02.

TECHNICAL AREA FOR SPECIALISTS

02.03 TECHNICAL DATA & E-LEARNING
Emission control training
Walker DPF training
Back-preassure, fuel consuption and engine power

EMISSION CONTROL

BACK-PRESSURE, FUEL
CONSUPTION AND
ENGINE POWER
02. TECHNICAL AREA FOR SPECIALISTS
02.03 TECHNICAL DATA & E-LEARNING
Emission control training
Walker DPF training
Back-preassure, fuel consuption and engine power

Relationship beween the camshaft and back-pressure

The camshaft is the part of the engine which controls movement of the
exhaust and intake valves. This is a solid part made of cast iron and cannot
be adjusted manually. The back-pressure we need to implement into the
exhaust system directly depends on the valve overlap time, which is preset
and controlled by the shape of the camshaft. As we have seen previously, the
system is designed to completely empty the combustion chamber of burned
gasses in order to obtain maximum performance in all the cycles.
02. TECHNICAL AREA FOR SPECIALISTS
02.03 TECHNICAL DATA & E-LEARNING
Emission control training
Walker DPF training
Back-preassure, fuel consuption and engine power

What would happen if the back-pressure is higher than reccomended by the engine
manufacturer?
When the exhaust has higher back-pressure than the one specified by the
manufacturer (the gasses need more time to escape from the exhaust system Exhaust valve Intake valve
towards the outside) a certain quantity of the burned gasses will remain
inside the combustion chamber after the valve overlap time, mixing with the
fresh air-fuel mixture during the intake stroke. Because of that, this new mixture
of fresh and burned gasses will give a slower explosion during the power
stroke, and therefore at the end of this stroke, part of the mixture will still be
burning (Less fuelburnt per time unit) resulting in a loss of engine power, and
the characteristic red colour of the exhaust manifold, which is caused when Gases on fire
gasses which are still burning escape from the cylinder towards the exhaust
system during the exhaust stroke.
Cooling circuit Cooling
circuit

The effect of using a non-homologated catalytic converter or a

muffler that generates greater back-pressure than the original one
02. TECHNICAL AREA FOR SPECIALISTS
02.03 TECHNICAL DATA & E-LEARNING
Emission control training
Walker DPF training
Back-preassure, fuel consuption and engine power

What would happen if the back-pressure is higher than reccomended by the engine
manufacturer?
Under these extreme working conditions the exhaust valves will be quickly damaged (melting) loosing their sealing function, which will allow part of the mixture to escape
from the combustion chamber to the exhaust system through the bad valve sealing during the compression strokes, causing an even greater loss of engine power. On the
other hand when the burning gasses reach the catalytic converter, the monolith of the catalytic converter will begin to melt. The speed of the melting process will depend
on how great the back-pressure problem is: it can vary widely from a couple of minutes, to a few months. The melting process of a catalytic converters monolith takes place
due to the high temperature of these burning gasses, in some cases the temperature can reach over 1,840 C. It is important to remember that a ceramic monolith will melt
at 1,400 C while the metallic monolith will melt at 1,600 C.

Burning fuel Overheated

material

Cylinder seal
problems due to
the micro fusion of
the valve seats.
Internal views of melted ceramic monoliths due to the effect of a
greater back-pressure level than the originaly designed for the engine
02. TECHNICAL AREA FOR SPECIALISTS
02.03 TECHNICAL DATA & E-LEARNING
Emission control training
Walker DPF training
Back-preassure, fuel consuption and engine power

What would happen if the back-pressure is higher than reccomended by the engine
manufacturer?
High levels of back pressure reduce = less efficiency of turbo compressor = less oxygen available in the mixture.
High levels of back-pressure = Increase of recirculated gasses through the EGR valve = less oxygen in the A/F mixture.
In both cases the decrease in the the amount of oxygen available for the combustion process, will create negative effects for the engine as:

Lost of power EGR INTAKE THROTTLE

Increase of polluting gases (HC and CO in gasoline cars) and (HC Compressed air
and Particle Matter in diesel).
Increase of fuel consumption
EGR Cooler
Increase of the exhaust gasses temperature due to the increase of
combustion time due to the wrong A/F mixture that could damage the INTER-COOLER
engine and EC parts as catalytic converter, DPF, SCR, Sensors, etc . TURBINE

Intake air

EGR Valve Exhaust gases

back pressure

Exhaust gases
02. TECHNICAL AREA FOR SPECIALISTS
02.03 TECHNICAL DATA & E-LEARNING
Emission control training
Walker DPF training
Back-preassure, fuel consuption and engine power

Which are the main causes of higher levels of exhaust back-pressure?

