19 hours ago
What Ever Happened to Carbureted Engines?
What happened to carbureted engines? Once the most popular option amongst classic car enthusiasts and garage mechanics everywhere, it's been a few decades since we last saw one, as they're now reduced to a nostalgic commodity in cars, though they do still exist on small engines, such as lawn mowers.
Back in the good old days, however, carburetors were found on some of the most exciting classic sports cars, and they were a reasonable option for owners and drivers looking to wrench on their vehicles. If this method of fuel delivery was so beloved, why did it drop to the wayside?
As the popularity of fuel injection grew, we started to see the end of mass-produced vehicles with carbureted engines. Carbs, while simpler to work on and maintain and also more affordable, had some unfortunate downsides compared to the newer tech of fuel injection.
As RSP Motorsports points out, fuel injection offered better fuel economy as it could optimize fuel delivery based on real-time engine conditions, as opposed to the fixed jets of a carburetor. This was due in part to the rise of electronic control units (ECUs), which gave cars computers that could calculate and make adjustments — although they also added a layer of expense and complexity.
Because of adjustable fuel delivery, fuel injection was also more efficient, providing a more precise air-fuel mixture that reduced emissions compared to carburetors. By the mid-1980s, we were nearing the end of the carbureted engines in everyday cars on U.S. production lines as the world witnessed the rise of fuel injection. Fuel injection may be more complex, but its benefits made it more marketable to some consumers.
American car enthusiasts might remember the carburetor sitting under the hood of their sports car, but these systems weren't exclusive to the U.S. market. On the global market, carbureted engines had a longer life span for many automotive brands, according to the Ask Car Guys subreddit.
These markets focused less on fuel economy and efficiency, and also didn't see the consequences of laws and regulations cracking down on emissions. European, Asian, and African car markets continued to see cars produced with carbureted engines into the mid-1990s.
Just because they've been phased out of production doesn't mean people don't still love cars with carbureted engines. Without the need for complex electronics we have in today's modern cars, carb engines were much simpler to work on, as stated by — and, for many people, more enjoyable. You could work on your car in the garage without concern for complex ECUs, and they could be manually tuned and adjusted if you knew what you were doing, without the need for expensive, complicated software.
Outside of simplicity, many fans of the carbureted engine just enjoy the engine sound and feel. They have a distinct sound, throttle response, and feel that is very dissimilar to cars we have in production today, making many people loyal to this now nostalgic form of fuel delivery.
Carburetors were easy to make adjustments and tuning changes to, as they didn't require fancy computers and knowledge to figure out, but Electronics for Imaging (EFI) provided arguably smoother throttle response and wasn't as annoying to try to start on a cold day — a struggle anyone who has owned a carbureted car probably knows well after messing around with a manual choke on a cold winter day.
Just because we don't see cars with carburetors coming off the assembly line doesn't mean they are off the road. Many car collectors and classic car enthusiasts still enjoy wrenching, owning, and driving carbureted cars today.
They may be "gone," but they will never be forgotten — there will always be something tried and true about a carbureted engine that enthusiasts will always have an appreciation for.
