Abstract: The fuel injector valves are disposed within the fuel manifold; they have no housings and are completely immersed in liquid fuel.

Abstract: A fuel injector has a thin disc orifice member through which fuel exits the injector for entrainment with combustion air. The thin disc orifice member has a centrally disposed dimple that contains the orifice pattern. The orifice pattern is asymmetrical about the axis of the dimple thereby enabling the injector to be tilted to a desired orientation for directing the stream from each orifice of the pattern toward a desired target zone. The ability to tilt a fuel injector in this manner enables a fuel injector to be disposed in the most favorable orientation with respect to the engine, for example reducing the protrusion height of the fuel injector above the engine.

Abstract: The evaporative emission control system for an internal combustion engine purges the vapor collection canister to the intake manifold through a purge regulator controlled by the engine ECU. The purge regulator comprises a diaphragm valve and an electronic vacuum regulator. The purge regulator functions to allow a purge flow rate correlated with a control signal from the engine ECU and manifold vacuum, to maintain the purge flow rate substantially constant in response to certain changes in the magnitude of manifold vacuum, and to re-adjust the purge flow rate in correlation with changes in the control signal from the engine ECU. The diaphragm valve comprises a tapered valve element that progressively reduces the flow restriction as the valve element is increasingly opened.

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: An electromagnetic fuel injector has a tubular non-magnetic body defined by radially inner and outer side walls bounding an annular shaped interior which contains a tubular solenoid coil and an annular valve element that is operated by said solenoid coil to open and close the fuel injector. The radially inner wall bounds a central through-hole in the body that allows the stem of an engine intake valve to pass through the fuel injector, thereby enabling the fuel injector to be mounted on the manifold directly over the valve head.

Abstract: An on-board diagnostic system determines if there is a leak in the portion of a canister purge system that includes the fuel tank and the canister that collects volatile fuel vapors from the fuel tank's headspace. A vacuum regulator/sensor placed in the conduit between the CPS valve and the canister, includes a switch providing a signal indicating the presence or absence of a leak. The sensor also indicates both positive and negative pressures relative to a reference pressure such as atmosphere. During diagnostic testing, the switch is closed and if the switch becomes open this indicates a leak in the headspace of fuel tank on the canister.

Abstract: Two annular guide bearings that guide the needle are mounted in a tube which is disposed in a bore of the valve body, rather than being mounted directly on the valve body bore. This arrangement affords the opportunity for better alignment the bearings with the solenoid actuator and with the valve seat.

Abstract: A very fast electromagnetic fuel injector of cartridge design for the injection of fuel into the intake manifold of an internal combustion motor. The magnetic pole of the valve is mounted on a non-magnetizable casing which is solidly connected to a valve seat. This casing, together with the armature, the magnetic pole, and the valve seat, form a cartridge which can be manufactured independent from the other valve components. The cartridge is built into a valve housing which largely consists of plastic material. The fuel injector is therefore inexpensive to manufacture. In addition, the valve can be provided with a monostable polarized magnetic circuit.

Abstract: When one of the combustion chambers is found to be operating non-compliantly, it is deactivated by the engine management computer preventing the electronic valve control computer from opening the solenoid-actuated intake valve for that combustion chamber.

Abstract: A vacuum boost valve senses when the intensity of vacuum from a variable intensity vacuum source is about to drop below a threshold and supplies a boost so that when the intensity of the vacuum source is within a range immediately below the threshold, the intensity of vacuum delivered to a load does not drop below the intensity of the vacuum source and is in fact increased over what it would otherwise be without the boost. The vacuum boost is obtained by using a venturi.

Abstract: A saw-tooth shaped groove around the outside of a valve seat cooperates with the wall of a bore into which the valve seat is pressed to capture material displaced from the wall of the bore during the step of pressing the valve seat into the bore.

Abstract: A machine that resistance welds a valve seat member (14) to a guide member (12) while they are accurately aligned by a locator pin (56). Adjusting mechanism (60) permits limited gimbaling of the locator pin so that replacement and realignment of a new locator pin is easily accomplished.

Abstract: A pressure relief function is incorporated into a proportional solenoid controlled heater valve for an automobile heater. One of two internal valve seats is spring-biased against an internal shoulder and is exposed to pressure differential across it. When inlet pressure from the engine coolant pump seeks to rise above a predetermined level, the spring-loaded seat unseats thereby diverting some of the flow away from the heater core and back to the pump inlet.

Abstract: A multi-slope canister purge solenoid (CPS) valve has a diaphragm-controlled valve downstream of the solenoid-actuated valve. The diaphragm-controlled valve has two diaphragms that between themselves define a chamber space that is communicated to intake manifold vacuum. One of the two diaphragms is exposed to atmospheric pressure while the other is exposed to the interior of the CPS valve.

Abstract: The canister's inlet port is communicated to the fuel tank headspace through a first conduit, its outlet port is communicated through a second conduit containing the purge control valve to a location in the air intake system that is downstream of the throttle plate, and its atmospheric vent port is communicated through a third conduit to a location in the air intake system that is between the air filter and the supercharger, rather than directly to atmosphere. During non-supercharged operation of the engine, vapors in the canister are purged through the second conduit and purge control valve in the usual manner and air enters the canister through the third conduit. During supercharged operation, the purge flow is reversed such that purged vapors pass through the third conduit while the purge valve maintains control over the purge flow.

Abstract: A solenoid coil assembly comprises a bobbin containing an electromagnetic coil thereon, and a magnetically permeable conductor for conducting magnetic flux issued by said coil when energized. The magnetically permeable conductor is in the form of plural magnetically permeable U-shaped wires circumferentially arranged around the bobbin with one side of each wire disposed radially inwardly of the coil and the other side of each wire disposed radially outwardly of the coil. The sides of the wires pass through pre-formed holes in the bobbin.

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 end of a fuel rail hole is closed by a closure member which contains electrical terminal means having an external portion that mates with a connector from a wiring harness and an internal portion that mates with circuitry on a carrier that is disposed within the hole and contains the fuel injectors.

Abstract: Two speakers are mounted on an engine air induction system to broadcast respective pressure waves into the induction system. One speaker is near the junction of a runner and a plenum. The other is near the outside air intake. Both speakers are driven by electronic circuitry. The one speaker is driven to introduce a pressure wave that reinforces the portion of a pressure wave from an engine cylinder that is reflected back toward the cylinder by the impedance change that exists at the runner/plenum junction, thereby augmenting the charge introduced into the cylinder. The other speaker is driven to cancel the combined pressure waves that travel toward the air intake and is itself sufficiently close to the air intake that the pressure wave that it emits through the air intake has substantially less energy content than would be the case if such cancellation were not conducted.

Abstract: The interior sidewall surface of a fuel injector socket is provided with a pair of bumpers, one to either side of an opening in the sidewall surface that communicates the socket to a fuel passage. The bumpers prevent an O-ring seal that is disposed around the outside of the fuel injector from contacting the edge of that opening during insertion and removal of the fuel injector into and from the socket. The bumpers have radiused surfaces that are presented to the fuel injector so that their contact with the O-ring does not damage the O-ring.