This problem normally appears when :

Installing an exhaust or catalytic converter that has not been specifically designed for that specific engine (applications for other cars).
Installing non-homologated products (universal silencers or catalytic converters in the system).
When assembling a full, or part system by welding the pipes, silencers or catalytic converters, this will result in the reduction of the internal diameter of the pipes during
welding.
With the internal rusting of pipes and silencers. This process will produce a variation in the diameter of the internal dimensions, and as a result giving a variation in the
back-pressure within the system.

View of the welding cord on a

Internal view of a rusted silence
universal silencer
02. TECHNICAL AREA FOR SPECIALISTS
02.03 TECHNICAL DATA & E-LEARNING
Emission control training
Walker DPF training
Back-preassure, fuel consuption and engine power

What would happen if the back-pressure is lower than reccomended by the engine
manufacturer?
When the exhaust system has a lower back-pressure than Exhaust valve Intake valve
the one designed by the engine manufacturer, the gasses
will escape faster from the combustion chamber during the
exhaust stroke. During the overlap time the burned gases will
flow easily and faster through the exhaust system, because
of this, a small part of the new air-fuel mixture entering the
chamber via the intake valve, will have time to escape through
the exhaust valve during the process of forcing out the burned
gases from the combustion chamber. It is therefore easy to
understand that if we have lost a small quantity of air-fuel
mixture from the combustion chamber due to lower back-
pressure, we will lose engine power, because there will be Cooling circuit Cooling circuit
less fuel burnt per time unit than in a correct back-pressure
situation. Also because the gases will flow faster through
the exhaust system towards the atmosphere, the noise level
will be higher in comparison with the noise produced in the
correct situation (exhaust system with correct back-pressure). The effect of using a non-homologated catalytic converter or a
muffler that generates greater back-pressure than the original one
02. TECHNICAL AREA FOR SPECIALISTS
02.03 TECHNICAL DATA & E-LEARNING
Emission control training
Walker DPF training
Back-preassure, fuel consuption and engine power

What would happen if the back-pressure is lower than reccomended by the engine
manufacturer?
This kind of failure also causes the monolith of the catalytic
converter to melt and this is due to the unburned air-fuel mixture,
which escapes from the compression chamber during the valve
overlap as it reaches the monolith surface, where the normal
working temperature is between 500 C and 900 C. When
the fuel reaches the monolith surface of the catalytic converter it
will automatically begin to burn (at 1,840 C) producing micro
melting areas over the surface. If the problem continues, the
catalytic converter will be completely destroyed. The length and
time of this process will depend on how great the back-pressure
problem is.

Internal view of a ceramic catalytic Internal view of a ceramic catalytic

converter, melted due to low converter, melted due to low
backpressure backpressure

Silencer backfiring due to

petrol condensation inside
02. TECHNICAL AREA FOR SPECIALISTS
02.03 TECHNICAL DATA & E-LEARNING
Emission control training
Walker DPF training
Back-preassure, fuel consuption and engine power

Which are the main causes of lower levels of exhaust back-pressure?

Installing non-homologated silencers, catalytic converters or pipes to the vehicle (especially sport
silencers which are noisier than the O.E. ones).

Due to an air leakage in the exhaust system, caused by rust or violent vibration.

Making a hole in the exhaust housing or side cover to take out the water. It is very important to
remember that the material used for manufacturing the silencers and pipes is aluminised steel, and
once it is perforated, the protective layers of aluminium are destroyed, allowing the acids created
inside the silencers to come into direct contact with the laminated steel layer, which will accelerate
the rusting process, making the hole larger within a very short period of time, greatly increasing the
back-pressure problem.

Deliberately removing the contents of a catalytic converter by destroying the monolith. Installing an
empty catalytic converter onto a vehicle

View of a sportive silencer

(low back-pressure exhaust)