Diesel Tuner Jailed

[Big Blue]

In 1973 my dad traded our 1968 Chevy Impala on a new Pontiac Catalina. The Catalina had a 400 2bbl and got 9 mpg going downhill with a tailwind. We had some bad winters in the mid-70's and every morning before I went to school I had to take the air cleaner lid off, spray some Quick Start, and warm it up so it would start for my mom later. My dad usually drove our second car, a 1964 Impala, with zero emissions equipment, and it would start right up in below-zero temps no problem and got much better gas mileage.

Ah, yes the good old days of point/coil ignitions and carburetors.

I fondly remember spending my Saturdays setting the dwell on my 340 Cuda, so it would run just right on Saturday night. It had a dual point distributer, what a pain to get right. That and cleaning and regaping the plugs every few weeks. Of course has was only 35 cents a gallon even premium.

I'm really glad they are just memories! Don't miss those weekly times ups.

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[Jason B]

This is nuts. He wasn't a vehicle manufacturer skirting regulations in order to sell vehicles in the USA.

Many Rangers in here have a tune on their vehicles, Ford Performance even has their own tune on many of their vehicles, the difference is he was doing it on Diesel trucks and not gasoline engines and ends up in jail is nuts.

Ford Performance Tunes are CARB approved; that's the difference.

Side note:
We build various pumping and hydraulic power units. On customer like to use Deutz 6cyl air cooled engines because there all mechanical. Those engines were about $16K each. When it was mandated that they use Tier 4 Diesels, the price for an engine of the same power jumped to $30.
And a 200hp John Deere Tier 4 cost about $70K. 200HP Cat about $90K. Crazy isn't it.

 

[NotBudule2]

"Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty-five degrees"

Anybody remember that one ? I had no idea what they meant but I loved the way he said "D-Cells" ...

 

[awd.nv]

Ford Performance Tunes are CARB approved; that's the difference.

Side note:
We build various pumping and hydraulic power units. On customer like to use Deutz 6cyl air cooled engines because there all mechanical. Those engines were about $16K each. When it was mandated that they use Tier 4 Diesels, the price for an engine of the same power jumped to $30.
And a 200hp John Deere Tier 4 cost about $70K. 200HP Cat about $90K. Crazy isn't it.

You are right that the Ford tune is CARB certified. Most tuners can not afford to go through the CARB certification though which also negates the purpose for some custom tunes (vehicle specific mods), so these other tuners not selling CARB certified tunes would not be allowed in CA.

My point here is the owner of the vehicle should be liable not the tuner, if the tuner can prove they did not make it for commercial use or what not. If he did not have that disclaimer, then it is on him if he can't afford the fines, assuming he was warned to stop what he was doing.

I am speculating here but I am guessing what the tuner was doing was perfectly legal until the laws changed, making his perfectly legal actions now illegal. I just hope he had a leg to stand on by stating his work was intended for recreational use or something. If so, he shouldn't be in jail if the vehicle/machine owners used the modified product on public roads and such.

I would love to know if he even modified 1% of the diesel engines in use in America, so let's just jail him because the laws changed while weed shops are allowed to operate while still federally illegal makes no sense.

 

[JohnnyO]

Well difficult to start is one thing but the true measure of 70 vehicles did it run on after shutdown, or to keep on topic aka dieseling.

Sometimes, yeah.

 

[JohnnyO]

If I recall correctly, the directions on the can said to spray it in the breather opening for 1-2 seconds - or something of that nature.

Yeah, that ain’t gonna work! These are the proper instructions…

Remove the breather cover and spray generously right into the carburetor - continue spraying until your finger is frost bitten - hold the choke open with a screwdriver if needed - step back and tell your friend to crank it over - when it doesn’t start, lean in and continue spraying directly into the carburetor while yelling to your friend, “KEEP CRANKIN’ IT”! - after it starts and your friend floors it and and starts revving the pants off it, making your screwdriver dance around the carburetor, yell at him “STOP! WHAT THE F**K ARE YOU DOING?” Then, tell him how stupid he is and that you told him not to touch the gas pedal - remove screwdriver if one was used - leave the breather cover off so you don’t have to remove it later - toss breather cover in the back seat - slam the hood shut.

But I guess they didn’t have room for all of that on the can.

Or they keep pumping the gas and flood the carb.
Starting a car with a carb is a lost art. Showing my age I guess.
If I had to I could still drive an old Ford Falcon with a three-on-the-tree and a manual choke knob on the dash. Not quite Model T level of primitive but still.....

 

[JohnnyO]

We had a '68 Impala for while, drove it for a couple of years. Loved that smooth 2 speed tranny.

Ours was a beast in the snow. The Chevy dealership simply ordered every car with a Positraction axle and combined with the Powerglide's 1.76 first gear, the mighty 307, and snow tires it was no fuss, no muss in the winter.

