"Hey, this sporty model is hot," the auto salesman raves. "It's got sequential multipoint fuel injection!" Yeah, well, so does virtually every other passenger vehicle now in production.

For decades, the good old carburetor acted like a funnel that allowed gasoline and air to be sucked into a car engine's cylinders. Spark plugs ignited the mixture in mini explosions that drove the pistons. The carburetor worked well enough but struggled to finely control the fuel-to-air ratio or even to deliver gasoline equally to each cylinder, limiting fuel economy and creating pollutants and rough engine operation.

This article was originally published with the title Complete Burn.

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