
reflected. The wave travels through the chamber, hits the back wall of the muffler
and bounces back out of the hole. The length of this chamber is calculated so that
this wave leaves the resonator chamber just after the next wave reflects off the
outside of the chamber. Ideally, the high-pressure part of the wave that came
from the chamber will line up with the low-pressure part of the wave that was
reflected off the outside of the chamber wall, and the two waves will cancel each
other out.
The animation below shows how the resonator works in a simplified muffler.


Waves canceling inside a simplified muffler
In reality, the sound coming from the engine is a mixture of many different
frequencies of sound, and since many of those frequencies depend on the engine
speed, the sound is almost never at exactly the right frequency for this to happen.
The resonator is designed to work best in the frequency range where the engine
makes the most noise; but even if the frequency is not exactly what the resonator
was tuned for, it will still produce some destructive interference.
Some cars, especially luxury cars where quiet operation is a key feature, have
another component in the exhaust that looks like a muffler, but is called a
resonator. This device works just like the resonator chamber in the muffler -- the
dimensions are calculated so that the waves reflected by the resonator help
cancel out certain frequencies of sound in the exhaust.
There are other features inside this muffler that help it reduce the sound level in
different ways. The body of the muffler is constructed in three layers: Two thin
layers of metal with a thicker, slightly insulated layer between them. This allows
46

the body of the muffler to absorb some of the pressure pulses. Also, the inlet and
outlet pipes going into the main chamber are perforated with holes. This allows
thousands of tiny pressure pulses to bounce around in the main chamber,
canceling each other out to some extent in addition to being absorbed by the
muffler's housing.








Backpressure and Other Types of Mufflers
One important characteristic of mufflers is how much backpressure they produce.
Because of all of the turns and holes the exhaust has to go through, mufflers like
those in the previous section produce a fairly high backpressure. This subtracts a
little from the power of the engine.
47

There are other types of mufflers that can reduce backpressure. One type,
sometimes called a glass pack or a cherry bomb, uses only absorption to reduce
the sound. On a muffler like this, the exhaust goes straight through a pipe that is
perforated with holes. Surrounding this pipe is a layer of glass insulation that
absorbs some of the pressure pulses. A steel housing surrounds the insulation.

Diagram of glass pack muffler
These mufflers produce much less restriction, but don't reduce the sound level as
much as conventional mufflers.



Active Noise-Canceling Mufflers
There have been a few experiments with active noise-canceling mufflers,
especially on industrial generators. These systems incorporate a set of
microphones and a speaker.
48

The speaker is positioned in a pipe, which wraps around the exhaust pipe so that
the sound from the exhaust comes out in the same direction as the sound from
the speaker. A computer monitors a microphone positioned before the speaker
and one positioned after the speaker. By knowing some things about the length
and shape of the pipes, the computer can generate a signal to drive the speaker.
This can cancel out much of the sound coming from the generator. The
downstream microphone lets the computer know how well it is doing so it can
make adjustments if needed.

















49

How Catalytic Converters Work




There are millions of cars on the road in the United States, and each one is a
source of air pollution. Especially in large cities, the amount of pollution that all
the cars produce together can create big problems.
To solve those problems, cities, states and the federal government create clean-
air laws that restrict the amount of pollution that cars can produce. Over the
years, automakers have made many refinements to car engines and fuel systems
to keep up with these laws. One of these changes came about in 1975 with an
interesting device called a catalytic converter. The job of the catalytic converter is
to convert harmful pollutants into less harmful emissions before they ever leave
the car's- exhaust system.
Catalytic converters are amazingly simple devices, so it is incredible to see how
big an impact they have. In this article, you will learn which pollutants are
produced by an engine and how a catalytic converter deals with each of these
pollutants to help reduce vehicle emissions.

50

Pollutants Produced by a Car Engine
In order to reduce emissions, modern car engines carefully control the amount of
fuel they burn. They try to keep the air-to-fuel ratio very close to the
stoichiometric point, which is the ideal ratio of air to fuel. Theoretically, at this
ratio, all of the fuel will be burned using all of the oxygen in the air. For gasoline,
the stoichiometric ratio is about 14.7:1, meaning that for each pound of gasoline,
14.7 pounds of air will be burned. The fuel mixture actually varies from the ideal
ratio quite a bit during driving. Sometimes the mixture can be lean (an air-to-fuel
ratio higher than 14.7), and other times the mixture can be rich (an air-to-fuel
ratio lower than 14.7).
The main emissions of a car engine are:
Nitrogen gas (N2) - Air is 78-percent nitrogen gas, and most of this passes right
through the car engine.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) - This is one product of combustion. The carbon in the fuel
bonds with the oxygen in the air.
Water vapor (H2O) - This is another product of combustion. The hydrogen in the
fuel bonds with the oxygen in the air.
These emissions are mostly benign, although carbon dioxide emissions are
believed to contribute to global warming. Because the combustion process is
never perfect, some smaller amounts of more harmful emissions are also
produced in car engines. Catalytic converters are designed to reduce all three:
Carbon monoxide (CO) is a poisonous gas that is colorless and odorless.
Hydrocarbons or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a major component of
smog produced mostly from evaporated, unburned .fuel.
Nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2, together called NOx) are a contributor to smog and
acid rain, which also causes irritation to human mucus membranes.
51






