I'm learning that there were too many V-12s to generalize.
Carbs were well-developed. But they dribbled, did not like inverted flight, and had a REAL problem with throttle icing. Not all, but the good aircraft fuel injection schemes injected fuel past the throttle, where icing is far less likely.
I think when you extensively modify a carburetor for all altitudes and attitudes and boosts and temperatures, the mechanical fuel injections were a bit cheaper or lighter. OTOH a bomber will never fly high altitude or inverted attitudes, carb heat was a proven in-production solution for most icing.... and don't change horses in mid-stream. The US already had too much 'fun' with Studebaker making Wright engines, Plymouth making tank engines (in addition to PowerWagons), Packard making Merlins (with "injection carburetors"), and GM making B-17s like they were Chevys.
'Fuel Injection for the Aircraft Engine', F. J. WIEGAND and D. W. MEADOR, SAE Transactions, Vol. 53 (1945) --- was probably published after wartime secrecy was relaxed. Like the MIT RADAR series, much wartime work was documented post-war.
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The Merlin engine, at least, was carbureted. This placed the Hurricane and Spitfire at a disadvantage in dogfights, where if they nosed over (negative G) to follow an opponent the engine would cut out due to fuel moving away from the jet and the float chamber flooding. Miss Shilling's orifice was developed as a stopgap measure until different carburetors came into service later in the war. The Daimler-Benz engine used by the Germans had been fuel injected since before the war.
Jet fighters, at least MiG-21s, use a pressurized rubber fuel tank liner, the rubber is held in the metal tank, and it is squeezed by pressure bled from the engine, that feeds the fuel pumps irrespective of gravity.
The metal tank and rubber layer have an arrangement to have air bled from the engine to squeeze the 'balloon'...balloon is inside the metal tank.
Think of squeezing a water balloon, you get the idea...
The metal tank and rubber layer have an arrangement to have air bled from the engine to squeeze the 'balloon'...balloon is inside the metal tank.
Think of squeezing a water balloon, you get the idea...
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https://www.jstor.org/stable/44553308
Mid-continent and California, straight-run and cracked, leaded or not....
Development of Aircraft Engines · 1950
We were running out of gasoline, not now, not in WWII, but in WWI. Even Thomas Swift (Sr) commented on it:
Tom Swift and His War Tank; 1918 said:
The SAE paper above mentions "safety-type low volatility fuels".
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Oh? Will have to take a look. I thought that there were some fuel injected cars in the 20s-30s. Maybe not?
My early version VW Scirocco had that. It was a nightmare. IIRC there were seven components to do the one job.
I don't remember them offering a diesel in the Scirocco... Are you talking about K-Jetronic on a gas engine? If so I owned several cars with that system and never has a problem besides wear items like the injector O-rings... One tip was to change the fuel distributor for one with the thinner lip for more airflow... I actually miss my VW sometimes - I could change the spark plugs in 10 minutes on that car. Starter in 15. Alternator in 10. Valve cover gasket in about 30.
Now it takes almost 20 minutes to change the air filter, and the spark plugs took me almost 2 hours last time.
Now it takes almost 20 minutes to change the air filter, and the spark plugs took me almost 2 hours last time.
There was a BMW 4 cylinder and Alfa Romeo that used the diesel style fuel injection pump, they didn't seem to suffer premature wear - as far as I know the camshaft and tappets are lubricated by an oil bath, only the plungers are lubricated by fuel, it there's no side thrust there shouldn't be a reason for wear. As far as I know, the Alfa Romeo system used a thermostat and barometer to account for changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure. On aircraft using a bladder for continuous fuel supply, I think the system on chainsaws is cleverer - just a flexible tube in the tank with a weight at the end - that way it's always flung to where the fuel is in the tank - genius! As a child I used to look at the line drawings of aircraft engines, my favorite was the mighty Napier sabre, 24 cylinders, sleeve valves, two stage supercharged and rumors of 5,000 hp.
I just remember someone asking someone asking for a jump back in the late 80s. He had a fuel injected Volkswagen and expected to have to crank it for fifteen minutes before it would run. Not sure if Diesel.
This was at least in slightly cold weather.
This was at least in slightly cold weather.
I've had a rumage around, and found a Haynes workshop manual for the Alfa Romeo Alfetta, it doesn't mention the make of fuel injection pump, it does say that it uses the engines oil system. It uses a thermostat to keep the intake air at constant temperature. I can't find any mention of fuel regulation, it's possibly done from manifold pressure.
One of the problems on the centrifugal supercharged aircraft engines was if the fuel was added before the supercharger it would be centrifuged out of the air, resulting in uneven mixture.
A more useful you tube video is one on using a lawnmower carb on a yank V8, he got 40mpg.
One of the problems on the centrifugal supercharged aircraft engines was if the fuel was added before the supercharger it would be centrifuged out of the air, resulting in uneven mixture.
A more useful you tube video is one on using a lawnmower carb on a yank V8, he got 40mpg.
The first direct fuel injected production cars were not Mercedes but the Goliath GP700 and the Gutbrod Superior who introduced that in co-operation with Bosch four or five years before Mercedes.
Gutbrod Superior - Wikipedia
PS: Petrol of course, Diesel always used injection ever since Rudolf Diesel invented the Diesel engine.
Gutbrod Superior - Wikipedia
PS: Petrol of course, Diesel always used injection ever since Rudolf Diesel invented the Diesel engine.
Sounds like a diesel with bad glow plugs. I had a friend come and give the car a push around the lot with his car to get it started lol
Not all diesels use fuel injection, model aircraft engines use carburetors, and variable compression ratio. Some early cars had hot bulb ( compression ) ignition, but I can't remember the fuel used. Basically a steel tube heated by an external flame, but they struggled with finding a steel that would take the high temperature.
I did some brief looking and it turns out that manifold gasoline injection has been around over 100 years, first used in a 1909 French V8 aircraft engine. Manifold injections seems to have come after direct injection, which was invented in the 19th century.
If an engine doesn't use injection it is not a Diesel engine as per Rudolf Diesel's patent.
A Diesel engine is a compression ignition engine in which the air in the cylinder is compressed until the temperature is higher than necessary for fuel combustion at which point fuel is injected into the cylinder.
Lanz built a quarter of a million tractors with a hot bulb engine between 1921 and 1960. These ran on diesel but were not Diesel engines because they used low compression and ignition was achieved by the air-fuel mixture coming into contact with the hot bulb not through compression ignition.