Abstract: An engine controller (76) includes a first mode control module (81) for performing a first mode control in which a fuel injection amount in an engine (1) is obtained based on a first torque-engine rotational speed characteristic, and a second mode control module (82) for performing a second mode control in which the fuel injection amount is obtained based on a second torque-engine rotational speed characteristic. The first mode control module (81) has a first engine load estimation part (81a) for estimating an engine load based on a difference in rotational speed between a non-load engine rotational speed and an actual engine rotational speed, and the second mode control module (82) has a second engine load estimation part (82a) for estimating an engine load based on the fuel injection amount.

Abstract: An ECU controls an internal combustion engine which generates a tumble flow inside a cylinder and strengthens the tumble flow by fuel injected near bottom dead center of an intake stroke. The ECU includes an injection timing changing device that changes the injection timing of fuel based on the amount of air drawn into a cylinder of the internal combustion engine.

Abstract: An engine ECU stores a map in which three regions, that is, a high-temperature region, a low-temperature region, and a region therebetween, are prescribed. The pre-feed time T set when the present condition falls in the region is the longest. An engine ECU executes a program that includes the step of detecting an engine cooling water temperature THW when the start-up of the engine is requested, the step of executing the pre-feed until the fuel pressure P becomes equal to or greater than a fuel pressure threshold value P(TH), and the step of starting the cranking when the fuel pressure P becomes equal to or greater than the fuel pressure threshold value P(TH). Thus, the bad start-up caused by fuel vapor is avoided without operating the fuel pump unnecessarily for a long time.

Abstract: A fuel injector for an internal combustion engine is provided. The fuel injector is to be installed in a cylinder head of the engine and has a fuel pressure sensor working to measure the pressure of fuel within a injector body. The fuel pressure sensor is installed in a portion of the injector body which is to be located away from the cylinder head of the engine across a portion of the injector body on which a mechanical pressure is exerted by an external member such as a fuel supply pipe or a fuel drain pipe, thereby keeping the fuel pressure sensor free from internal stress, as arising from the mechanical pressure exerted on the injector body, to ensure the accuracy in measuring the pressure of the fuel.

Abstract: A pressure sensor is located in a fuel passage, which extends from a pressure-accumulation vessel to a nozzle hole of a fuel injection valve. The pressure sensor is located closer to a nozzle hole than the pressure-accumulation vessel for detecting pressure fluctuated by injection of fuel through the nozzle hole. An instruction signal output unit outputs an injection instruction signal so as to instruct an injection mode of fuel to the fuel injection valve. A defective injection determination unit determines whether a detected pressure of the fuel pressure sensor is fluctuated in a fluctuation mode in a range assumed from the injection instruction signal. The defective injection determination unit determines that a defective injection occurs when determining that the detected pressure is out of the fluctuation mode in the assumed range.

Abstract: A method for identifying the fuel quality and for operating an internal combustion engine, as well as an engine control unit, in which the temperature of at least one sheathed-element glow plug of the engine is controlled, an engine response after a temperature change is compared to an engine response before the temperature change, and from the result of this comparison, the fuel quality is derived.

Abstract: A diesel engine may be stably controlled without an exhaust gas temperature at an upstream side of a turbocharger, by a method for controlling a diesel engine that includes: detecting an engine rotation speed; detecting or estimating a lambda value; estimating an exhaust gas temperature at an upstream side of a turbocharger by using relationship between the lambda value and an exhaust temperature; determining whether the estimated exhaust gas temperature exceeds a first predetermined reference value; and limiting an engine output power and/or regeneration of a CPF when the estimated exhaust gas temperature exceeds the first predetermined reference value.

Abstract: An engine control device includes an engine revolution speed information acquisition device for acquiring the revolution speed of an engine, an accelerator opening sensor for detecting the opening of an accelerator operated by a rider of a vehicle mounted with the engine, a throttle opening control unit configured to control an opening of a throttle of the engine on the basis of the opening of the accelerator and other information, and an ignition control unit configured to limit ignition at a crank position before a compression top dead center on the basis of the opening of the accelerator and the revolution speed of the engine.

Abstract: A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine, includes: a fuel injection unit; an ignition unit; a crank angle detection unit; a fuel pump; a booster unit; an ignition discharge unit; and a control unit that controls the fuel injection unit, the ignition unit, and the fuel pump, that ascertains ignition timings based on crank signals output from the crank angle detection unit, and that performs a startup control sequence that is made up of fuel injection processing, voltage boosting processing, ignition processing, and fuel supply processing.

Abstract: The method and the device serve to adapt the valve characteristic of a fuel injection valve, which has a piezoelectrically driven nozzle needle and by which fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine, to production-related or age-related variations in the injection behavior. The activation energy and the needle stroke of the fuel injection valve are controlled in such a way that the engine torque in the case of a fuel injection valve with a reference characteristic would not vary. Here, if an actually occurring variation in the engine torque is detected, then by varying the gradient of the activation-energy/valve-stroke characteristic curve of the fuel injection valve, the engine torque is matched to the engine torque generated with an injection valve with a reference characteristic.

