Miguel Sánchez
For many drivers, driving their car is a leap of faith. We are not referring to those who have the dashboard as if it were an altar, but to those thousands who habitually drive without thinking about how an engine works. It is true that here you are experts in mechanics, but it must also be recognized that visualizing the operation of a carburetor... It can be complicated for someone who does not know what is hidden under the hood.
Among the many tasks of a vehicle the operation of the carburetor is one of the essential. Preparing the air-fuel mixture is what enables the engine to function, and if this is not properly combined the consequences can be dramatic. In short, the operation of your car's carburetor is something you should know. For this we are going to illustrate ourselves with this most pedagogical video.
Of course, as you do not miss an insurance that you will have noticed the special of this piece. The shape of the logo by Harley-Davidson makes it clear that this video on the operation of a carburetor was made with that of one of these mythical motorcycles. Ok, we know it's not a car but ... There are many types of carburettors and this one in particular clearly shows the basics. Let's go with it!
THE FIRE CAME FROM THE AIR
When you accelerate your car your wallet hurts because of the fuel you use, but the truth is that most of what your car burns is air. This is marked by the Lambda factor and its proportion of 14 parts of air for each one of gasoline. This figure is considered the ideal in the engines of Otto cycle, so you see that not only your lungs need oxygen to spark life ...
While the air intake is relatively easy, that of gasoline has more intricacies. At the bottom of the carburetor is the bowl, always full of gasoline thanks to the float and the fuel pump. From there it is extracted through a "Pilot jet"-very common in the operation of motorcycle carburettors- to be mixed with the air before entering the cylinder.
By controlling what enters it to be converted into energy thanks to combustion, we have an essential part for the operation of the carburetor: butterfly valve. Actuated by the throttle cable, it regulates the amount of mixture. And is that when we press the accelerator pedal we directly affect the vacuum chamber, displacing the diaphragm and needle to suck in more and more fuel. All this is mixed with the air, which increases proportionally, and when the spark from the spark plug is already in the cylinder ... Pum! So you do that of "Give gas".
HOW A CARBURETTOR WORKS: THE MAGIC OF PRESSURES
Do an experiment. Put the extractor fan and leave your kitchen by closing doors and windows. Then light something - a cigarette or if you are healthier a stick of incense - to open the kitchen door from the outside after a while. You will see that all the smoke goes inside, at the same time that you notice how it has cost you a little more than the account to open the door. Congratulations! You have just discovered the suction power of low pressures.
In this video about the operation of a carburetor you see this in a very visual way, since the air-fuel mixture always moves towards the cylinder thanks to the low pressure vacuum created by the piston. The lack of pressure attracts the mixture ready to "Fill in the gap", the combustion chamber, which ignites, is converted into energy, comes out through the exhaust manifold ... And back to start!
By the time the engine is idling without the throttle action, the mixing screw is in charge of adjusting the fuel-air ratio. That we configure it for a "richer" or more "mix"poor”Will directly affect the responsiveness of the engine. If you activate the starter to start a better cold start, a little more gasoline will enter to enrich the mixture through an additional valve established for this purpose.
As you have seen the operation of a carburetor has its magic, but nothing you can't easily visualize in this video made by Harley fans Rome Custom Bike. Things can get tricky with more complicated carburetors, but these are essentially the basics you need to know.
And now that you know how a carburetor works, Do you know how a differential works? And a gearbox?
