Sep 10, 2022
Here's a new puzzler for you all.
Long before there was fuel injection, cars had carburetors back in the day. Long, long ago... And most carburetors got their fuel from a fuel pump that was mounted somewhere on the engine and would suck gasoline out of the tank and pump it to the carburetor. It was called a mechanical fuel pump, right? That was the way things used to be. You all might not even remember this.
But even back then, there were some manufacturers that began putting an electric fuel pump directly in the fuel tank.
So there are a few parts to this puzzler. Hold on tight.
Obviously, we're trying to figure out why this choice was made. Instead of using a mechanically driven pump, like they'd been using for millennia, these manufacturers chose to put in an electric pump. So the first question is why electric? And then, the second question is, why put it in the gas tank?
Why did certain manufacturers deem it necessary to put an electric fuel pump in the gas tank of certain cars?
At first glance, it seems kind of a dangerous move, right? To put an electric fuel pump directly in the gas tank.
And the last part of the puzzler is, how come the car doesn't blow up?
Good luck!
Electric fuel pump mystery, answer time. Some of you got this.
Why would you put an electric fuel pump in a gas tank? Wouldn't this up the risk of fire and explosion?
This was an excellent automotive puzzler. I was proud of this one. And here is the answer.
The reason it was done was to reduce the chances of vapor lock!
You see when you make a pump suck gasoline from the tank and push it to the engine, the part of it that has to suck the gasoline from the tank is very prone to vapor locking. But if you put the fuel pump inside the tank, then it's actually pushing all the gas from inside the tank, because it's sitting in the fuel, which obviously is not vapor.
If it's sitting in the fuel and it's pumping the gas so that there's always pressure on the line, even when the thing is shut off. And this means you have reduced the chance of vapor lock.
I'm not smart enough to know why it doesn't increase the chance of fire, but oh well! It is now very widely used and we haven't seen anything blow up yet!
