Newer Engines!

[gdel]

ok, this might seem noobish, but thats because i kinda am, but when i look at a engine of a muscle car, i actually now what im looking at.
But when i pop the hood of a 2006 mustang or something for example, all i see is a bunch of plastic and wires. I cant see a carb,manifold,etc.
Just wondering if anyone could tell me the difference or give me links to some info, or are the engines just the same and i just cant see it.

[MagicRat]

Uh, is this a joke, right?

Just the same way your computer is far more advanced than computers of the muscle car era, so are engines.

Electronic engine controls replaced the old style mechanical ignitions and carbs of the muscle car era.
These controls make for much cleaner and more efficient engines, but need more than a dozen sensors to gather information about operating perameters to control the engine properly.

Also todays cars are much more complex and have more features, so more equipment is required. If you understand carbs etc, you can easily grasp the basicis of auto electronics.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-injection.htm

[phantomcobra]

Actually, the INSIDES of the engine are the same. It is what feeds the engine that is different. Carbs were replaced by fuel injection years ago. Points and condenser where replaced with electronic distributors years ago. So all the fuel, air and spark controls are all computer monitored now. If you took off all that crap, you'd still see a basic engine block.

The big advantage of the older cars is, if something breaks, you can either continue driving home or pull off the side of the road and fix it. If one resistor burns out on a new car, it takes a $25,000 analyzer to fix!