Abstract: A fuel metering valve has a housing bore between an inlet and outlet which supportingly receives a movable valve element including an imperforate end plate and an annular, porous metal plate for regulating flow between the inlet and the outlet; the imperforate end plate includes an axial reference surface thereon to overlap the inlet and outlet to prevent flow therebetween. When the valve is initially opened to a low flow rate metering position, the reference surface is moved with respect to the inlet and outlet to interpose a predetermined planar extent of porous material for limited flow of fluid between the inlet and outlet with metering established by the flow area of interstices in the porous material rather than dimensional relationships between the reference surface and walls of the inlet and outlet.