The car’s accelerator controls the engine speed and the amount of air entering the engine, not the amount of fuel. Carbureted cars use vacuum principles to regulate air/fuel ratio, while fuel-injected cars use electronic sensors and a computer. The throttle indirectly affects the amount of fuel entering the engine.
A car’s accelerator is essentially what controls engine speed and therefore the speed of the car. The throttle is usually a throttle valve assembly on the intake manifold and is connected to the accelerator, or accelerator pedal, via the throttle linkage. This linkage allows you to control the engine throttle by how far you move the accelerator pedal – the more you depress the accelerator pedal, the further the accelerator opens.
Many people have the misconception that the purpose of the throttle is to control the amount of fuel entering the engine. In fact, it’s the exact opposite: the throttle controls the amount of air entering the engine.
An internal combustion engine works with the force of the explosion of fuel and air. However, a very specific blend of vaporized fuel and oxygen is required to generate the proper explosion in the combustion chambers. Therefore, in an internal combustion engine, there are several ways to regulate the air/fuel ratio.
In a carbureted car, the carburetor uses very simple vacuum principles to maintain the correct air/fuel ratio. In a fuel injected car, on the other hand, the air flow meter, oxygen sensor and the computer that does the electronic fuel injection all work together to ensure the engine is getting the right amount of air and fuel. There are two different types of electronic fuel injection: throttle body injection, which works more like a computerized version of a carburetor, and multiport injection, which features a separate fuel injector for each cylinder.
Whether the car is carbureted or fuel injected, when the throttle opens, more air enters the engine. At the same time, the intake and fuel systems compensate by adding more fuel to the mixture. In other words, the throttle directly controls the amount of air entering the combustion chambers, which indirectly affects the amount of fuel entering the chambers.
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