The injection still has something to surprise

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Injection is almost as old as the automobile. She is anyway as old than the internal combustion engine (called explosion) since the first system was patented by Rudolph Diesel himself in the early 1890s.

However, it took time to impose this injection. It must be said that she had to face her the carburetor. We were then at a time purely mechanical, and the carburetor was easier to set up, create, and adjust. However, the injection, still mechanical, began to experience its hours of glory by motorsport with single-seaters in the Indianapolis 500, in Formula 1 and in various intermediate formulas. We are then in the 50s.

The first car injectors of Mr and Mrs « Touelemonde », we owe them a priori to a Frenchman, Georges Regembeau (Regimbeau in fact). He adapted a Citroën Traction by fitting it with a self-made injector, as well as a 6-speed RG gearbox with electro-hydraulic control which could be automatic or manual. We are in 1950!

Both for reasons of performancebut already for reasons of pollution, the major manufacturers will look into injection. After a somewhat chaotic start, fuel injection made its mark, via the high-end car segment and via a big name: Bosch.

Illustration taken from piecesdiscount24.fr

Electronics, the great chamberlain of injection

Obviously, the advent of injection will also come thanks to electronics. Increasingly present at the end of the 1960s, electronics enabled a multitude of improvements in injection. Motorsport continues to play its role as a pioneer and research laboratory. Above all, it allows you to « play » on injection times in a much more precise and multiple way than with a mechanical system.

From now on, injection is a real automobile science with a multitude of techniques combined or not. The goal ? Improve the combustion inside the engine again and again. By doing this, we improve the efficiency, the power delivered, but we especially reduces pollution. And the injection adapts to the engine speed, for example. It adapts to the characteristics and character of the engine, but also to the fuel.

The main principle of injection is to be controlled by electronics (the computer or ECU) to inject the precise dose at the precise moment, fuel, in the form of a mist or droplets, so that it mixes intimately with the air sucked in by the engine. Everything is sent into the cylinder, compressed by the piston and the explosion of the mixture pushes back the piston, turning connecting rods, crankshaft and ultimately the wheels after passing through the clutch, gearbox and transmission.

The ideal mix fuel depends on a lot of parameters such as air temperature, engine temperature, the load requested, engine speed, but also the composition of the fuel. With petrol + ethanol fuels for example (E85, E10, E5), it is necessary to constantly probe the composition of the fuel to adapt the engine map and therefore the injection.

Not to be neglected in the maintenance of your car

Direct, indirect, multipoint, single point, common rail (or common rail) injection, etc. so many terms concerning said fuel injection which we no longer pay much attention to in our modern cars. Yet it is an essential link of the fight against automobile pollution, but also the sobriety of thermal cars. It’s not just the electric vehicle in life and manufacturers must continue toinvest in injection and all satellite systems such as valves, spark plugs (one or two sparks), post-injection, etc.

This is obviously something to pay attention to in your car if you want it to last long and cleanly. If we seldom think of have the injectors checked, these can clog with bad fuel or poor carburation. Like any electro-mechanical part, it wears out and may require be replaced. The cost of the part is variable, but well worth the investment. Your car will find a second youth and above all you will prolong its life. In addition, it is good for the lungs of your fellow citizens.

to summarize

Injection, almost as old as the automobile, has been constantly improved over the years and still is today. It could still allow savings in consumption and therefore in pollution. Above all, it should not be neglected in the maintenance of your vehicle under penalty of overconsumption, or even costly breakdowns.