 

[got3fords]

"Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty-five degrees"

Anybody remember that one ? I had no idea what they meant but I loved the way he said "D-Cells" ...

OMG, Midnight Oil!

 

[Rp930]

You are right that the Ford tune is CARB certified. Most tuners can not afford to go through the CARB certification though which also negates the purpose for some custom tunes (vehicle specific mods), so these other tuners not selling CARB certified tunes would not be allowed in CA.

My point here is the owner of the vehicle should be liable not the tuner, if the tuner can prove they did not make it for commercial use or what not. If he did not have that disclaimer, then it is on him if he can't afford the fines, assuming he was warned to stop what he was doing.

I am speculating here but I am guessing what the tuner was doing was perfectly legal until the laws changed, making his perfectly legal actions now illegal. I just hope he had a leg to stand on by stating his work was intended for recreational use or something. If so, he shouldn't be in jail if the vehicle/machine owners used the modified product on public roads and such.

I would love to know if he even modified 1% of the diesel engines in use in America, so let's just jail him because the laws changed while weed shops are allowed to operate while still federally illegal makes no sense.

At least 344 violations. “Federal prosecutors estimate that the diesel alterations contributed to about 1,300 tons of excess nitrogen oxides, 30 tons of excess non-methane hydrocarbons, 600 tons of excess carbon monoxide, and 30 tons of excess particulate matter as the trucks traveled.” He made at least $800k defeating emissions. He knew exactly what he was doing. This is not some poor good old boy mechanic. He got off easy.

 

[NotBudule2]

OMG, Midnight Oil!

Yes !!! Loved that ! Anything diesel makes me think of that ... Boiling D Cells ...

 

[Jason B]

You are right that the Ford tune is CARB certified. Most tuners can not afford to go through the CARB certification though which also negates the purpose for some custom tunes (vehicle specific mods), so these other tuners not selling CARB certified tunes would not be allowed in CA.

My point here is the owner of the vehicle should be liable not the tuner, if the tuner can prove they did not make it for commercial use or what not. If he did not have that disclaimer, then it is on him if he can't afford the fines, assuming he was warned to stop what he was doing.

I am speculating here but I am guessing what the tuner was doing was perfectly legal until the laws changed, making his perfectly legal actions now illegal. I just hope he had a leg to stand on by stating his work was intended for recreational use or something. If so, he shouldn't be in jail if the vehicle/machine owners used the modified product on public roads and such.

I would love to know if he even modified 1% of the diesel engines in use in America, so let's just jail him because the laws changed while weed shops are allowed to operate while still federally illegal makes no sense.

I have seen items for sale that state specifically 'For off road use only' even though it's known it be used 'on road'. But I guess it's their disclaimer and 'get out of jail' card, so to speak.

 

[got3fords]

It’s a trade off. More fuel for better emissions. It’s no different than it was with gas engines in the mid to late 70’s. The cars were pigs, gutless and got worse mileage but polluted less. At that time many cities had big smog problems which although not perfect aren’t near as bad. It had to happen. Today’s population combined with those old cars would be a disaster today.

Dude, do you ever go back and re-read something and realize you completely misunderstood? That was me. I had the "oohhh!" moment after a couple of re-reads of your post. Sorry man, I totally misunderstood you.
Everybody else, you just witnessed internet rareness, someone admitting fault.

 

[Cmar]

"Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty-five degrees"

Anybody remember that one ? I had no idea what they meant but I loved the way he said "D-Cells" ...

Garret was referring to outback roads. The description is / was, in fact quite accurate.

Holden was the brand name for locally made GM cars unique to Australia. As a Ford man my perception of them may be somewhat colored - they were sh*t boxes. The popular saying was "barely holdin together" (of course Holden supporters - the poor deluded devils, would refer to us as Fix Or Repair Daily) Anyway they constituted about 35% of the cars on the road back in the day when that song was written, the other 35% was Ford, and the rest a mixture of Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan etc.
So on any particular outback road the majority of dead cars you saw abandoned in summer, usually either overheated, seized, crashed into kangaroos, or suspension collapsed from temperatures in the 40's deg C and corrugations - were Holdens. They seemed to be particularly popular with indigenous communities so were were somewhat over represented.
The diesels were usually Landrovers , made in a country where the designers couldn't conceive of a temperature over 20 deg C they usually ended up boiling when their unfortunate owners vainly tried to push them at anything like the speed limit.

 

[Rp930]

Dude, do you ever go back and re-read something and realize you completely misunderstood? That was me. I had the "oohhh!" moment after a couple of re-reads of your post. Sorry man, I totally misunderstood you.
Everybody else, you just witnessed internet rareness, someone admitting fault.

Wow. That is rare. Thank you for that. I could not understand where you were coming from.

 

[got3fords]

Wow. That is rare. Thank you for that. I could not understand where you were coming from.

Funny thing is, I could not understand where you were coming from either! Till the light came on.

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