Patents by Inventor James D. McFarland

James D. McFarland has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6170454
    Abstract: A piston for use with an internal combustion engine is disclosed in one embodiment of the present invention as including a crown having an exhaust valve area, an intake valve area, and means for moving exhaust toward the exhaust valve area. The exhaust moving means includes means for homogenizing the air/fuel mixture. The homogenizing means may also include means for creating eddies within the air/fuel mixture. In addition, the piston may include means for concentrating the air/fuel mixture toward the area of ignition. In one presently preferred embodiment, the structure used to accomplish the invention includes a raised portion formed on the crown of the piston. The raised portion increases in height from the center of the crown toward the perimeter of the crown. Moreover, the raised portion also has an arcuate shape declining in height along the arcuate shape. The presently preferred raised portion includes a plurality of dimples formed therein for creating eddies within the air/fuel mixture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2001
    Assignee: Techniphase Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: James D. McFarland, Jack Dean Falkenrath
  • Patent number: 4731995
    Abstract: An exhaust manifold for an engine has sets of branches tuned to the fundamental frequency of exhaust products but with the branch length of the sets different so that the engine speed at which resonance occurs in each set is different. An inlet manifold has runner sets with each set being paired with an exhaust manifold branch set serving the same cylinders and tuned to effect resonance of combustion air in the runners at the same engine speed that resonance occurs in its associated exhaust branches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 1986
    Date of Patent: March 22, 1988
    Assignee: Edelbrock Corporation
    Inventor: James D. McFarland, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4461248
    Abstract: An intake manifold for internal combustion engines has a plurality of independent runners emanating from a central plenum. Different sets of runners have different cross-sectional areas matched to flow velocity through the manifold at maximum torque and desired engine speeds to produce a wide high torque band. The length of each runner of each set corresponds to a harmonic frequency of the fundamental frequency of air at standard temperature, but the frequency differs for each runner set. Within each set, runner cross-sectional areas are constant throughout their length. In one embodiment, the runners curve from a plenum to their exits and in the curve each runner's cross section is regular trapezoidal with the small side of the trapezoid on the inside curve and the shape of the trapezoid effecting constant static pressure throughout the cross section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 1982
    Date of Patent: July 24, 1984
    Assignee: Edelbrock Corp.
    Inventor: James D. McFarland, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4318371
    Abstract: Independent runners of a multiple runner manifold feed from two independent plenums. Alternate runners, in the sense of engine firing order, feed from alternate of the plenums. The physical separation of the plenums attenuates intercylinder interference. Long runners of small cross section provide large mixture quantity and high mixture velocity for good torque. Runner cross-sectional area also is determined by that mixture velocity at which maximum torque occurs. The runners are tuned to the first harmonic to correspond to optimum torque. The runners of one plenum pass over the runners of the other so that runner geometry is simple.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 1978
    Date of Patent: March 9, 1982
    Assignee: Edelbrock Corp.
    Inventor: James D. McFarland
  • Patent number: 3931811
    Abstract: The plenum of an independent runner manifold is oriented at an angle to the longitudinal center line of the manifold such that each carburetor throat of a four barrel carburetor sees the entire entrance of two adjacent runners of different runner pairs. Each of four runner pairs has two runners leading from the plenum to side-by-side inlet ports. The wall lengths within a runner are made at least nearly equal to each other. A sudden enlargement, in the form of a step, is provided proximate the entrance of each runner of a manifold to the ports of an engine along the outer wall thereof where mixture velocity is relatively low with respect to mixture velocity elsewhere in the same velocity profile. The enlargements control reverse mixture flow and increase the amount of mixture entering the engine's cylinders. It is believed that this increase in flow is partially due to a reduction or elimination of boundary layer separation in the inlet port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 1974
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1976
    Assignee: Edelbrock Equipment Co.
    Inventor: James D. McFarland, Jr.
  • Patent number: 3930473
    Abstract: A plurality of steps in each runner of a manifold from the exit of the runners towards a plenum of the manifold are located where mixture velocity is relatively low with respect to mixture velocity elsewhere in the runner in the same velocity profile. The steps control reverse mixture flow and increase the amount of mixture entering the engine's cylinders.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 1974
    Date of Patent: January 6, 1976
    Assignee: Edelbrock Equipment Company
    Inventor: James D. McFarland, Jr.