On 07/01/2011 13:38, Adrian wrote:
gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

"De-coking" disappeared along with leaded petrol. Long before petrol
injection.

Fuel injection has been around a lot longer than unleaded petrol - which
was introduced alongside catalytic converters, which pretty much require
injection. First seen in the '50s, injection started to become common in
the late '70s. Leaded didn't disappear from the UK until the mid '90s,
following the '92 requirement for cats on all new cars. Very, very few
cars had electronically controlled carbs with cats, and even then not for
long.

Oh - and "de-coking" hasn't been required regularly for a hell of a lot
longer than that. I'd have guesstimated it died out in the '60s - and,
even then, hadn't been actually required on virtually any car built
postwar.

Well if we're going to mention Ze Var...

109s had an advantage over early Spitfires, because the Spit's
carburettor couldn't handle negative G and the engine would cut.
Whereas the 109's fuel injection was fine. A sharp dive could lose a
Spit by making its engine misfire.

This was one of the reasons why fuel injection became widespread in
aviation during WW2. The significantly better control of fuelling (for
better economy and power) also helped.

Wikipedia puts the first fuel injection at 1925.

Andy