Author: staff@jalopnik.com (Richard Sachek)

Ah yes, the carburetor. A humble device that mechanically mixes fuel and air, which gets sucked down the intake manifold and into the cylinders to feed the interior combustion process. The carburetor, or simply carb for brief, had an extended run because the de facto fuel metering device on American automobiles, starting with the Duryea brothers’ converted horse buggy in 1893 — several years ahead of Henry Ford’s barely less rudimentary Quadricycle.  Fast forward 100 years and the writing was on the wall for the carburetor. By the late Eighties, California was mandating stricter emissions control equipment on all vehicles…

Gestalt Imagery/Shutterstock There’s an old adage amongst gearheads that “there is not any substitute for displacement.” Nonetheless, within the age of Mercedes’ controversial 2.0-liter M139 hybrid cranking out 470 horsepower, that old-school maxim might not be valid. Nonetheless, the 45-cubic inch difference between Chevrolet’s venerable 350-cubic inch V8 and its smog-era cousin, the lowly 305, still stirs up a vigorous debate amongst bowtie fans. Introduced in 1976, the smaller 305 was seen as a path to increased fuel economy while sharing a substantial amount of parts with the prevailing 350 small-block to maintain costs down. Each engines have a similar…