live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
All about Chrysler's Lean Burn System, the much-maligned first use of computers in cars!
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
hi there my name is Dave I'm from
0:01
motels.com and I'm here to talk to you
0:04
about lean burn the world's first engine
0:07
control was the company in charge of the
0:10
remote diagnostics for the moon rockets
0:12
and they also installed it on their
0:13
Abrams Tanks when they actually started
0:16
making those and when the moon rocket
0:18
program wound down they had a bunch of
0:21
electronics experts in manufacturing
0:23
with no clients and no use so we saw a
0:26
lot of Racing Equipment suddenly digital
0:29
testing
0:30
which brought their racing efforts
0:32
forward quite a bit we saw the world's
0:35
first standard electronic ignition
0:37
systems we saw new alternators and we
0:39
also saw the world's first onboard
0:42
computers used on cars now this was
0:45
launched on some 1976 cars and all it
0:48
did was control spark Advance more
0:50
intelligently than the simple vacuum and
0:52
mechanical systems and over the next few
0:55
years they'd have a lot of problems uh
0:57
partly from materials Technologies not
1:00
being quite up to the St up to what they
1:03
needed to be you know it's hot and it
1:05
shakes under the hood so it was a major
1:08
step forward in vacuum advance so
1:11
looking Year bye they first start out
1:12
with lean bur in some premium V8 engines
1:15
in some 1976 cars the next year they
1:18
simplify it a bit so the 1978 lean bur
1:22
system was then used on most of the
1:23
Chrysler V8s and it had a single
1:25
integrated circuit board and the system
1:27
was fairly sophisticated for the time it
1:30
measured engine speed that's revolutions
1:32
load throttle position speed of throttle
1:35
movement incoming air temperature
1:37
anti-freeze temperature and the amount
1:39
of time since the engine had started so
1:42
timing was Advanced at higher engine
1:44
speeds while warming up at part throttle
1:47
and when the driver was really calling
1:50
for power also at cooler temperatures
1:53
and on the highway timing was slowed
1:56
when the car was driving in the city and
1:58
when air temperature Rose to protect
2:01
against detonation so it was named lean
2:04
bur by the marketers because it could be
2:06
tuned to run engines at leaner fuel
2:08
mixtures which saved Fuel and reduced
2:11
emissions so the inventor was Gordon Fen
2:14
so the first generation system was
2:16
pretty complicated it had a completely
2:18
different program just for starting up
2:20
using a second reluctor pickup the
2:22
second generation dropped the Dual
2:24
programs and the second reluctor pickup
2:26
so the next move forward was the 1979
2:29
model year when they added an oxygen
2:31
sensor and used the system to adjust the
2:33
fuel mixture and this required a special
2:36
carburetor called an electronic feedback
2:38
carburetor the earliest systems all used
2:41
analog computers and they started using
2:43
digital computers with the 360 V8 and
2:46
1980 cars now although leburn has a
2:50
pretty bad rep in the Enthusiast
2:51
community and most people think of it as
2:54
only being the 70s the fact is that it
2:56
was also used in the 1980s on the
2:59
Reliant neries with their 2.2 L engine
3:02
and those had electronic feedback
3:04
carburetors from the start and they had
3:07
pretty good reputations they had
3:10
adaptive memory starting on some of the
3:12
1982 4 cylinders and by then pretty much
3:15
all Chrysler cars had a feedback
3:18
carburetor system with a catalytic
3:19
inverter even when they moved to fuel
3:21
injection it was pretty much an
3:23
outgrowth of the same system and so lean
3:26
bur You could argue continued on into
3:29
modern cars
#Custom & Performance Vehicles
#Chrysler
#Diesel Vehicles
#Vehicle Modification & Tuning