- The good old carburetor died on the automobile vine
more than 20 years ago,
but walk into any motorcycle showroom today,
and you'll see a few stragglers
still sucking fuel the old-fashioned way,
through a good old set of carbies.
(lever clacks)
Oh, look at these beauts.
What replaced carburetion was electronic fuel injection
and it's known for being more precise,
having more consistent air fuel ratios,
producing less emissions, running smoother,
makes more consistent power across a wider range
than a carburetor.
So, why are some of these modern day motorcycles
still stickin' with some ancient tech?
They know something we don't know?
Is the carburetor coming back?
We're gonna figure it out today, let's go.
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- I'm gonna be frank with you guys.
No, the carburetor is gone for good in the automobile world
but maybe not for the reasons that you think.
And more importantly, all of those reasons I listed above
aren't as true as you might think.
Now you can look at carbs like this or this
or even this and you might think,
they're painfully complex feats of mechanical engineering,
but really, they're quite simple.
All they're looking to do is to pass air
through a narrow tube in order to speed it up.
This is called the venturi effect,
which in turn decreases the pressure inside
which is the Bernoulli principle.
Couple that with a fuel reservoir of some kind,
in this case, we call it a float bowl
and a tube to connect that fuel to the incoming air
and as that air passes over the tube,
fuel is gonna get drawn up, mix in with the air
and get sucked into the combustion chamber
where the spark plug does its thing and Ka-bang,
bang baby, we get combustion. (slaps hands)
Pretty simple, right?
And it has served the internal combustion engine
for well over a century.
Heck, the mighty Mustang was carburetored until 1986.
You're probably thinking, that's still a long time ago
(laughs)
and it is, it's like 35 years ago.
Don't ask me how I know that 1986 is 35 years ago.
(losing sound effect) (people aww)
But there are some limitations with carburetion.
With carbs, there's no adjustability on the fly.
So whatever rate of fuel delivery
you set them at, it's static.
And if you want a different rate for each cylinder,
each of those cylinders will require its own carb.
Even worse, changes in elevation affect that mixture
as the air gets thinner and the carbs
continue spraying the same amount of fuel
leading them to running too rich.
So, that means everyone
should be using fuel injection, right?
Well actually, fuel injection isn't necessarily
the best answer to every situation.
But before we can go look into that,
let's look at how it works.
So, a high pressures seal system uses a fuel pump
and an injector to inject a regulated amount of fuel
into either the intake manifold
or in a direct injection system,
straight into the combustion chamber.
These injectors are designed with a particular flow rate.
The four injectors for a 1998 Honda civic type R,
they flow at 240 ccs a minute,
while the eight injectors a Dodge Hellcat requires,
a flow of 600 CCS a minute.
So pulses from the ECU determine how often
and how long the injectors spray for, as well as when,
meaning you can time them to spray
at the perfect moment in the combustion cycle
dowsing the incoming air
in a beautiful mist of combustion fuel.
(kissing sounds) Misty baby.
And this provides several advantages.
Mechanical fuel injections started
with diesel engines way back in the 30's.
And it first became available
in gasoline engines in the early 50's.
And it was favored for racing applications
because it allowed for more intermediate
throttle response than with the carburetor,
which needed to wait for the pressure differential
to build before more fuel was added.
And because today's fuel injection systems are electronic,
these mixtures can be more precise
across the entire rev range,
where carburetors are always needing to compromise
as they use a system of circuits and jets to add flow,
as you open the throttle more.
Plus, injectors can deliver fuel to each individual cylinder
providing unique timing and ratios
for every single one of those cylinders.
For instance, to only squirt fuel,
right when it's about to be compressed and ignited
as opposed to a carb which is always delivering fuel
if a throttle is open.
And because you can adjust for each cylinder,
you can change the ratio to benefit cylinders
that might run a little hotter like the interior cylinders
or colder like the outer ones.
That's called, tunability.
Okay, so it seems pretty cut and dry, right?
So, why even make this video?
Well, things aren't as simple as we made them seem
and carbs do have some advantages over fuel injection.
First, the pressure differential and longer flow path
of a carburetor actually atomizes gasoline better
than spraying fuel through an orifice like a fuel injector.
It takes time for gas to go from a liquid to a vapor.
It has to be atomized and emulsified before it gets there.
And with a carburetor the longer the path the fuel has,
it allows for more time for that to happen.
You have better atomization, means a better mixture,
it means a better combustion which means more power.
Or, as James says, "More power, baby". (lightning strikes)
Now on top of that, it's often said
that fuel injection will always make more power
than a properly sized manifold and carb.
And that is just simply not true.
You can optimize both systems and they'll perform equally
when it comes to making peak power,
but EFI has a broader power band
and has better cylinder to cylinder fuel distribution
since she can determine and deliver individual flow needs
to each of those cylinders.
Now, typically carbs are optimal
only over a narrow range, about 1500 RPM at most,
whereas EFI performs well over 2000 RPMs or more.
And tests after test shows that you can make as much power
with a carb as you can fuel injection.
And when you're talking about specific applications
like drag racing, for example,
when you're only looking to produce power
at wide open throttle, that broader power band
isn't as much as an advantage as in a road car.
