Carburetor diagram

Like bear claw tubs and record players, carburetors have become a thing of the past. They were replaced with fuel injection, a more efficient way to run a vehicle. Yet the the knowledge and ability to work on them has not exactly become a lost art quite yet. It is still alive in the owners and mechanics of vintage cars, and I'm sure everyone can agree, there's something about classic cars that just cannot be replaced by the new, fuel-efficient, mostly plastic vehicles that crowd our roadways today. Carburetors are not only used on vehicles, but a lot of smaller motors, such as chainsaws and lawn mowers. This is because, while they may not be the most efficient or easiest to start up in cold wheather, they are flat-out simple. If a carburetor needs adjustments, anyone with a common knowledge of cars would be able to do so. A carburetor, which can be found on top of the engine's intake manifold, performs the task of mixing the correct ratio of air to fuel for the engine to combust. It has a simple, yet operative design. A carburetor is basically nothing more than a tube with a narrowing in the center. The purpose of the narrowing, called the venturi, is to increase the speed at which air flows through the tube. A good example of this would be the build up of pressure that occurs when your hose has a kink, causing the water to come out with much more physical force than before when the kink is released. Inside of the venturi are small holes, known as jets, that release a certain amount of fuel in accordance with the amount of pressure in the venturi. Sitting just below the venturi, inside of the tube, is the throttle valve. The throttle valve is what is referred to as a butterfly valve, which is basically a flap, that is connected to your accelerator pedal. It controls the air to fuel mixture by having the ability to almost completely restrict or release the flow of the mixture into the intake manifold. For cold mornings when almost resricting the flow just won't cut it, because of a need for more pressure, there is what is called a choke plate. A choke plate does just that, it chokes the engine so that the mixture consists of more fuel than air. More fuel in the mixture causes it to engine much easier, thus resulting in a quicker start. Although it is sad to see them dissipate into the past, with the problems our country is presently having with fuel, we need to make some alterations in the efficiency at which our vehicles combust it. That is why the last vehicle with a carbureted engine was produced in 1990, and forever replaced with the fuel injected engine. Carbureted engines are now a rarity with their distinctive rumble, giving the lucky owners of classic cars something to be proud of.