Lab session No 7:-

Study of Carburetor & Fuel Injectors

Carburetor:SI engines normally use volatile fuel. Preparation of mixture is done outside
the cylinder usually by the carburetor. The purpose of carburetion is to provide a
combustible mixture of fuel & air in the required quantity & quality for efficient operation
of the engine under all conditions.
The
process of formation of combustible
mixture by mixing the proper amount of
fuel with air before admission to engine
cylinder Is called carburetion & the device
which does this job is called carburetor.
Factors affecting carburetion are:
o
o
o
o

Engine Speed
Vaporization characteristics of fuel
Temperature of incoming air
Design of Carburetor

Construction:Even on some of these small engines, carburetors are being replaced

with fuel injectors as pollution laws become more stringent. The basic carburetor is a
Venturi tube mounted with a throttle plate (butterfly valve) and a capillary tube to input
fuel. It is usually mounted on the upstream end of the intake manifold, with all air entering
the engine passing first through this Venturi tube. Most of the time, there will be an air
filter mounted directly on the upstream side of the carburetor. Other main parts of the
carburetor
are
the
fuel
reservoir, main metering needle
valve, idle speed adjustment,
idle valve, and choke.

Working Principle:-

As air
enters the engine due to the
pressure differential between
the surrounding atmospheric

air and the partial vacuum in the cylinders

during intake strokes, it is accelerated to
high velocity in the throat of the Venturi. By
Bernoulli's principle, this causes the
pressure in the throat to be reduced to a
value less than the surrounding pressure,
which is about one atmosphere. The
pressure above the fuel in the fuel reservoir
is equal to atmospheric pressure as the
reservoir is vented to the surroundings.
There is, therefore, a pressure differential
through the fuel supply capillary tube, and
this forces fuel flow into the venture throat.
As the fuel flows out of the end of the
capillary tube, it breaks into very small
droplets which are carried away by the high-velocity air. These droplets then evaporate
and mix with the air in the following intake manifold. As engine speed is increased, the
higher flow rate of air will create an even lower pressure in the venture throat. This creates
a greater pressure differential through the fuel capillary tube, which increases the fuel flow
rate to keep up with the greater air flow rate and engine demand.

Float Shutoff:-

The level in the fuel reservoir is controlled by a float shutoff. Fuel comes
from a fuel tank supplied by an electric fuel pump on most modern automobiles, by a
mechanical-driven fuel pump on older automobiles, or even by gravity on some small
engines (lawn mowers).

Choke Valve:-

Another butterfly valve called the choke is positioned upstream of the

Venturi throat. This is needed to start cold engines. It is not really the air -fuel ratio that is
important for considering combustion, but the air-vapor ratio; only fuel that is vaporized
reacts in a combustion process.

Throat:-

In order to have high quality of carburetion, the velocity of air stream at the
point where the fuel is injected has to be increased. This is done by introducing a venturi
section in the path of the air & the fuel is discharged from the jet of the carburetor at the
minimum X-section of the venturi called Throat.

Fuel Strainer:

As the gasoline has to pass through a narrow nozzle exit, there is a

possibility that the nozzle gets clogged. To prevent blockage of nozzle, gasoline is filtered
by installing the strainer at the inlet of float chamber.

Float chamber:-

Its function is to supply the fuel to the nozzle at constant pressure

head. This is possible only by maintain the fuel level in the float bowl.

Metering System:-

It controls the fuel feed for cruising & full throttle control. It
consists of three principal units:
1. Fuel metering orifice through which the fuel is drawn from the float chamber
2. Main discharge nozzle
3. Passage leading to idling system
Three functions of main metering systems are:
1. To proportion the air fuel mixture
2. To decrease the pressure at the discharge nozzle exit
3. To limit the air flow at full throttle

Other Compensating devices:-

Certain compensating devices along with main

metering system are added to provide the required AFR. Some of these are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Air-bleed jet
Compensating jet
Emulsion tube
Back suction control mechanism
Auxiliary air valve
Auxiliary air port

Air bleed Jet:The flow of air through this bleed is

restricted by an orifice. When the engine is not running,
the main jet & air bleed jet will be filled with fuel. When
the engine starts, initially the fuel starts coming from the
main as well as from the air bleed jet. As the engine picks
up, the air starts coming through the air bleed & mixes
with fuel & makes up air-fuel emulsion. Thus as
emulsions has low viscosities & surface tension; flow
rate of fuel is augmented & more fuel is sucked at low
pressures.

