Cars Blog May Archive

• For gasoline engines, carburetors were the predominant method to meter fuel before the widespread use of fuel injection
• The fuel injector is only a nozzle and a valve: the power to inject the fuel comes from further back in the fuel supply, from a pump or a pressure container
• It is impractical for a single engine control system to fully optimize all criteria simultaneously. In practice, automotive engineers strive to best satisfy a customer's needs competitively
• Properly designed fuel injection systems can react faster and more precisely to rapidly changing inputs such as rapid throttle movements, and can tailor fuel distribution to closely match the engine's needs across a wider range of operating conditions such as load, ambient temperature, operating temperature, fuel quality, and altitude
• Emissions, efficiency, and power: Fuel injection generally increases engine efficiency
• With the improved cylinder-to-cylinder fuel distribution provided by fuel injection, less fuel is needed for the same power output
• Fuel injection appeared first on American-made cars in the late 1950s
• Current systems provide an accurate, reliable and cost-effective method of metering fuel and providing maximum engine efficiency with clean exhaust emissions, which is why EFI systems have replaced carburetors in the marketplace
• Modern systems are nearly all electronic, and use an electronic solenoid (the injector) to inject the fuel. An electronic engine control unit calculates the mass of fuel to inject
• In contrast to an EFI system, a carburetor directs the induction air through a venturi, which generates a minute difference in air pressure
• Robert Bosch, and Bendix introduced the first electronic injection systems starting in the 1950s, and they formed the conceptual basis of today's EFI control strategies
• The optimum amount of injected fuel depends on conditions such as engine and ambient temperatures, engine speed and workload, and exhaust gas composition
• Continuous Injection: Bosch's K-Jetronic was introduced in 1974. In this system, fuel sprays constantly from the injectors, rather than being pulsed in time with the engine's intake strokes
• Multi-point fuel injection injects fuel into the intake port just upstream of the cylinder's intake valve, rather than at a central point within an intake manifold