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0 pointshedora6y ago0 comments

Yeah; my old GMC had a carburetor and the fuel economy is the same as the current replacement, which is the same size, runs half the cylinders (unless it needs all 8) re-levels into aerodynamic mode at speed, and has shutters that close the radiator grill when possible. (The new one is fuel injected, etc).

I’m not sure what fuel injectors and electronic ignition got the industry, but it wasn’t real world fuel economy.

Oddly, even current year light hybrids are advertising similar fuel economy as the old truck. I’m guessing it isn’t a technical problem....

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3 comments · 2 top-level

wingspar6y ago· 1 in thread

I think a big driver for fuel injection and electronic ignition was reliability and meeting emissions standards.

Old style carburetor and mechanical ignition regularly required ‘real’ tune-ups and had horrible tailpipe emissions.

rbanffy6y ago

I'm also pretty sure the average sedan does 0-60 in the same time a 70's supercar. A BMW 330i can do it in 5.8 seconds. A Lamborghini Countach did that in between 5 and 6 depending on the model.

A Miura could do that in less than 7 seconds. And then would burst into flames ;-)

djddjdjd6y ago

“I’m not sure what fuel injectors and electronic ignition got the industry, but it wasn’t real world fuel economy.”

Actually it is fuel economy. Your old truck [0] doesn’t have a bunch of mpg sapping emissions rules to deal with.

The fuel injector allow for more power for the same amount of fuel giving the engineer the power budget to spend on reducing non carbon emissions and increasing weight (ie safety)

[0] your truck appears to be tuned slightly lean, or at stoichiometry. Otherwise there’s no way you’d get similar mph.

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