under the intake ports on the plates...the small square, or rectangular openings. what are they for?



just curious...

 

they pump air pump air thru those, into the exhaust ports, so help clean up the unburned hydrocarbons

 

yeah it just dilutes the exhaust gas with air.

 

Not dilutes. It actually ignites, or rather it adds oxygen to make the still-burning *rich* mixture clean up.



If you play with torches, it turns a reducing flame into a neutral flame.



Anything unburnt gets into the cat if present, where the catalyst combines the now-cooler remaining HC and O2 into more pleasant chemicals.

 

cool, thanks