Now on top of that, even the efficiency
that you get with fuel injection has its own drawbacks.
There are some significant shortcomings
when you're talking about everyday passenger vehicles.
With direct injection,
the fuel isn't washing past the valves
on its way to the combustion chamber.
Now that's great for flow,
since it doesn't have to make its way
around the valve to get where it's needed
but it's not great for atomization or longevity.
Let me explain.
With port fuel injection, the fuel hits the intake valve,
which helps with atomization
from both the impact and the heat,
and then flows into the cylinder
where it has an entire intake
and compression stroke to atomize.
With direct injection, fuel may still be spraying
during the compression stroke.
And that doesn't allow a lot of time for atomization,
emulsification or vaporization.
What are the differences between those three?
I don't know, let me know in the,
let me know down below, I can't teach you everything.
Also, if you didn't know this,
fuel is actually a cleaner, specifically, a solvent.
In fact, one of the major components of gasoline,
which is benzine, is the go to solvent for chemists
and without fuel passing over the intake valves
the dirty air that comes with modern
crankcase ventilation and emission systems
like PCV valves and EGR systems,
they allow for carbon and other crud
to build up on top of the valves.
And now, you've got just dirty valves,
are in need of a cleaning.
- Oh hey, it's me, Slappy valve.
- Oh, Hey, it's me, I'm Dirty valve.
- Oh, well that's cool, maybe we could be friends?
- I don't know, do you like a little dirty valve?
- Oh, I think I could like a dirty valve.
Let me just (slapping sounds)
- Those are two characters we created here in B2B,
Dirty valve and Slappy valve.
Should we make a valve T-shirt?
Let me know in the comments below.
Now the process of cleaning the valve
means smoking out your neighbors at best
or removing the head at worst,
so they can be media blasted
without getting any of that bad stuff into the engine.
And the real kicker here, is that the dirty valves
mean that the benefits the manufacturers implemented
direct injection for in the first place,
that higher compression and better efficiency,
largely disappear until the valves are clean again.
So, what do you get instead?
Well, you get some misfiring, potentially rough running,
hard starting and poor fuel economy.
So now suddenly carbs don't seem all that bad, right?
So, what are the real reasons the carb
has gone the way of Myspace?
Well, comes down to two Cs.
First is cleanliness in terms of emissions.
The efficiency really doesn't boil down
to fuel efficiency for the consumer here.
Yes, fuel injection is more efficient
when it comes to fuel use,
but where it really comes into play
is with regard to unburnt fuel, both in the atmosphere
and in clogging up your catalytic converters.
So catalytic converters convert toxic gases
and pollutants into less harmful stuff
by catalyzing, that means increasing,
the reactions that break them down and trap them.
But cats are not meant to deal with unburnt fuel
getting dumped by a carb into the exhaust.
They don't play nice with hydrocarbons
and EFI is just better, about using what they take
or taking what they're gonna use, than carbs.
The second C is corn.
Yeah, corn more specifically ethanol.
Carbs do not like ethanol.
As fuel ages, it turns to a varnish
that coats and clogs all the surfaces
and ports in a carburetor.
Most importantly, the jets that deliver the fuel
when you need it.
Now, that's always been a problem
since ethanol based fuels has been around.
Our grandpas, they didn't have to worry about this.
It's only currently when we started using corn in our fuel.
Unless your fuel system is designed for ethanol blends,
you're going to experience corrosion,
seal degradation and O-ring failure.
And all of that means, little pieces of not fuel
floating around in your fuel,
and that's a perfect recipe for a clogged carb.
And it's not just amateur racers
and mechanics like you and I who experience this?
Oh no, Even Ducati got it wrong
with their plastic tanks reacting with ethanol
and grenading their own fuel systems.
And that was only a little over a decade ago.
So why do we see a bunch of new motorcycles
like this, this, this, this
still getting their fuel from a carb?
Well, because they aren't as beholden
to the efficiency regulations that would force them
to upgrade their manufacturing and eat up the cost
of using an electronic fuel injection system.
As long as they can get away with it, they will.
And since modern fuel systems can be built
with ethanol in mind,
they can happily chug away with their carburetors
until the government tells them otherwise.
The old government's gonna crack down,
they're cracking down here in freaking Cali.
Also a quick note, some of these motorcycles
that I said are new motorcycles
are really just really old motorcycles
that are still being manufactured.
So, Yamaha makes a bike.
Suzuki makes the DR-Z400 which still uses a carb.
That bike's been around forever.
Thank you sharks for joining me today.
There are two things you need to go fast,
big power and light weight.
I've spent hours of research and development
to bring you this.
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(man claps)
(all clap and cheer)
- Thank you guys so much for watching this episode of B2B.
We appreciate you.
If you guys wanna see more content like this, let us know.
Hit us down in the comments, that helps us out.
Follow us here at Donut on Instagram, @donutmedia.
Follow me, @jeremiahburton.
Till next week.
Bye for now.
(gentle music)
All right, Nick, we're done.
You're not done, but I'm done.
I'm going home to soak in a bath.
(laughs) I know.
I gotta put this carb back on.
I just want everyone to know this thing dumped gas
and I've been sniffing fumes the entire time.
So if I mess something up, blame it on the fumes.
Oh God, this thing reeks.