Abstract: The valve has a sphere that is resiliently biased by a resilient lever means to close the outlet orifice leading from the frustoconical seat on which the sphere is seated. Associated with the resilient lever means is an electric-operated actuator that is effective, when energized, to release the resilient bias force which the resilient lever means exerts on the sphere. When this happens, a spring that is disposed to bear against the sphere unseats the sphere thereby opening the valve.

Abstract: A number of fuel injectors are mounted on an elongated carrier that has been inserted endwise into an open end of an elongated hole in a member such as a tube or an engine manifold. Electrical lead wires extend from the fuel injectors along the carrier to a connector on the exterior. The fuel injectors' nozzles are received in sealed manner in holes extending through the wall of said member. A keeper also inserted endwise through the elongated hole in the member keeps the carrier in place. Each injector has a sphere that is resiliently biased by a flat spring blade to close the outlet orifice leading from the frustoconical seat on which the sphere is seated. The spring blade is cantilever-mounted atop a post adjacent the seat. A magnetic circuit encircles the sphere and comprises an armature that acts against the side of the sphere to displace the sphere to eccentricity with the seat for opening the outlet orifice.

Abstract: A number of fuel injectors are mounted on an elongated carrier that is inserted endwise into an open end of an elongated hole in a member such as a tube or an engine manifold. The fuel injectors' nozzles are received in sealed manner in holes extending through the wall of said member. A keeper also inserted endwise through the elongated hole in the member keeps the carrier in place. In one embodiment, electrical lead wires extend from the fuel injectors along the carrier to a connector on the exterior to provide for the fuel rail assembly to be electrically connected by a wiring harness to the engine management computer. In another, the injectors are connected to the connector by means of an electronic circuit board assembly that is mounted on the carrier. The electronic circuit board assembly contains circuitry that is programmed to secure the proper dynamic calibration of the injectors over their entire dynamic operating range.

Abstract: The fuel injector has several swirl passages in a fuel swirl and needle guide member that direct swirl fuel onto the frusto-conical surface of a valve seat member that is disposed at the injector's nozzle end. The needle lift is such that with the needle unseated to open the injector to flow, the swirl fuel is throttled as it passes between the rounded tip end of the open needle and the frusto-conical surface of the seat member. The throttling tends to spread the swirl flow so that it is more uniform in the circumferential sense. If the injector is closed before equilibrium flow occurs, a toroidal shaped fuel cloud is created; if the injector is closed after equilibrium flow occurs, an ellipsoidal shaped fuel cloud is created.

Abstract: A multiple-runner intake manifold is constructed of upper and lower parts that fit together at a joint. The upper manifold is molded thermoplastic, and the lower part is molded phenolic. The lower part contains an integral fuel rail. The lower part contains a portion of each runner. Those portions are formed as separate through-passages during molding of the lower part in the cavity of a multi-part mold. The fuel passages are molded as through-holes some ends of which are subsequently plugged by closures and other ends of which receive fittings.

Abstract: In a molded intake manifold/fuel rail, a through-passage for the conveyance of combustion air is created by disposing two separably engaged core parts of the mold to occupy the entirety of the through-passage during the molding process. After molded material has solidified, the core parts are separated in generally opposite, but non-colinear directions. During the molding process, one core part occupies the entire length of the through-passage along a certain circumferential extent of the through-passage while along another circumferential extent, both core parts conjointly occupy the entire length of the through-passage.

Abstract: A multi-runner intake manifold is constructed of upper and lower parts that fit together at a joint. The upper manifold is molded thermoplastic, and the lower part is molded phenolic. The lower part contains an integral fuel rail. The lower part contains a portion of each runner. Those portions are formed as separate through-passages during molding of the lower part in the cavity of a multi-part mold. The fuel passages are molded as through-holes some ends of which are subsequently plugged by closures and other ends of which receive fittings.

Abstract: The throttle blade is made to have a resilient outer margin whose outside diameter is circular and essentially equal to the diameter of the throttle bore within which the blade is disposed. The blade can maintain control even at engine idle. Several embodiments of throttle blade are disclosed. In one, an elastomeric seal is insert-molded onto the main blade body; in another, the seal is a multitude of short bristles; in still another, it is a stamped polytetrafluoroethylene part. There is also a special construction for assembling the shaft.

Abstract: A multiple-runner intake manifold is constructed of upper and lower parts that fit together at a joint. The upper manifold is molded thermoplastic, and the lower part is molded phenolic. The lower part contains an integral fuel rail. The lower part contains a portion of each runner. Those portions are formed as separate through-passages during molding of the lower part in the cavity of a multi-part mold. The fuel passages are molded as through-holes some ends of which are subsequently plugged by closures and other ends of which receive fittings.

Abstract: The throttle blade is made to have a resilient outer margin whose outside diameter is circular and essentially equal to the diameter of the throttle bore within which the blade is disposed. The blade can maintain control even at engine idle. Several embodiments of throttle blade are disclosed. In one, an elastomeric seal is insert-molded onto the main blade body; in another, the seal is a multitude of short bristles; in still another, it is a stamped polytetrafluoroethylene part. There is also a special construction for assembling the shaft.