Compensating jet:-

Its
function is to make the mixture
liner as the throttle opens
progressively. It is connected
with the compensating well. The
compensating well is supplied
with fuel from the float chamber
through a restricting orifice. With
the increase air flow rate there is
decrease in fuel in compensating
well so fuel supplied by
compensating well is decreased.
It thus progressively makes the
mixture leaner as the main jet
makes the mixture rich. The sum
of two tends to retain the AFR
constant.

Emulsion tube:-

The mixture correction is

attempted by air bleeding in modern carburetors.
The main metering jet is kept at about 25mm below
the fuel level in the float. Therefore it is called
submerged jet. The jet is located at the bottom of the
well. The sides of well have holes. In the beginning,
the level of petrol in float chamber & well is same.
When the throttle is opened, the pressure at the
venturi throat is decreased. & petrol is drawn into
the air stream. This results in progressively
uncovering the holes in the central tube leading to
increase in AFR. Normal flow takes place through the
main jet. The air is drawn through these holes in the
well & the fuel is emulsified & the pressure
differential across the column of fuel is not as high as
on simple carburetor.

Back Suction Mechanism:-

In this device, the

top of the fuel float chamber is connected to the air
entry by means of a large vent line fitted with a
control valve. Another line with a small orifice
connects top of the float chamber with the venturi
throat. When the control valve is completely open,
the flow of air in the line is unrestricted & the
pressure in the float chamber is atmospheric with
throat at less pressure than this. So the pressure
difference is acting on the orifice. If valve is closed,
both are at the same pressure & no fuel flows. By
proper adjustment, the required pressure differential
can be obtained.

Auxiliary Valve:-

When the engine is not operating, the

pressure acting on top of auxiliary valve is atm. The vacuum at
the venturi throat increases with increase in load. The pressure
differential lifts the valve. As a result, more air is prevented &
mixture is prevented from becoming rich.

Auxiliary Port:-

If the butterfly valve is open, additional air

passes through this port reducing the flow of air through the
venturi thus pressure differential is comparatively lower. As a
result, fuel drawn is reduced.

Parameters affecting carburetion:-

The temperature & pressure of

surrounding air has a large influence on the efficient carburetion. Higher atmospheric air
temperature increases the vaporization of fuel & produces a more homogeneous mixture.
As increase in atm temperature decreases pressure, thus it also reduces the output power
of the engine due to reduced volumetric efficiency.

Air Fuel Mixture:Fuel & air are mixed to form different types of mixtures:
o Stoichiometric mixture
o Rich mixture
o Lean mixture
Stoichiometric mixture is one in which there is just enough air for the complete combustion
of fuel. AFR for petrol (Octane) engine is 15.12 & for diesel engine, it is 15.6. A mixture in
which contains less air than stoichiometric requirement is called rich mixture. A mixture
which contains more air than the stoichiometric requirement is called lean mixture.

Air-Fuel mixture requirement:There are three general ranges of throttle

operations. These ranges are:
o
o
o

Idling (mixture must be enriched)

Cruising (mixture must be leaned)
High Power (mixture must be enriched)

Idling: An idling engine is one which operates at no load or nearly closed throttle. It
requires a rich mixture due to existing pressure conditions within the combustion chamber
& the intake manifold which causes the exhaust gas dilution of the fresh charge.
Cruising: The exhaust gas dilution problem is relatively insignificant. Primary interest lies
in obtaining the maximum fuel economy. For this range, carburetor must provide the
engine with economy mixture.
Power range: In this range, an engine requires rich mixture due to:
1) To provide best power: Since high power is desired now, it is logical to transfer the
economy setting of cruising range to that mixture which will produce the best
power.

2) To prevent overheating of exhaust valve & area near it: at high power, the
increased mass of gas at high temp. passing through the cylinder results in the
necessities of greater transfer of heat away from critical areas like those around
exhaust valve. Enriching the fuel reduces the flame temp. thereby reducing the
cooling problem.

