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DIY?
I'd think Improving internal air filtration and cabin sealing is likely to be more effective, BUT if you want a different air source, maybe something like this
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_cooler
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAXY2GefpYY
(goes on a bit)
Vintage one would be hard to find and probably expensive in The Yook. I've seen one on a VW Beetle here.in Taiwan
Home made
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JCsUnQ83gY
(goes on A LOT)
You probably wouldn't want the cooling but you might want filtration. PVC is likely to be easier to work with and is lighter than metal.
And traffic cones come to mind.....
Edited by edlithgow on 18/12/2018 at 05:52
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....it would seem that some air from the engine will always make its way through these vents and then into the cabin, and eventually into my lungs.
There is no 'air from the engine' these days. Engines suck in air, they don't breathe it out any more. The sump breather no longer communicates with the outside air; the tiny amount of bypass gas is piped back into the inlet side and then out through the exhaust.
Is there ANY car out there in which the air intake for the cabin is not located right next to the engine..
My TR7! I wonder if you feel unwell more because of motion sickness than from any microparticulate matter?
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Dunno about "tiny amount of bypass gas". Blowby is typically about 2 cu ft/min for a 100hp engine, but its true it shouldn't be venting to air, unless you've got leaks.
Engines on older cars can be oily things, though, either due to oil leaks or to spillage, and oil vapour might cause problems if one was sensitised to it.
Sump oil contains lead, cadmium, chromium, a***nic, dioxins, benzene and polycyclic aromatics.
Thinking about the DIY air intake a bit more, I think if I had to do this I'd use a roof-mounted air scoop/filter box linked to the rear door window tops (on a 4/5 door car) via flexible hose. That'd probably be easier to arrange and less of an obstruction . You might be able to find an off-the-junkpile box (say an old convector heater) that would do the job, and or you could run up POC prototypes with tape and cardboard.
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If you didn't need filtration a simple bent tube, snorkel stylee, might do the job. If you get the intake a foot or so above the roofline, you should be clear of the boundary layer and any local influence on air quality, though you'll still get ambient air pollution.
Since it'd be fed by the ram effect of forward motion, it'd be ineffective when stuck in traffic. A 12V computer fan might work then assuming its plastics aren't symptogenic, but outside air is likely to be especially bad in that situation so you might not want it,
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Thanks for the replies, edithglow. Unfortunately, I'm possibly the least able person at DIY or mechanical matters that you're ever likely to encounter... but I will nevertheless study all you kindly suggested.
Edited by Starman999 on 19/12/2018 at 02:33
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There is no 'air from the engine' these days. Engines suck in air, they don't breathe it out any more. The sump breather no longer communicates with the outside air; the tiny amount of bypass gas is piped back into the inlet side and then out through the exhaust.
I wonder if you feel unwell more because of motion sickness than from any microparticulate matter?
Thanks for the reply. When I referred to air from the engine I was really meaning air from the engine bay, not literally coming from the engine. My lazy writing... Such air will include any oil fumes - and in my perception there are just about always oil fumes coming from engines of relatively older cars - if I open the bonnet that is especially apparent.
Actually that makes me wonder, as another way round this issue, if there's something i could do on a regular basis to clean the engine - to rid it of any gunk that gives off fumes when things get hot...
As for the second point, I can say that motion sickness is not a factor - I will get the problem in stationary cars once the engine is started.
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As for the second point, I can say that motion sickness is not a factor - I will get the problem in stationary cars once the engine is started.
This sounds like a psychosomatic problem. There is a big difference between toxic fumes and opening the bonnet and sensing an oily whiff. The human odour threshold of oil and petrol is less than one part per million.
I once had a very unpleasant gastrointestinal episode shortly after eating a coconut cookie. It was ages before I started to enjoy coconut again.
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As for the second point, I can say that motion sickness is not a factor - I will get the problem in stationary cars once the engine is started.
This sounds like a psychosomatic problem. There is a big difference between toxic fumes and opening the bonnet and sensing an oily whiff. The human odour threshold of oil and petrol is less than one part per million.
I once had a very unpleasant gastrointestinal episode shortly after eating a coconut cookie. It was ages before I started to enjoy coconut again.
Well.... I suppose i should be grateful that the suggestion of it being a psychosomatic issue took as long as it did to show up (I know you no doubt meant no harm but such cliches are heard daily by anyone with Chemical Sensitivity... sigh).
No way hose. The devil is in the detail, and having had the condition 21 years I have had plenty of time to observe every detail. I'm not going to go into that tedious detail here but will just write that a psychosomatic condition would simply be impossible in some of the scenarios in which I've experienced the problem (and on occasion - I've suddenly stopped experiencing chemical sensitivity in an environment in which I ALWAYS experienced it, only to find out later that the cause I had suspected all along had been removed, unbeknownst to me at that point in time. Lots of stuff like that... etc etc etc.)
And it is entirely in keeping for someone with a compromised blood brain barrier (which i have reason to suspect is what is really going on with me) to experience cognitive effects from breathing in a whiff of oil. Think of someone with a peanut allergy and what happens to them if someone is eating ONE peanut 20 ft away...
Edited by Starman999 on 19/12/2018 at 21:54
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I suffer from an over-sensitive sense of smell due to chemotherapy drugs several decades ago - probably less sensitive than the OP's but the only solution is to avoid things that affect them.
I doubt that Back Roomers are likely to be able to identify car models less likely to cause this issue so the OP can do no more than use trial-and-error - or buy an EV.
