What Kind of Fuel Injection System does Your Automobile Have?

By | October 16, 2013

The fuel injection system sends fuel into the internal combustion engine. The design of the fuel injection system varies across models/makes of vehicles. The past fuel injection systems are based on the engineering design of the concern manufacturing company. During 1970s and 1980s, the fuel injection system began to be replaced with carburetors. The difference between the two is the fuel injection system pump the fuel through a small nozzle at high pressure. The carburetor depends upon the suction pump to draw the fuel into the airstream. The suction is created by intake air accelerated through a Venturi tube.

  • Throttle body injection: Throttle body injection is the simplest type of fuel injector. It is a single point injection. After the advent of throttle body injector, the carburetor was removed and replaced it with throttle body injection. Normally, it has one or two fuel injector nozzles that dump the fuel as the carburetor did in the same place. The injectors are more easier to control than the carburetor, whereas carburetors have to adjust manually and it is hard to adjust. The fuel control is done electronically in the injectors. Throttle body injector gives better fuel economy than the carburetor. Injector is less expensive and easier to service.
  • Multi-port fuel injection: The multi-port fuel injection is sometimes called port injection. These are having separate injection nozzles for each cylinder. For example in a six cylinder engine, at each intake port manifold there will be an injector located. These are located outside the intake port, so it is called port injection. These will distribute the fuel to each cylinder separately through air flow at the same time instead of dumping in one place that provides more precise fuel and air ratio than the throttle body injection. It will improve the fuel efficiency and there is less emission.
  • Sequential fuel injection: Sequential fuel injection is also known as timed injection and sequential port fuel injection. These also work like multi-port fuel injection systems. The difference between these two is the multi-port fuel injectors inject or dump the fuel into the cylinders continuously. In the sequential fuel injection, the fuel is pulsed into the cylinders. These all work independently at a sequence as per requirement to the engine.
  • Direct fuel injection: Direct injection system, as the name suggests, directly injects fuel into the combustion chambers. It is commonly used in diesel engines. Today, it is also being used in gasoline engines, and is gaining popularity.

In the gasoline engine direct injection is known as direct injection gasoline (DIG). Fuel efficiency is more precise when compared to other injectors.

Advanced technology is making the vehicles’ fuel injection more efficient and reliable. Check what kind of fuel injection system your automobile has and how efficient it is to deliver the fuel to the engine. Get replaced if needed.