Mochi

Hi folks.
Lorayne is almost finished and I'm remembering when I first popped the hood and saw what was later identified as a "charcoal canister" which I was told was for smog/emissions. Looking at it recently and living in Colorado I wonder if I should replace it or delete it.
What if any are the benefits and draw backs of deleting it and how hard Is it to find a replacement or clean up the old one?

MDchanic

Unless you are subject to Eastern Bloc inspections, throw it out.

Its only use is to prevent gasoline from evaporating into the air, where it might blow over California. Odds are it doesn't work anymore anyway.

Just cap everything off and use a vented gas cap.

- Eric

joe_padavano

Why? It has absolutely no affect on performance and it DOES recover gasoline vapors and send them back into the engine to be burned. Why let your $4/gallon gasoline simply evaporate into the air? Admittedly, the total dollar value that evaporates is small, but it's not zero.

Destructor

Vent fumes down Al ****** throat.

MDchanic

Essentially because the cost of fixing it (parts that will need to be replaced, including hoses, maybe a new non-vent cap, various valving that was probably obliterated during an earlier rebuild or "improvement," and perhaps most importantly, your labor in messing around with it) just isn't worth the potential savings of a few molecules of gasoline, and because I hate to have stuff that doesn't work bolted into my car.

If you've got an original, well maintained car in which you have reason to believe that the evap. system is working well, then, yes, I agree with you, don't mess with it.

If you've got what most of us have, though, which is an incomplete system that is probably not compatible with later modifications, I'd say just get rid of it and consider it one less thing to go wrong.

- Eric