Last week, we received a question in our inbox from a subscriber who wanted to understand the difference between manual and electronic fuel injection. This question will be the subject of this lesson. However, our discussion will focus solely on heavy goods vehicles (trucks). Before the advent of electronic systems in trucks, they were all equipped with manual fuel injection pumps, as you can see in photo 1. These pumps had the advantage of being quite resistant to poor fuel quality. It is even said that, in the event of a fuel shortage, some drivers stranded in villages would use kerosene until fuel became available again.
These pumps also had the technical advantage of being easily repairable. Sometimes, they simply needed to be taken to a lathe to have the threads re-tapped. Then, in the 2000s, came electronic fuel injection systems. Here, the injectors are controlled electronically. They all share the characteristic (to varying degrees, of course) of being more sensitive to fuel quality and also consume less fuel than manual injection systems. Generally speaking, we can distinguish three types of electronic fuel injection in heavy goods vehicles:
• The unitary pump system, widely used on Mercedes engines (Actros, Axor, and Atego) until 2011. • The pump-injector system, found on DAF truck engines, for example. • Common rail engines, found on MAN truck engines, for example. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these systems?.
Which one is better suited to our African environment and the quality of our fuel? That will be the subject of the next lesson. If you want to learn more, like and share this lesson and we'll be happy to tag you in the next one.
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