{"id":10328,"date":"2016-06-01T18:25:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T22:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/?p=10328"},"modified":"2016-06-01T18:25:59","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T22:25:59","slug":"an-industry-icon-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/2016\/06\/special-features\/an-industry-icon-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"An Industry Icon Passes Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JuneObit1.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-10329\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JuneObit1-300x175.jpg\" alt=\"JuneObit1\" width=\"300\" height=\"175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JuneObit1-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JuneObit1-600x351.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JuneObit1.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Diesel industry icon Charles (Charlie) L. Ekstam recently succumbed to his long fought battle with cancer. His vibrant friendship, brilliant wit and vast knowledge will be sorely missed by so many across the diesel engine community. Fortunately, for our community, his vision, passion and mission will carry on through his company, PureFlow Technologies, Inc. This dynamic company, now headed by Charlie\u2019s wife Dora Serrano, represents the full range of AirDog Fuel Preporator products that he invented and patented during his amazing lifetime. Charlie and Dora built their company together and she is committed to advancing and enhancing his legacy. The AirDog Fuel Preporator lineup of diesel fuel air separation systems were born as a direct result of Charlie\u2019s own experiences of entrained air robbing performance from his truck. For years, companies such as Cummins, Caterpillar and Detroit, had documented entrained air as an issue across the diesel engine industry, yet no one seemed to be able to determine a solution \u2013 until Charlie emerged from hours upon hours of extensive research with the original AirDog Fuel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JuneObit2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-10330 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JuneObit2-231x300.jpg\" alt=\"JuneObit2\" width=\"231\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JuneObit2-231x300.jpg 231w, https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/JuneObit2.jpg 462w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 231px) 100vw, 231px\" \/><\/a>Preporator in 1993. Charlie\u2019s patented invention of the AirDog Fuel Preporator was a game-changer for the industry, as evidenced by a 1996 article in the OOIDA Land Line publication. In their September\/October issue, it stated that there were three great diesel engine inventors: Rudolph Diesel, who invented the diesel engine; Clessie Cummins, founder of the Cummins Engine Company; and Charles L. Ekstam, inventor of the patented fuel system called the Fuel Preporator. This system provides virtually any diesel engine with dramatically better performance in horsepower, torque and emissions, while providing substantial savings. Since the introduction of the original AirDog Fuel Preporator in 1993, Charlie continued to refine and perfect a wide range of fuel separator systems. In 2002, the AirDog line was introduced with applications for pickup trucks, as well as medium and heavy duty product lines. Over the past two years, they have also rolled out their Champ product line, featuring the AirDog Champ I and Champ II. Charlie\u2019s vision was to have a full range of fuel separation systems for all diesel engines. The AirDog Fuel Preporator lineup covers virtually all diesel engines including Caterpillar, Cummins, Detroit, Paccar, Volvo and Mack, as well as all diesel-powered pickups. Charlie will be deeply missed, yet his dream and his passion live on in the AirDog Fuel Preporator range of products, which will continue without him. His legacy will provide our world with dynamic savings, extra performance and quality air \u2013 for generations to come. Thank you and God speed, Charlie!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Diesel industry icon Charles (Charlie) L. Ekstam recently succumbed to his long fought battle with cancer. His vibrant friendship, brilliant wit and vast knowledge will be sorely missed by so many across the diesel engine community. Fortunately, for our community, his vision, passion and mission will carry on through his company, PureFlow Technologies, Inc. This<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-special-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10331,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10328\/revisions\/10331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}