CARBURETORS AND

THEIR SYSTEMS
 Carburetion & Carburetor
❖ The process of preparing combustible air
fuel mixture in the petrol engine is called
carburetion.
❖ A device which does this process is called
carburetor (Is a mixing device).
❖ The carburetor atomizes the fuel and
mixes it with air in correct proportions
according to the engine operating
conditions.

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 Requirements of Carburetors
❖ The requirements of a good carburetor are as
follows:
✓ Easy engine starting, particularly under low
ambient conditions
✓ Ability to give full power quickly after starting the
engine
✓ Smooth engine operation at various loads
✓ Quick acceleration of the engine
✓ Developing sufficient power at high engine
speeds
✓ Good fuel economy
✓ Ensuring full torque at low speeds
✓ Simple and compact in construction
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 components of Carburetor
❖ It consists of a float chamber, venturi, discharge
jet or main nozzle, choke valve and throttle valve.

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 Float Chamber (or) Float Bowl:
❖ It consists of a float and needle supply
valve.
❖ This system maintains a constant petrol
level in the float chamber.
QUESTION:
What will happen, If the fuel level is too high or
is too low in the float chamber?

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fuel level too high
• Fuel will continue to flow from the discharge jet or
main nozzle.
• This will make air fuel mixture become too rich.
• This result in wastage of fuel, engine stall or poor
running and the pollutant exhaust emissions such as
hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide.
too low fuel level
• The vacuum in the venturi will not pull enough
fuel out of the float chamber.
• The air fuel mixture will become too lean. This
result in engine stall or poor running.
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 Venturi (or) Choke Tube:
• Venturi is a tube of decreasing cross section
which reaches a minimum at the throat (restricted
section).
• During suction stroke air is drawn through the
venturi.
• The air passing through the venturi increasing in
velocity and the pressure in the venturi throat
decreases.
Main Nozzle (or) Discharge Jet:
• This is a part that directs fuel from the carburetor bowl
to the throat of the venturi.
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Throttle Valve:
• The throttle valve is a round disc located between the
venturi and the engine inlet of the induction system.
• The throttle is connected to the accelerator pedal by a
flexible cable.
• Depressing the accelerator pedal opens the throttle
valve and permits an increased amount of air fuel
mixture to reach the engine cylinders.
• This will increase the power output of the engine and
hence the vehicles speed.
Choke Valve:
• It is a valve which is used for controlling the amount of
air passing to the venturi when starting a cold engine.

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 Types of Carburetors
1. Based on the direction of air flow
• Up Draught

• Down Draught

• Side Draught
2. Based on the venturi & depression
A.Fixed Venturi (or) Constant Choke Carburetor:
• The venturi area is always maintained to be
constant.
• But the depression or vacuum which cause flow of
fuel and air
B. Variable Venturi (or) Constant Vacuum
Carburetor:
• The venturi area is being varied as per the demand
on the engine, while the vacuum or depression is
maintained to be always constant.

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 Carburetor Systems
• The fixed venturi carburetor has six systems and
several devices that provide the correct air-fuel
mixture for different operating conditions.
These include:
1. Float System
2. Idle and Low speed System
3. Main-Metering System
4. Power System
5. Accelerator Pump System
6. Choke System

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1. Float System

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 2. Idle and Low Speed System
a. Idle System
❖ When the throttle valve is closed or
only slightly open, only a small
amount of air can pass through the air
horn. With low air speed, there is very
little vacuum in the venture. No fuel
will feed from the fuel nozzle.
❖ To supply fuel during idle, an idling
system is built into the carburetor.

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❖ This system has an opening in the
side of the carburetor below the
throttle valve.
❖This hole is called idle port.
❖ The port is connected by a passage
to the float bowl or float chamber.

