Carburetor - Carburetor Adjustment

Carburetor Adjustment

Too much fuel in the fuel-air mixture is referred to as too rich, and not enough fuel is too lean. The mixture is normally adjusted by one or more needle valves on an automotive carburetor, or a pilot-operated lever on piston-engined aircraft (since mixture is air density (altitude) dependent). The (stoichiometric) air to gasoline ratio is 14.7:1, meaning that for each weight unit of gasoline, 14.7 units of air will be consumed. Stoichiometric mixture are different for various fuels other than gasoline.

Ways to check carburetor mixture adjustment include: measuring the carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, and oxygen content of the exhaust using a gas analyzer, or directly viewing the colour of the flame in the combustion chamber through a special glass-bodied spark plug sold under the name "Colortune"; the flame colour of stoichiometric burning is described as a "bunsen blue", turning to yellow if the mixture is rich and whitish-blue if too lean.

The mixture can also be judged by removing and scrutinizing the spark plugs. black, dry, sooty plugs indicate a mixture too rich; white to light gray plugs indicate a lean mixture. A proper mixture is indicated by brownish-gray plugs.

In the 1980s, many American-market vehicles used special "feedback" carburetors that could change the base mixture in response to signals from an exhaust gas oxygen sensor. These were mainly used because they were less expensive than fuel injection systems; they worked well enough to meet 1980s emissions requirements and were based on existing carburetor designs. Frequently, feedback carburetors were used in lower trim versions of a car (whereas higher trim versions were equipped with fuel injection). However, their high complexity (compared to both older carburetors and fuel injection) both made problems common and maintenance difficult. Eventually, however, falling hardware prices and tighter emissions standards caused fuel injection to supplant carburetors in new-vehicle production.

Where multiple carburetors are used the mechanical linkage of their throttles must be synchronized for smooth engine running.