How Catalytic Converters Reduce Pollution
In chemistry, a catalyst is a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical
reaction without itself being affected. Catalysts participate in the reactions, but
are neither reactants nor products of the reaction they catalyze. In the human
body, enzymes are naturally occurring catalysts responsible for many essential
biochemical reactions.

In the catalytic converter, there are two different types of catalyst at work, a
reduction catalyst and an oxidation catalyst. Both types consist of a ceramic
structure coated with a metal catalyst, usually platinum, rhodium and/or
palladium. The idea is to create a structure that exposes the maximum surface
area of catalyst to the exhaust stream, while also minimizing the amount of
52

catalyst required, as the materials are extremely expensive. Some of the newest
converters have even started to use gold mixed with the more traditional
catalysts. Gold is cheaper than the other materials and could increase oxidation-,
the chemical reaction that reduces pollutants, by up to 40 percent.
Most modern cars are equipped with three-way catalytic converters. This refers
to the three regulated emissions it helps to reduce.
The reduction catalyst is the first stage of the catalytic converter. It uses platinum
and rhodium to help reduce the NOx emissions. When an NO or NO2 molecule
contacts the catalyst, the catalyst rips the nitrogen atom out of the molecule and
holds on to it, freeing the oxygen in the form of O2. The nitrogen atoms bond
with other nitrogen atoms that are also stuck to the catalyst, forming N2. For
example:
2NO => N2 + O2 or 2NO2 => N2 + 2O2
2NO => N2 + O2 or 2NO2 => N2 + 2O2


Ceramic honeycomb catalyst structure.
The oxidation catalyst is the second stage of the catalytic converter. It reduces the
unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide by burning (oxidizing) them over a
platinum and palladium catalyst. This catalyst aids the reaction of the CO and
hydrocarbons with the remaining oxygen in the exhaust gas. For example:
2CO + O2 => 2CO2
53



There are two main types of structures used in catalytic converters -- honeycomb
and ceramic beads. Most cars today use a honeycomb structure.
In the next section, we'll look at the third stage of the conversion process and
how you can get the most from your catalytic converter.





54

Controlling Pollution and Improving
Performance
The third stage of conversion is a control system that monitors the exhaust
stream, and uses this information to control the fuel injection system. There is an
oxygen sensor mounted upstream of the catalytic converter, meaning it is closer
to the engine than the converter. This sensor tells the engine computer how
much oxygen is in the exhaust. The engine computer can increase or decrease the
amount of oxygen in the exhaust by adjusting the air-to-fuel ratio. This control
scheme allows the engine computer to make sure that the engine is running at
close to the stoichiometric point, and also to make sure that there is enough
oxygen in the exhaust to allow the oxidization catalyst to burn the unburned
hydrocarbons and CO.
The catalytic converter does a great job at reducing the pollution, but it can still
be improved substantially. One of its biggest shortcomings is that it only works at
a fairly high temperature. When you start your car cold, the catalytic converter
does almost nothing to reduce the pollution in your exhaust.
One simple solution to this problem is to move the catalytic converter closer to
the engine. This means that hotter exhaust gases reach the converter and it heats
up faster, but this may also reduce the life of the converter by exposing it to
extremely high temperatures. Most carmakers position the converter under the
front passenger seat, far enough from the engine to keep the temperature down
to levels that will not harm it.
Preheating the catalytic converter is a good way to reduce emissions. The easiest
way to preheat the converter is to use electric resistance heaters. Unfortunately,
the 12-volt electrical systems on most cars don't provide enough energy or power
to heat the catalytic converter fast enough. Most people would not wait several
minutes for the catalytic converter to heat up before starting their car. Hybrid
cars that have big, high-voltage battery packs can provide enough power to heat
up the catalytic converter very quickly.
55

Catalytic converters in diesel engines do not work as well in reducing NOx. One
reason is that diesel engines run cooler than standard engines, and the converters
work better as they heat up. Some of the leading environmental auto experts
have come up with a new system that helps to combat this. They inject a urea
solution in the exhaust pipe, before it gets to the converter, to evaporate and mix
with the exhaust and create a chemical reaction that will reduce NOx. Urea, also
known as carbamide, is an organic compound made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen
and hydrogen. It's found in the urine of mammals and amphibians. Urea reacts
with NOx to produce nitrogen and water vapor, disposing more than 90 percent
of the nitrogen oxides in exhaust gases.