The carburetor is called the ‘Heart’ of the automobile, and it cannot be expected that the engine will act right, give the proper horse-power, or run smoothly if its ‘heart’ is not performing its functions properly.
A carburetor also spelled carburettor, is a device for supplying a spark-ignition engine with a mixture of fuel and air. Components of carburetors usually include a storage chamber for liquid fuel, a choke, an idling (or slow-running) jet, the main jet, a venturi-shaped air-flow restriction, and an accelerator pump.
Carburetors add fuel to air to make a mixture that’s just right for burning in the cylinders. Modern car cylinders are fed more efficiently by fuel-injection systems, which use less fuel and make less pollution. B
ut you’ll still find carburetors on older car and motorcycle engines, and in the compact engines in lawnmowers and chainsaws.
Gasoline engines are designed to take in exactly the right amount of air so the fuel burns properly, whether the engine is starting from cold or running hot at top speed.
Getting the fuel-air mixture just right is the job of a clever mechanical gadget called a carburetor: a tube that allows air and fuel into the engine through valves, mixing them together in different amounts to suit a wide range of different driving conditions.
You might think “carburetor” is quite a weird word, but it comes from the verb “carburet.” That’s a chemical term meaning to enrich a gas by combining it with carbon or hydrocarbons. So, technically, a carburetor is a device that saturates air (the gas) with fuel (the hydrocarbon).
The first carburetor was invented by Samuel Morey in 1826. The first person to patent a carburetor for use in a petroleum engine was Siegfried Marcus with his 6 July 1872 patent for a device that mixes fuel with air.
A very simplified diagram of Karl Benz’s original carburetor from his 1888 patent. Fuel from the tank enters what he called the generator underneath, where it evaporates.
The fuel vapor passes up through the gray pipe and meets air coming down the same pipe, which enters from the atmosphere through perforations at the top. The air and fuel mix in the chamber then passes through a valve into the cylinder, where they burn to make power.
Following are the Parts of Carburetor:
A carburetor relies on the vacuum created by the engine to draw air and fuel into the cylinders. The throttle can open and close, allowing either more or less air to enter the engine. This air moves through a narrow opening called a venturi. This creates the vacuum required to keep the engine running.
Carburetors vary quite a bit in design and complexity. The simplest possible one is essentially a large vertical air pipe above the engine cylinders with a horizontal fuel pipe joined onto one side.
As the air flows down the pipe, it has to pass through a narrow kink in the middle, which makes it speed up and causes its pressure to fall.
This kinked section is called a venturi. The falling pressure of the air creates a sucking effect that draws air in through the fuel pipe at the side.
When a fluid flows into a narrower space, its speed increases but its pressure drops. This explains why wind whistles between buildings and why canal boats, drifting parallel to one another, are often pushed together.
It’s an example of the law of conservation of energy: if the pressure didn’t drop, the fluid would be gaining extra energy as it flowed into the narrow section, which would violate one of the most basic laws of physics.
here’s how Carburetor works:
There are three types of carburetors:
An updraft carburetor is a type of carburetor a component of engines that mix air and fuel together in which the air enters at the bottom and exits at the top to go to the engine.
An updraft carburetor was the first type of carburetor in common use. In an updraft carburetor, the air flows upward into the venturi according to Edward Abdo in Power Equipment Engine Technology. Other types are downdraft and side-draft carburetors. An updraft carburetor may need a drip collector.
This carburetor operates with lower air velocities and larger passages. This is because gravity assists the air-fuel mixture flow to the cylinder.
The downdraft carburetor can provide large volumes of fuel when needed for high speed and high-power output.
In this type of carburetor air comes from the top of the mixing chamber, and the fuel comes from the bottom of the mixing chamber, here also the same principle works, due to low pressure created by the two venturis fuel comes out through the pipe and then the mixing of fuel and air occurred here.
This type of carburetor used when we have the constraint of space for assembly. In horizontal or side draught carburetor, as the name suggests, the jet tube is placed in a horizontal direction. One more advantage of this type of carburetor is that it reduces the resistance of the flow due to the absence of the right-angle mechanism in the intake area.
The working principle of this type of carburetor is very simple. Here the carburetor stays in the horizontal position where the air is coming in through the one end of the carburetor shown in the below figure. And mixing with fuel to make the air-fuel mixture and then the air-fuel mixture is going to the engine cylinder for combustion.
