Preserving the. Life of Fuel-injection Equipment
Page 48
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THE life of a fuel-pump element was longer when the pump was fitted to an engine of a public service vehicle, said Mr. A. E. W. Austen, B.Sc., Ph.D., and Mr. B. E. Goodridge, B.Sc. (Eng.), G.I.Mech.E„ both of C.A.V., Ltd„ in a paper which they read at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Automobile Division) in London on Tuesday.
In the case of a passenger vehicle the figure was 294,000 miles, and for a goods vehicle. 128,000 miles. These figures were compiled from returns made in 1944 by 59 operators in this country.
This difference was commonly ascribed to the use by public service vehicle operators of their own fuelstorage tanks, in which time • was allowed for cleaning of the fuel by sedimentation. It could, however, be caused by the different conditions of
operation, the more frequent stops and periods of slow running of the passenger vehicles, giving greater opportunity for sedimentation in filter pots.
In both groups the differences between filters were small and not significant, despite the fact that the gauze filter stops particles only greater than 100 microns.
Service experience had shown, said the authors, that improved filtration of the fuel was essential to the preservation of the life of injection equipment. Even when long service was already being obtained, it was likely that improved filtration would help to 'preserve initial performance.
The paper, in general, was based on extensive experiments which the authors have carried out with filters using different types of element.