If your car is blowing white smoke, you may be wondering if there is something wrong with the engine. You may be relieved to hear that this isn't always the case - in fact, there are a few different reasons why your car might be blowing white smoke. In this blog post, we will discuss the possible causes of this issue and what you can do to fix it. Keep reading for more information! [...]
What do you do when you start your vehicle and suddenly feel transported to the race track? The sounds of a busted muffler can be heard for miles around, and we can guarantee no one wants to hear that first thing in the morning. What Causes a Muffler to Break If you spend winters driving over snowy, salted roads, your muffler is exposed to the perfect combination of elements for producing rust. Instead of [...]
Thankfully, it's pretty easy to know if you need to fix or replace your muffler. Unfortunately, though, the telltale sign is a pretty annoying one. The number one sign that your muffler needs attention is hearing loud noises when driving or idling your car. Especially when accelerating, if the muffler isn’t working properly, you’ll hear it. As its name implies, a muffler dampens (or muffles) the sound of your vehicle’s exhaust system. When a [...]
Today, almost all vehicle manufacturers are trying to deliver more fuel-efficient vehicles (or vehicles that don’t even need fuel, like electric cars). The consumer demand for greener vehicles has two primary motivators. One, for the purpose of environmental friendliness. And two, for the purpose of saving money on gasoline. However, you don’t need to buy a new car to become more fuel-efficient. There are upgrades and repairs you can make on your current vehicle [...]
If you don’t know a lot about cars, the maintenance of your vehicle can seem a bit overwhelming. Ignoring problems as they arise won’t make them go away, though, and can cause more harm than you probably think. There are a lot of mysterious sounds and smells in your car that are simpler problems than you’d think. One issue that often goes ignored far too long, is an old muffler that needs to be [...]
Auto repairs are often difficult to detect for those who are inexperienced with the inner workings of cars. But that’s not the case with all parts on a car especially the muffler. You won’t need special training or an automotive computer diagnostic system to figure out when a muffler should be replaced. You will need to use your senses of hearing, sight, and smell in order to understand the signs your car will give [...]
Inventor Eugene Houdry was born in Domont, France, in April of 1892. The son of a wealthy structural steel manufacturer, Houdry was encouraged to learn about mechanical engineering from his youth. He majored in the subject, at the Ecole des Arts et Metiers in Paris. Houdry invented a catalytic cracking process that could transform coal into gasoline. He also managed to catalytically crack low-grade crude oil. With this process, oil companies were able to [...]
Eugene Houdry invented the catalytic muffler in 1962, today a standard part of all American cars. The muffler is designed to not only reduce the noise of the engine, but to reduce back pressure as well. A good muffler can thus improve engine performance. In addition, Eugene Houdry’s goal was met when he managed to make his catalytic converter reduce carbon dioxide and unburned hydrocarbons. Mufflers help reduce the carbon footprint of automobiles on [...]
[Click here to view a diagram showing how mufflers work] A muffler is an attachment to the exhaust pipe, underneath an automobile, that allows exhaust to leave the engine and helps dilute the sound and, in general, reduce emissions at the same time. The original catalytic muffler was designed specifically to reduce the carbon dioxide and unburned hydrocarbons that get released into the air. The level of sound produced by an auto engine is [...]
The inventor of the catalytic muffler, Eugene Houdry, was a Frenchman interested in reducing the pollution released into the air by automobile exhaust pipes. He started his line of inventions with a catalytic process that effectively doubled the amount of useable oil that could be produced from crude oil. He produced high-grade gasoline from low-grade fuel. His catalytic “cracking” process was used by the French military for World War II, in producing high-quality aviation [...]
