Abstract: A catalytic converter has a monolith with a plurality of catalyst coated passages to which internal combustion engine exhaust gases are directed with a nonuniform velocity profile that is highest at the center. A flow distributor is mounted in the converter downstream of the monolith that restricts flow centrally through the monolith while allowing relatively free flow radially outward toward the periphery to thereby alter the velocity profile at the entrance to the monolith so as to effect substantially equal distribution of the gases between all the monolith passages without extracting heat from the gases prior to entering same and without adding substantial back pressure.

Abstract: A fuel injection nozzle with heated valve for flash boiling of fuel during injection includes a nozzle body of electrical conductive material with a spring biased valve of electrical conductive material operatively positioned in an axial extending fuel passage within the nozzle body so as to control the flow of fuel out through a discharge outlet at one end of the nozzle body. An electrical insulator sleeve encircles and is fixed to the valve intermediate the ends thereof so as to support a coiled electrical heater wire that is connected at one end to the valve adjacent to its tip end and which is connected at its opposite end to an electrical conductor sleeve that is fixed to the insulator sleeve.