❖ In addition to the idle port, there is

an idle-mixture screw located behind
the idle port to control the amount of
mixture discharge through it.
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b. Low Speed System
• If the throttle valve is open just a little for low speed, the
edge of the throttle valve moves past the idle port.
• More air can flow past the throttle valve now, reducing
the vacuum in the intake manifold. So less fuel flows
from the idle port.
• However, the low speed port now comes into action.
The throttle valve has moved past and above the low
speed port.
• The vacuum in the intake manifold can act on the
low speed port as well as on the idle port.
• Both ports discharge fuel to maintain required amount
of air-fuel mixture for low speed.

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 3. Main-Metering System
• If the throttle valve is opened farther, more air
will flow through. This means that there will
be less vacuum in the intake manifold.
• As a result, the idle and low speed ports
stop discharging fuel.
• However, with more air flow, there is a
vacuum in the venturi.
• This causes the main nozzle or discharge jet
to discharge fuel. Therefore, fuel gets mixed
with the air passing through.
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 4. Power System
• When a driver wants full power, the
accelerator pedal is pushed to the floor (i.e.
to the maximum position).
• This causes the throttle valve to open wide.
Another system in the carburetor comes
into action to additional fuel.
• This system is called power system. It can
be a piston type or metering rod type.

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• In piston type a vacuum piston or
diaphragm is used to lift the metering
rod.
• The space above the piston is connected
to the inlet manifold vacuum.
• When there is vacuum in the inlet
manifold, the vacuum holds the piston
up.
• In this position the metering rod is up and
the additional fuel flow is restricted.
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• However, when the throttle is opened
wide, the vacuum is lost and can no
longer hold the piston up.
• A spring pushes the piston down. This
lowers the metering rod so that
additional fuel can flow into the
carburetor.
• So that a rich mixture is formed and is
delivered to the engine for full power
operation.
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Questions
what happen if
1. the power valve does not seal well?
2. vacuum escapes from around the
power piston, or if the vacuum
passage becomes clogged?
3. the power piston sticks in the up
position?

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1. If the power valve does not seal well, the air-fuel
mixture used in the primary high- speed circuit will be
too rich, resulting in poor fuel economy.
2. If vacuum escapes from around the power piston,
or if the vacuum passage becomes clogged, the
power piston will remain down, causing the power
valve to remain open, and the air fuel mixture to be
too rich.
• This will result in poor fuel economy.
3. If, on the other hand, the power piston sticks in the
up position, the power valve will not open.
• which means that the power circuit will not operate,
resulting in poor acceleration and insufficient power

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 5, Acceleration Pump System
• There is another operating condition that needs a
rich mixture.
• This condition occurs when the accelerator
pedal is pushed down suddenly to
increase the speed.
• When the throttle valve is suddenly opened,
although the amount of air drawn into the
carburetor immediately increases, more
gasoline is not immediately delivered by the
main nozzle (because gasoline is heavier
than air).
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• For this reason, the air-fuel mixture will become
temporarily lean during acceleration unless this is
prevented by the implementation of an acceleration
circuit.
• This can be either piston type or diaphragm type.

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• When the accelerator pedal is stepped on, the
gasoline in the pump cylinder is put under pressure
by the pump plunger.
• This causes the gasoline to push up outlet steel ball
and to be sprayed into venturi by the pump jet.
• When the accelerator pedal is released, the pump
plunger rises, and the outlet steel ball blocks the
outlet.
• The inlet steel ball then unblocks the inlet, allowing
gasoline to be drawn up into the pump cylinder from
the float chamber.

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 Diaphragm type pump

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 6. CHOKE SYSTEM

Mechanical chock

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 Automatic choke

a) During starting

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 b) AFTER STARTING

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 Hot-Idle Compensator (HIC)

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• When the ambient temperature is high, the temperature
inside the engine compartment will rise.
• This will cause the gasoline inside the carburetor to
become hot and give off vapour.
• If this vapour is discharged from the main nozzle or the air
vent tube and goes into the intake manifold, the air-fuel
mixture will become over-rich, causing engine stall or
rough idling.
• Furthermore, if the vapour remains in the carburetor after
the engine has stopped, the engine will be difficult to
restart.
• Therefore the hot idle compensator, a thermostatic valve
adds air to the engine to protect this problem.

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Single and Multi Barrel Carburetors

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