Abstract: An engine control system and an engine control method for improving the ability to start an engine by changing the execution timings of predetermined sumchecks in ROM to shorten the time required for initialization of the system. Upon starting an ECU with a power supply supplied from an AC generator as a result of an operation of a kick starter, a CPU initialization, which includes a hardware reset and a software initialization, is executed. An ignition timing calculation sumcheck, which is required for the calculation of an ignition timing, and injection timing calculation sumcheck, which is required for the calculation of an injection timing, are not executed in a period of the software initialization. Instead, they are executed during BG (background) processing after a movement to routine processing, which upon completion of the software initialization, starts the ECU to permit driving and controlling an igniter and a fuel injector.

Abstract: For at least one disturbance variable of the cylinder pressure signal, which disturbance variable occurs only during specific limited time spans as the pressure profile of an operating cycle, a filter tuned to the type of disturbance variable is fixed and is assigned to the corresponding disturbance variable time window or windows (8, 9, 10) in the operating cycle. The cylinder pressure signal (2) is then filtered as a function of the crankshaft angle, in that, according to the crankshaft position, a time-tuned and type-tuned filter is applied to a current disturbance variable.

Abstract: A glow plug is provided in a combustion chamber of a diesel engine. An ECU diagnoses existence or nonexistence of a disconnection abnormality of the glow plug through a controller. When there is an abnormality in the glow plug, processing for cutting fuel supply of an abnormal cylinder, processing for increasing fuel injection quantity of a normal cylinder, processing for delaying injection timing of the abnormal cylinder, or processing for delaying valve timing of an intake valve of the abnormal cylinder is performed. Thus, suitable startability of the engine can be ensured even when the abnormality occurs in the glow plug.

Abstract: Methods and devices for determining and putting in fuel into an internal combustion engine on the basis of an air-fuel ratio in proximity to the stechiometric value, based on the use of the ion current released by a device, positioned on each cylinder of said engine. This ion current is acquired by a Control Unit equipped by means, preferably electronic ones, which implement the invention, repeated continually for each engine cycle and for each cylinder, characterized in that the method develops over various phases.

Abstract: A control system for a plant can include a feedback control input which can be calculated so that a controlled output of said plant coincides with a target value. A hold control input can be calculated according to an operating condition of said plant. A control input to said plant is set to the feedback control input when a control deviation between the controlled output and a target value is greater than a predetermined threshold value, and the control input is set to the hold control input when the control deviation is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold value. The feedback control input is made to gradually approach to or coincide with the hold control input when the control input is set to the hold control input.

Abstract: An engine ECU (280) and an HV_ECU (320) control a throttle motor (296) such that the throttle valve opening degree (TH) does not exceed a prescribed limit (THlim) and a rate of increase (Ta/t) in the throttle valve opening degree is equal to or lower than a predetermined opening degree increase rate (Tb/t) for a predetermined time period after start-up of the engine (120) is initiated. Thus, power output from the engine is controlled so as not to increase significantly for the predetermined time period. Accordingly, while the engine starts up, a shock that can be felt by a driver can be suppressed. In addition, variation in the amount of air taken into the engine when the engine is started is also reduced, which reduces variation in the amount of pollutants in the exhaust gas emitted while the engine starts up.

Abstract: A method for determining degraded valve operation. According to the method, valve degradation can be determined from the duration of a spark event. This method allows for the determination of both intake and exhaust valve degradation.

Abstract: A device for a venting circuit of a liquid tank provided with a canister and a filling tube including a filling head, this device comprising: a) a control chamber that communicates with: the canister via a main orifice and a smaller-flow-area secondary orifice, both terminating in a ventilation line leading to the canister; the interior of the tank via the venting circuit; and the filling head via a pressure-equalizing line; b) a closure member that is: provided with an opening therethrough which brings the venting circuit into communication with the pressure-equalizing line; able to move in the control chamber between an operating position with the main orifice closed off by gravity and the secondary orifice left open, and a filling position with both orifices left open; and shaped to sealingly conform to at least a control chamber part that includes the main orifice.

Abstract: In order to reduce the quantity deviation of a fuel injection valve, it is proposed according to the various embodiments that a test injection be carried out during an overrun cut-off phase of a motor vehicle in operation. In the process, the fuel rail (2) is closed on the inlet side and the selected injection valve (1) is activated. A quantity difference between the predetermined setpoint and the actual value can be determined by measuring a pressure difference in the fuel rail (2) before and after the test injection. This results in a correction factor with which the activation for the selected injection valve (1) is corrected for subsequent injections.

Abstract: In an apparatus, a shift quantity calculating unit tentatively shifts a reference fuel spray characteristic to an obtained actual fuel spray characteristic in a phase direction and in a magnitude offset direction while monitoring a distance between the reference fuel spray characteristic and the obtained actual fuel spray characteristic therebetween. The shift quantity calculating unit calculates a shift quantity between the reference fuel spray characteristic and the obtained actual fuel spray characteristic in the phase direction when the monitored distance is minimized. A phase correcting unit shifts the reference fuel spray characteristic by the calculated shift quantity in the phase direction to thereby correct the reference fuel spray characteristic.