I hate carbs Options

[bob91403]

I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember this, but, several years back there was a guy who developed a carb. that had like 1/3 the parts, was self adjusting for altitude, and gave better gas mileage by more effeciently mixing the fuel with the air. Before he could market it the "BIG FIVE" got a law passed making it illegal, so he could only sell it for the track. Ring a bell? Anyone know what happened to the guy and his product?

[Mueller]

I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember this, but, several years back there was a guy who developed a carb. that had like 1/3 the parts, was self adjusting for altitude, and gave better gas mileage by more effeciently mixing the fuel with the air. Before he could market it the "BIG FIVE" got a law passed making it illegal, so he could only sell it for the track. Ring a bell? Anyone know what happened to the guy and his product?

sounds like another urban myth (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

they probebly didn't want to spend the money to get it C.A.R.B legalized

variable venturi carbs....Preditor makes them....nothing new, been around for 100 years or longer, some better than others

Ford experimented with them as well, ran great if you knew how to tune them, if not, you're screwed and will hate them....they died when FI became more used by the factory

there is also supposed to be some "fish" carb.....sounds great, but it's pure BS until I see real testing results and not from one of his groupies

[bob91403]

No, no myth. The major auto makers made sure legislation was passed making it illegal to modify the factory fuel system, right after this guy developed it. It left him with thousands of units and a limited market. Technically, carbed 914-4s are illegal. But because it costs too much to correct the fuel system I think they become exempt.

[Brett W]

Bob I gotta wave (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bs.gif)

Because if that legislation where still in action then every major fuel system component manufacture in the world would be breaking the law. SEMA even supports these companies. As bad as manufacturers are about filing lawsuits, if such legislation exist it would be a lawsuit fest nowdays.

[Mueller]

Technically, carbed 914-4s are illegal

yes, for street use (not sure about all states), at least here in California, even a '70 914/4 "supposed" to have the fuel injection

[lapuwali]

There was some extensive writeup on the Fish in some British tuning books. They were interesting looking, with a fuel control that was entirely tied to throttle position. The fuel came out of the throttle spindle, through small drillings in it. Looked like it would provide decent atomization, but didn't seem to have any other major advantages.

The bit about some suppressed high-mileage carb is an old, old story, and is simply not believable. If the guy had filed a patent on it, this would be a matter of public record and would have been found by someone in the last 50 years (this story is that old, and it's usually the oil companies, not the car companies, suppressing it). If he didn't file a patent, the technology would have been stolen by someone else by now. Fuel efficiency is a huge seller in many markets (Europe, for instance), and it makes no sense for the car companies to suppress it.

Conspiracy theories work best when it actually appears to be in the best interests of the powers that be to do whatever it is they're supposed to have done. This story simply makes no sense. The timing also doesn't work, as there are published accounts of this story going back to the 1950s, yet the emissions regulations that forbade altering the car's intake systems didn't pass until 1965-1968, and the car companies fought it tooth and nail.

And who are the "BIG FIVE"? At the time these stories started to circulate, GM, Ford, and Chrysler totally dominated the US car market, and had been referred to as the Big Three for quite some time. Throughout the 50s, the US car market was gigantic compared to any other market, so for all intents, the Big Three controlled world car production. Nonetheless, they so ignored other markets that our intrepid inventor, after being suppressed by the Big Three, would have found ready buyers for his technology in Europe. The French and British automakers would have snapped this up and made extensive use of it in the 50s. One has to remember that at the time, the typical European car had an engine under 1 liter for fuel efficiency, and there were a large number of cars with 750cc or smaller engines on the Continent. The most common version of this story tells of a 100mpg carb tested on a normal American car of the day, which would have had a six or eight cylinder engine in the 3 liter or larger range. If the Europeans could have made 100mpg cars, they would have. Even the 750s struggled to do better than 40mpg, and only under very light loads.

Finally, the story makes no sense thermodynamically. The inefficiency of the Otto engine (only 15% of the energy content of the fuel is actually used to make the car go, 70% of it goes right out the exhaust) isn't caused by its fuel system (or, at least, not by that alone).