so I am just trying to figure out how just the press of my foot makes it all happen

I know that the gas pedal links to the carb and opens to allow more gas to flow in, and opens primaries and secondaries via mechanical linkage, but what makes the engine go faster?

the simple act of introducing more fuel? does the gas pedal (throttle linkage) connect to the distributor at all?

kind of like a chicken and egg question I guess.

 

Interesting. I can answer one of your questions.

No. Spark advance is controlled by mechanical advance and vacuum advance in an older car.

 

My turn...Where do babies come from?

 

Storks I hope the Gulf doesn't swallow up too many of them.

 

An engine in it's simplest form is an air pump. What happens when you press your foot down is the carburetor allows more air into the engine, more air equals more RPM.

So, when the airflow through the carburetor increases it meters more fuel into the mix, more fuel equals more horsepower.

this is the simplest explanation I can think of, from there we go into explaining how a 4 stroke engine operates, how for every 2 crank revolutions any given cylinder only fires once.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/engine1.htm this link will give you a more detailed explanation of how the magic on the other side of the throttle cable works.

 

As u depress the gas pedal u open up throttle valves in the carburator. That allows more air (and fuel) to flow. This combination creates a more powerful explosion in the cylinders. The more powerful the explosion the more power thus the faster the piston is driven. There is very much (close to) a linear relationship between the amount of air/fuel and piston speed. Which implies a similarly direct relationship to throttle valve position. There are other ancillary things that engage, such as vacuum advance, that also cause engine speed to increase.

 

thanks for the answers, makes sense now

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-stroke_engine