Abstract: The injector is mechanically retained in the molded composite socket member by an annular cap that is threaded onto the end of the socket member containing the end of the through-bore into which the injector was inserted. The sidewall of the cap contains an internal helical thread that threads to an external helical thread on the exterior of the socket member. The cap stiffens the socket wall at the thread to strengthen the socket wall against circumferential expansion caused by the pressure of fuel in an annular space that surrounds the injector interior of the socket through-bore. A method for making the cap and joining it to the socket member is also disclosed.

Abstract: A multiple-runner intake manifold is constructed of upper and lower parts that fit together at a joint. The upper manifold is molded thermoplastic, and the lower part is molded phenolic. The lower part contains an integral fuel rail. The lower part contains a portion of each runner. Those portions are formed as separate through-passages during molding of the lower part in the cavity of a multi-part mold. The fuel passages are molded as through-holes some ends of which are subsequently plugged by closures and other ends of which receive fittings.

Abstract: The throttle blade is made to have a resilient outer margin whose outside diameter is circular and essentially equal to the diameter of the throttle bore within which the blade is disposed. The blade can maintain control even at engine idle. Several embodiments of throttle blade are disclosed. In one, an elastomeric seal is insert-molded onto the main blade body; in another, the seal is a multitude of short bristles; in still another, it is a stamped polytetrafluoroethylene part. There is also a special construction for assembling the shaft.

Abstract: A molded fuel rail block for a multiple cylinder engine having a plurality of air conduits connecting the engine's air intake manifold to the individual air intake passageways provided in the cylinder head of the engine. The fuel rail block further has an injector well associated with each air conduit in which the fuel injector valves of the engine are mounted and a pressure regulator well in which a pressure regulator is mounted. A fuel delivery rail is provided in the fuel rail block which is connected to each of the injector wells and to an input of the fuel regulator well. A fuel return rail is provided in the fuel rail block generally parallel to the fuel delivery rail. The fuel return rail is connected to an exit port of the pressure regulator well. In the preferred embodiment, the air conduits, injector wells, pressure regulator well, fuel delivery rail and fuel return rail are molded from a high temperature plastic material having relatively good thermal insulation properties.

Abstract: A multiple cylinder two-stroke fuel-injected internal combustion engine is operated at idle by interrupting the fuel injection stages in a predetermined pattern such that over a certain number of crankshaft revolutions a fewer number of injections occur than over the same number of revolutions at non-idle. The quantity of fuel injected per injection is increased relative to that required to operate the engine at idle wihtout any injection interruptions. Spark timing is also advanced.

Abstract: A variable compression ratio internal combustion engine having at least one cylinder, a piston disposed in the cylinder and a cylinder head disposed at one end of the cylinder. The cylinder head has a combustion chamber and a piston chamber contiguous with the top of the cylinder. A movable piston disposed in the piston chamber to change the effective volume of the combustion chamber. A closed end of the piston chamber is connected to one of the engine's source of pressurized fluid. A solenoid valve is disposed between the source of pressurized fluid and the piston chamber. Energization of the solenoid valve is controlled by a controller to open the solenoid valve when the combustion chamber has a low pressure to displace the movable piston to increase the compression ratio of the engine and to open the solenoid valve when the combustion chamber has a high or peak pressure to displace the movable piston to decrease the compression ratio.

Abstract: The nozzle of a fuel injector is constructed to have a seat member and a single thin disc orifice member. A guide member affixed to the seat member guides the injector needle toward the seat in the seat member as the needle is reciprocated within the injector by pulsing the injector solenoid. Fuel is conveyed past the guide member by holes that are spaced radially outwardly from the central hole which guides the needle and that are skewed to the injector axis. As fuel passes through these skewed holes, it acquires angular momentum. The effect of this angular momentum is to increase the divergence of the column of fuel that is emitted by the single thin disc orifice member.

Abstract: In the event of coolant loss leading to engine overheating, the operating range of an automobile engine can be extended by limiting the engine load signal that is supplied to the engine E.C.U. A circuit for implementing this feature is disclosed.

Abstract: A method of making a molded plastic component of an internal combustion engine. The method is for making a fuel rail and includes constructing particular core pins of the mold with threaded connections that form seals between them when they are disposed in proper position within the mold cavity for the molding of a fuel rail. The core pins serve to form a main fuel passage and auxiliary fuel passages which transversely intersect the main fuel passage. Each core pin that forms an auxiliary fuel passage includes a screw thread on its inner end that threads into a corresponding complementary threaded recess in the side of the core pin that forms the main fuel passage to create a corresponding seal. This sealing prevents any significant flash from forming in the fuel rail at the intersection of each auxiliary fuel passage with the main fuel passage. After the plastic has been molded, the core pins are unthreaded and withdrawn.

Abstract: An internal combustion engine has two differently tuned sets of runners leading to the cylinders. A wave deflector element transversely spans a particular runner for one cylinder and the corresponding particular runner for an adjacent cylinder, and there is one wave deflector element for each pair of cylinders. The wave deflector elements are selectively operated in unison by an actuator to either open or close the runners of the set with which they are associated depending upon the operating state of the engine. The actuator is controlled by an electronic control unit. Each wave deflector element comprises a shaft and a pair of wave deflectors integrally formed of plastic so as to be of one-piece construction. The wave deflector element is resiliently flexible by bending for installation in the runners that it controls.