EMP and EMF-Free Vehicles

You have probably heard that vehicles made before the advent of electronic controls – electronic fuel injection and transistorized ignition, specifically – would not be disabled by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) such as are emitted by nuclear detonations.

Mechanical things like carburetors and points are kind of like the Honey Badger, who is said to be deterred by nothing. Vehicles with mechanically injected diesel engines are the apotheosis of this invulnerability. They don’t even need a working alternator/generator to run. Much less a battery to start. Roll it down the hill, let the clutch out and it’ll run until you shut it off. They can also burn fuels other than diesel when diesel isn’t available, such as vegetable oils.

Gas-engined vehicles made through the early-mid 1980s will usually have a carburetor rather than fuel injection, but most of the models made after 1980 have crude computer controls. They also usually have transistorized ignition systems. An EMP would likely disable them. The good news is the electronics are simple and the computer control of the carburetor can be deleted by replacing the electronically controlled carburetor with an essentially identical older one that doesn’t have any electronic controls. It will “bolt on” in place of the original with few if any modifications. Things such as throttle and transmission kickdown linkages (for automatic-equipped cars) usually connect without having to alter anything and there’s usually no electronic fuel pump, either. These cars tend to run better with the non-computer-controlled carbs anyhow and they are certainly easier to tune/service, so making the swap just makes sense – irrespective of the EMP issue.

It’s sound policy – if you own an old vehicle with a carburetor – to keep a spare around in case you ever need it or parts of it.

As far as ignitions, it’s similarly simple for most cars made through the same era. Transistorized ignitions (such as GM’s HEI) began to become common in the mid-’70s and while it’s true they’d be disabled by an EMP, it wouldn’t be the whole system, which is usually just a distributor and coil (plus the spark plug wires). The thing that might get fried is the electronics inside the distributor (transistors/modules) so if you have spares in a box that’s shielded, you can get the works back in working order in a few minutes with basic hands tools, as these early electronic ignition systems are still mostly mechanical, like electronically controlled carburetors.

Earlier distributors with points are the Honey Badgers of the ignition system world. Provided the points are clean and adjusted correctly, there ought to be spark when the starter turns the engine, which ought to start it right up. The thing with points is that they do wear and so gradually (and inevitably) wear out, whereas electronic parts generally work perfectly until one day, they don’t work at all. They do usually work longer but the upside to points is that you get a warning (in the form of a rougher running engine) that they’re wearing/out-of-adjustment and are easily adjustable by the side of the road, with basic hand tools. When electronic components fail, it’s usually without warning and the fix is usually replacing the failed part with a new (or good used) part.

Some people worry less about EMPs than they do EMFs (Electromagnetic Frequencies). Vehicles made before the advent of such things as powerful electric motors and high voltage batteries (which are not exclusive to electric vehicles; hybrid vehicles have these also, just smaller and less powerful) generate electromagnetic fields and some people report physical symptom arising, they believe, from close proximity to these fields and exposure to these “emissions.” It’s a contentious subject because it’s not something that everyone or even most people say is causing them to feel bad.

In the pre-compute-control-world that existed before the early-mid 1980s, everyone who had a working nose could smell the emissions emanating from the exhaust of just about every vehicle on the road. No one can even smell them now, which raises an interesting point.

Tailpipe exhaust emissions are strictly regulated. It is not going too far to say they are now beyond the point of reasonable additional regulation in that the “reductions” promised by new regulations are now fractions of fractions, which is probably meaningless in the grand scheme of things. It is certainly the case that no human nose can tell the difference between an exhaust stream that is 98.7 percent free of harmful emissions – such as unburned hydrocarbons – and one that is 98.8 percent free of them.

Juxtapose the arguably over-the-top regulatory attention paid to almost -nonexistent exhaust emissions (insofar as new/late model vehicles) against the regulatory indifference to the possible effects of the EMF “emissions” emanating from electric and hybrid electric vehicles. They also differ in a very important way from tailpipe exhaust emissions, which you leave behind as you drive. The fields/frequencies radiating from the high-voltage batteries/motors in electric and hybrid vehicles you carry with you. More to the point, you’re sitting on the source of them, as the batteries are usually under the seats and the motors aren’t far from there.

Yet there are few if any emissions controls as regards these emissions. Or much interest – emanating from the regulatory apparat. It’s almost as if it’s 1968 again – and in a way, it is.

If you’re wanting to avoid EMF emanations from vehicles, it’s easier than avoiding tailpipe exhaust emissions, because EMF emissions are confined to the vehicle emitting them. So long as you’re not inside an EMF-emitting vehicle, you’re not being exposed to them. So all you have to do as a precautionary measure is avoid vehicles with high-voltage batteries and electric motors, which means electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles.

You may also want to avoid any late model car with a huge (or any) LCD touchscreen, built-in Wi-Fi and “connected technology” – meaning the ability to receive over-the-air “updates” and (implicitly) transmit “updates” – about you. Every new vehicles has all of that but if you go back before about 2015, you can find vehicles that have less of that. Touchscreens were uncommon outside of the high-end, luxury car class before about 2015 and if you go back to 2010, the number of “connected” cars thins out. Vehicles made before (roughly) 2005 or so are still vehicles more so than very heavy smartphones.

Paradoxically – in a good way – these older vehicles are more long-term reliable than the new stuff because they lack the “technology” you find in new vehicles. They are certainly more repairable – both in the literally easier-to-repair sense and also in the economic sense. Meaning the fix is typically more affordable.

If enough of us reject over-teched new vehicles, it might just prod the vehicle manufacturers to stop making them, too.

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