Intake & Fuel Systems

Fuel injection is a system of fuel delivery for mixture with air in an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary system used in automotive engines, having replaced carburetors primarily in the 1980s. more...

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A fuel injection system is designed and calibrated specifically for the type(s) of fuel it will handle: gasoline (petrol), Autogas (LPG, also known as propane), ethanol, methanol, methane (natural gas), hydrogen or diesel. The majority of fuel injection systems are for gasoline or diesel applications. With the advent of electronic fuel injection (EFI), the diesel and gasoline hardware has become similar. EFI's programmable firmware has permitted common hardware to be used with multiple different fuels. For gasoline engines, carburetors were the predominant method to meter fuel before the widespread use of fuel injection. However, a wide variety of injection systems have existed since the earliest usage of the internal combustion engine.

The primary functional difference between carburetors and fuel injection is that fuel injection atomizes the fuel by forcibly pumping it through a small nozzle under high pressure, while a carburetor relies on the vacuum created by intake air rushing through it to add the fuel to the airstream.

The fuel injector is only a nozzle and a valve: the power to inject the fuel comes from farther back in the fuel supply, from a pump or a pressure container.

Objectives

The functional objectives for fuel injection systems can vary. All share the central task of supplying fuel to the combustion process, but it is a design decision how a particular system will be optimized. There are several competing objectives such as:

power output; fuel efficiency; emissions performance; ability to accommodate alternative fuels; reliability; driveability and smooth operation; initial cost; maintenance cost; diagnostic capability; range of environmental operation;

Certain combinations of these goals are conflicting, and 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. The modern digital electronic fuel injection system is far more capable at optimizing these competing objectives than a carburetor.

Benefits

Engine operation

Operational benefits to the driver of a fuel-injected car include smoother and more dependable engine response during quick throttle transitions, easier and more dependable engine starting, better operation at extremely high or low ambient temperatures, reduced maintenance intervals, and increased fuel efficiency. On a more basic level, fuel injection does away with the choke which on carburetor-equipped vehicles must be operated when starting the engine from cold and then adjusted as the engine warms up.

Read more at Wikipedia.org