[woodydel]

The engine is a pump. For every revolution the same amount of air is pumped. Some engines pump air better at differing RPM's. That doesn't matter. As the air is pumped through the engine, if you squirt less fuel per revolution you HAVE TO USE LESS FUEL. So you call it lean burn because there is an excess of air available for any particular volume of fuel squirted into the airstream in a given amount of time.

All the talk about whether you get more or less power means NOTHING. It doesn't matter if you're able to climb a hill or not. Working your throttle to hold back the amount of air the engine can pump DOES NOT change anything I stated in the previous paragraph.

Squirting less fuel in any given time period when the engine is running has to use less fuel. The consequences of the "lean burn" don't mean anything. A "lean burn" is just harder to maintain. It does not matter how you squirt the fuel into the engine. Carburetor, fuel injection, a BUCKET will not make any difference. Obviously a BUCKET will not be a "lean burn". All you're doing is measuring how much fuel goes through the engine with the air.

I think people are making this out to be complicated for no reason. Even Einstein knew enough to look at things simply.