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I suffer from an over-sensitive sense of smell due to chemotherapy drugs several decades ago - probably less sensitive than the OP's but the only solution is to avoid things that affect them.
I doubt that Back Roomers are likely to be able to identify car models less likely to cause this issue so the OP can do no more than use trial-and-error - or buy an EV.
Thanks. I know very little about electric vehicles but I suspect such a car will be out of my price range (max spend just gone up to £4,500) - please correct me if I'm wrong! What would be an example of a cheap electric car?
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I suffer from an over-sensitive sense of smell due to chemotherapy drugs several decades ago - probably less sensitive than the OP's but the only solution is to avoid things that affect them.
I doubt that Back Roomers are likely to be able to identify car models less likely to cause this issue so the OP can do no more than use trial-and-error - or buy an EV.
Thanks. I know very little about electric vehicles but I suspect such a car will be out of my price range (max spend just gone up to £4,500) - please correct me if I'm wrong! What would be an example of a cheap electric car?
A 20 second look at Autotrader website shows the cheapest EV is the 2014 Renault Zoe at £6,000 but the battery has to be leased at £49+ per month - the next cheapest is a 2014 Nissan Leaf including battery.
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Actually that makes me wonder, as another way round this issue, if there's something i could do on a regular basis to clean the engine - to rid it of any gunk that gives off fumes when things get hot...
Used to be a thing to get engines steam-cleaned, especially pre-sale. Not so popular now because modern engine compartments are crowded with electronics which reacts badly to a soaking, but I think commercial vehicle bodies are still so treated.
You might be able to arrange this, but if you get a careless operator you might have electronics problems afterwards. The older the car the better, a (general) rule of life.
The DIY version involved a chemical product called GUNK, which rendered the oil water miscible so it could be washed off. Probably no good for you but you MIGHT be able to get someone else to do it.
I've never done this because I don't much mind an oily engine, but I've cleaned motorcycle chains with it, latterly using water washable brush cleaner, which may have been banned for environmental reasons.Couldn't find any the last time I looked.
Brake fluid has a similar action but strips paint.
James May mentioned using "a man" IIRC to clean the engine on his "cheap" Porsche in an old issue of old Top Gear, so it was available as a service fairly recently, BUT you might have to find out what they use in case the "cure" is worse than the disease.
It might, for example, be kerosene, perchlorethylene, or (illegally?) carbon tetrachloride, all of which probably wouldnt do you any good
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Actually that makes me wonder, as another way round this issue, if there's something i could do on a regular basis to clean the engine - to rid it of any gunk that gives off fumes when things get hot...
Used to be a thing to get engines steam-cleaned, especially pre-sale. Not so popular now because modern engine compartments are crowded with electronics which reacts badly to a soaking, but I think commercial vehicle bodies are still so treated.
You might be able to arrange this, but if you get a careless operator you might have electronics problems afterwards. The older the car the better, a (general) rule of life.
The DIY version involved a chemical product called GUNK, which rendered the oil water miscible so it could be washed off. Probably no good for you but you MIGHT be able to get someone else to do it.
I've never done this because I don't much mind an oily engine, but I've cleaned motorcycle chains with it, latterly using water washable brush cleaner, which may have been banned for environmental reasons.Couldn't find any the last time I looked.
Brake fluid has a similar action but strips paint.
James May mentioned using "a man" IIRC to clean the engine on his "cheap" Porsche in an old issue of old Top Gear, so it was available as a service fairly recently, BUT you might have to find out what they use in case the "cure" is worse than the disease.
It might, for example, be kerosene, perchlorethylene, or (illegally?) carbon tetrachloride, all of which probably wouldnt do you any good
Appreciate your reply. I'm probably being really silly but I wondered if just tipping a very hot bucket of water over the engine might help!!
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I did actually find a possible solution - or at least a help - earlier today. This air purifier:
airbubbl.com/
i'm hoping this device combined with a Mann Frecious cabin filter might be enough to solve the problem. But still of course I'm interested in all other options...
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Might be good, but I don't like the lack of numbers on the PM 2.5 removal. Almost anything will remove some.
See if you can find something that uses 3M HEPA filters, which have defined performance.
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Appreciate your reply. I'm probably being really silly but I wondered if just tipping a very hot bucket of water over the engine might help!!
Not much, because oil isnt very water miscible unless its been treated with a dispersant, like GUNK, as above.
Repeated bucket fulls, with detergent in the water, might have a slight benefit though.
If you did it on a hot engine it might have more effect, but then there's a risk of cracking something expensive, like an exhaust manifold, which wouldn't improve breathability much either.
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Appreciate your reply. I'm probably being really silly but I wondered if just tipping a very hot bucket of water over the engine might help!!
Not much, because oil isnt very water miscible unless its been treated with a dispersant, like GUNK, as above.
Repeated bucket fulls, with detergent in the water, might have a slight benefit though.
If you did it on a hot engine it might have more effect, but then there's a risk of cracking something expensive, like an exhaust manifold, which wouldn't improve breathability much either.
Thank you. I will be tempted to try the Gunk... once i get a car of some sort.
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A full size allotment-stylee watering can is probably a better option than a bucket, because you get some control (avoiding electrics) and a bit more velocity.
I THINK coin-operated pressure washers may be available in the Yook (locals confirm?) though I dunno if they do hot water.
I'd guess not, due to safety liabilities.
If using a bucket/watering can you wouldn't necessarily fill it. If its awkward, sooner or later you'll scald yourself.
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