Definition day!

People often wonder what parts of a car are and what is its purpose.  My job is demystify car words for you.  Today I am covering carburetors.

The carburetor is basically a big blender that mixes fuel and air together before it is pushed into the cylinders.  A carburetor barrel is like a tube or pipe that holds the air inside before the fuel is mixed with it.  The air is in the “barrel”, while the gasoline is in a small container nearby.  A certain amount of fuel is pushed into the “barrel” and the mixture is mixed and pushed out and into the cylinder. The carburetor comes in different sizes: one barrel, two barrel, four barrel and even 10 barrel! The early diesel engines could not have a carburetor, the mixture would “flood” the engine. The early planes had huge 16 barrel carburetors! Some of the best-known carburetor makers are: Holley, Solex-Mikuni, Weber and Edelbrock. Many cars with fuel injection can easily be switched to carbureted power.