(June 8, 2011) PONTIAC, Mich. -- Anyone who has ever played the game “telephone” knows that the more times a message gets passed along, the less accurate it will be when it gets to its destination. The same thing applies to feeding fuel to an engine.

Across-the-board use of direct injection in the Buick lineup is helping to take translation layers out of the delivery process to reduce both fuel consumption and emissions.

Buick is the only domestic brand powered exclusively by direct injected engines.

Direct injection has enabled fuel economy improvements of up to 3 percent on the Buick Enclave, LaCrosse, Regal and the upcoming Verano – without sacrificing performance and still meeting the world’s most-stringent emissions requirements.

Over the past three decades, fuel delivery systems have evolved from the relatively primitive carburetor that relied on the Bernoulli effect  to draw fuel through a tiny jet as air accelerated by, to the more-precise throttle body injection that gave way to port and finally direct injection. 

Today’s high-pressure direct injectors deliver fuel to the point of combustion in the cylinder so fuel doesn’t get left behind on manifold walls or evaporate up out of a carburetor.

The demise of the carburetor ended problems like flooding and vapor lock and direct injection brings several benefits over the more recent sequential port fuel injection systems.

“The 2,200 pounds per square inch of pressure that feeds the injectors provides a more atomized and precisely metered fuel spray to each cylinder before every combustion event,” said Ecotec chief engineer Mike Anderson.

When used on boosted engines like the 2.0-liter Ecotec Turbo in the Regal and the upcoming Regal GS, direct injection also provides a charge cooling effect.

“Spraying fuel directly into the combustion chamber reduces the temperature of the compressed mixture as the fuel evaporates, which enables a higher-compression ratio, allows for more spark advance, and reduces fuel consumption” said Anderson. “The beefier low-end torque and improved drivability of the direct-injected 2.0-liter turbo makes it a no compromise high-efficiency substitute for a bigger and heavier V-6.”

Engines with direct injection also warm up faster thanks to the ability to add a second injection pulse right before the spark plug ignites the fuel following a cold start. This faster warm up can cut emissions of unburned hydrocarbons by up to 25 percent.