Check your Owner’s Manual before cleaning the carburetor. Always follow the manufacturer’s complete instructions for cleaning and maintenance. Make sure the carburetor is cool to the touch before cleaning.
The main functions of carburetors are
A carburetor also spelled carburettor, is a device for supplying a spark-ignition engine with a mixture of fuel and air. Components of carburetors usually include a storage chamber for liquid fuel, a choke, an idling (or slow-running) jet, the main jet, a venturi-shaped air-flow restriction, and an accelerator pump.
There are three types of carburetors according to the direction in which the mixture is supplied:
Parts of Carburetor:
A carburetor relies on the vacuum created by the engine to draw air and fuel into the cylinders. The throttle can open and close, allowing either more or less air to enter the engine. This air moves through a narrow opening called a venturi. This creates the vacuum required to keep the engine running.
Directions for How to Clean a Carburetor:
Carburetor, also spelled carburettor, device for supplying a spark-ignition engine with a mixture of fuel and air. Components of carburetors usually include a storage chamber for liquid fuel, a choke, an idling (or slow-running) jet, the main jet, a venturi-shaped air-flow restriction, and an accelerator pump.
Most car manufacturers stopped using carburetors in the late 1980s because newer technology was coming out, such as the fuel injector, which proved to be more efficient. There were only a few cars that continued to have carburetors, such as the Subaru Justy, until about the early 1990s.
The last car to have a carburetor was an Isuzu pick up from 1994; it switched to fuel injection in 1995.
How much does a new carburetor cost? Most of the carb kits available in the market fall within the $100 to $500 dollar range. Pricing will depend on the make, model, and year of your automobile, as well as what you’re looking to get out of your engine’s performance.
The carburetor is part of the mower’s engine. Typically, it is bolted to the side or top of the engine. It is also connected to the gas tank, and will typically be located just below or behind your air filter.
While the carburetor may have been around for over a century, fuel injection is a clearly superior alternative, delivering better power, fuel economy, and lower emissions. For the modern driver, this is all you could ask for.
Not an easy answer. The carbureted engine requires more fuel system-related maintenance, but the tasks are much simpler. DIY is relatively easy. The EFI engine requires far less maintenance and less often, however, the tasks are much more complex and expensive when required, probably can’t be done by the driver.
Fuel injection is by far the most effective and efficient method of fuel delivery, but that doesn’t mean carburetors don’t have their own advantages. Although fuel injection provides more accurate air to fuel ratios, they are far more expensive than carburetors, and harder to fix.
Nevertheless, you can find out by a peep under the hood, check for the fuel lines coming to the engine (typically metal pipes), if they are connected to each cylinder separately then it’s fuel injection system but if they are all coming into a round box sitting top of your engine then it’s a carburetor.
Chokes were nearly universal in automobiles until fuel injection began to supplant carburetors. Choke valves are still common in other internal-combustion engines, including most small portable engines, motorcycles, small propeller-driven airplanes, riding lawn mowers, and normally-aspirated marine engines.
Signs that indicate your carburetor needs to be replaced include:
4 Signs Your Carburetor Needs Cleaning
Carburetors can wear out for multiple reasons. If your engine is hesitating, stumbling, stalling, letting out black smoke, or has a hard time starting you may need to replace the carburetor. As intimidating as it may look, replacing a carburetor is an easy task that can be completed in just a few steps.
In a petrol engine, combustion takes place when a mixture of air and fuel gets a spark from a spark plug (spark initiates fuel burning). This mixture of air and fuel is a carburetor. Hence a petrol engine is also known as a spark ignition engine since a spark is used to burn a mixture of air and petrol (or gasoline).
The main structure and the largest component of the carburetor is the molded body made from a lightweight alloy or aluminum. The stationary body is under little stress and pressure; therefore, stronger metals are unnecessary. The moving pieces of a carburetor are manufactured from steel or stainless steel.
To arrive at the most appropriate carburetor choice, there’s a basic formula: engine displacement multiplied by maximum rpm divided by 3,456. For example: a typical 355ci small-block—a 0.030-over rebuild—with a 6,000-rpm max engine speed would work well with a 616-cfm carb ((355 x 6,000) 3,456 = 616.32).