Injection system:Fuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal

combustion engine. The primary 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 suction created by intake air accelerated through
a Venturi tube to draw the fuel into the airstream. Classification of Injection systems are:

Fuel Injection
Systems

Mechanical

Air injection
system (through
M-compressor)

Individual Pump
& Nozzle

Electronic
Injection System

Solid injection
System (without
Comp.)

Unit Injector
System

Common Rail
injector System

Distributer
system

Solid injection System:Main Components of SIS are:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Fuel Tank
Fuel Feed Pump to supply fuel from tank to injector
Injection pump to meter & pressurize the fuel for injection
Governor to ensure that the amount of fuel injected is in accordance with variation in
load
5. Injector to take the fuel from pump & distribute it in the combustion chamber by
atomizing it into fine droplets
6. Fuel filters to prevent the dust & abrasive particles from entering the pump & injectors
thereby minimizing the wear & tear or components

Job

Air Injection System

Metering

Pump

Timing

Fuel cam

Injection rate

Spray valve

Atomization
Distribution

Spray valve
Spray valve

Solid injection System

Individual Common
pump
Rail
Pump
Injection
valve
Pump
Fuel cam
cam
Pump
Spray
cam
valve
Spray tip Spray tip
Spray tip Spray tip

Distributer
Pump
Fuel cam
Fuel cam
Spray tip
Spray tip

Working of Fuel Injector:The injection of the fuel is achieved by the location of

cams on a camshaft. This camshaft rotates at engine speed for a two -stroke engine and at
half engine speed for a four-stroke. There are two basic systems in use, each of which
employs a combination of mechanical and hydraulic operations. The most common system
is the jerk pump; the other is the common rail. It can be seen to be two basic parts, the
nozzle and the nozzle holder or body. The high-pressure fuel enters and travels down a
passage in the body and then into a passage in the nozzle, ending finally in a chamber
surrounding the needle valve. The needle valve is held closed on a mitred seat by an
intermediate spindle and a spring in the injector body. The spring pressure, and hence the
injector opening pressure, can be set by a compression nut which acts on the spring.

The needle valve will open when the fuel

pressure acting on the needle valve
tapered face exerts a sufficient force to
overcome the spring compression. The
fuel then flows into a lower chamber and
is forced out through a series of tiny
holes. The small holes are sized and
arranged to atomize, or break into tiny
drops, all of the fuel oil, which will then
readily burn. Once the injector pump or
timing valve cuts off the high pressure
fuel supply the needle valve will shut
quickly under the spring compression
force.
All slow-speed two-stroke engines and
many medium-speed four stroke engines
are now operated almost continuously
on heavy fuel. A fuel circulating system is therefore necessary and this is usually arranged
within the fuel injector. During injection the high-pressure fuel will open the circulation
valve for injection to take place. Older engine designs may have fuel injectors which are
circulated with cooling water.

Electronic Fuel injector:Modern injection systems use engine sensors, a computer &
a solenoid operated fuel injector to meter & inject the right amount of fuel. These systems
are called electronic fuel injection systems (EFI). An electronic control unit (ECU) receives
signals in form of current or voltage from various sensors. It then uses the stored data to
operate the injector, ignition system & other engine related devices. As a result less
unburnt fuel leaves the engine. Typical sensors for efi include:
1. Exhaust gas or oxygen sensor: It senses the amount of oxygen in the exhaust &
calculates AFR. Sensor output voltage changes proportional to AFR.
2. Engine Temperature sensor: It senses the temperature of engine coolant & from
this data, ECU adjusts the mixture strength to rich side for cold starting.

3. Air flow sensor: It monitors the mass or volume of air flowing into the intake
manifold for adjusting the quantity of fuel.
4. Air inlet temperature sensor: It checks the temp. of ambient air entering for fine
tuning the mixture strength.
5. Throttle position sensor: it senses the movement of throttle plate so that the
mixture flow can be adjusted for engine speed & accl.
6. Manifold pressure sensor: It monitors the vacuum in the engine intake manifold
so that mixture strength can be adjusted acc. to varying loads.
7. Camshaft position sensor: It senses the rotation of engine camshaft for speed &
timing of injection.
8. Knock sensor: microphone type sensor that detects the ping pre-ignition noise so
that ignition time can be retarded.