Abstract: A piston for a direct fuel injection engine is described. The piston comprises a cylindrical skirt and a piston face. The cylindrical skirt has an axis. The piston face has a bowl. The bowl has a wall extending about an axis in inclined relation to the cylindrical skirt axis. An engine is also described. The engine comprises an engine block defining an engine cylinder and a piston moveable axially in the engine cylinder. The piston comprises a cylindrical skirt and a dome-shaped piston face, the piston face having therein a bowl. The bowl located with the cylinder axis passing therethrough. The bowl is defined by a cylindrical wall extending about an axis extending in inclined relation to the axis of the cylinder. The bowl includes a bottom wall extending perpendicularly to the bowl axis. The engine also comprises a fuel injector nozzle adapted to direct a spray of fuel toward the bowl for deflection toward a spark plug disposed on the opposite side of the cylinder axis from the fuel injector.

Abstract: An internal combustion engine having a combustion chamber divided into two regions by an arcuate barrier on the top of the piston and a complementary arcuate barrier formed in a cavity of the cylinder head. When the piston is at top dead center, the combustion chamber is effectively divided into two portions with approximately ten percent of the chamber being in the vicinity of a fuel injector and a spark plug. By this structure, the engine minimizes the amount of fuel used at idle and at very low power levels, and yet engine performance at higher power levels is not affected.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an outboard motor including a propulsion unit including an internal combustion engine having an exhaust port and an exhaust gas discharge system including a catalytic converter comprising a housing having an outer wall defining an axis, an inlet end with an inlet, and an outlet end with an outlet, a catalytic element located in the housing concentrically with the axis and having an outer surface defining, with the housing outer wall, an outlet volume which increases in size in the direction toward the housing outlet end, an inner surface spaced from the outer surface, defining therein an inlet volume, and defining, adjacent the housing outlet end, a by-pass opening communicating between the inlet volume and the housing outlet, and flow passages extending radially outwardly from the inner surface to the outer surface, communicating, at the inner surface, with the inlet volume, and communicating, at the outer surface, with the outlet volume, and a deflector moveable between a blocking positi

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a marine propulsion device comprising a combustion chamber, an exhaust passage, an air pump and a three-way catalytic converter. The air pump pumps air into the exhaust passage at or immediately upstream of the catalytic converter. By this construction the internal combustion engine can be run slightly rich, but the catalytic converter will see a close to stoichiometric mixture so that the pollutants in the exhaust stream can be oxidized or reduced appropriately since the catalytic converter will be able to operate as a three-way catalytic converter.

Abstract: An internal combustion engine assembly comprising an internal combustion engine including an exhaust port, an exhaust conduit communicating with the exhaust port and having an inner surface, the conduit including first and second conduit portions having respective ends, the first and second conduit portions being connected end-to-end, a catalyst which is located within the conduit and which includes catalytic material and a sleeve surrounding the catalytic material, the sleeve having a length and an outer surface spaced from the inner surface of the conduit along substantially the entire length of the sleeve, the sleeve having thereon a rigid, radially outwardly extending flange captured between the ends of the conduit portions, and a flexible gasket between the flange and the end of one of the conduit portions.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an outboard motor comprising an engine block assembly including a lower surface having therein first and second exhaust gas openings, upper and lower cylinders having respective axes parallel to the lower surface and including respective exhaust ports, an exhaust gas collector passage communicating with the exhaust ports, an exhaust gas pulse passage extending between the collector passage and the first exhaust gas opening, and an exhaust gas discharge passage extending between the collector passage and the second exhaust gas opening and including therein a catalytic element, a drive shaft housing fixed to the lower surface of the engine block and including a discharge gas duct terminating in an underwater discharge opening, and an exhaust gas housing located in the drive shaft housing and including an upper end fixed to the lower surface of the engine block, a lower end, an exhaust gas pulse passageway communicating, at the upper end thereof, with the first exhaust gas opening and being c

Abstract: A marine propulsion device comprising a propulsion unit including a propeller shaft, a housing including an exhaust gas inlet and an exhaust gas outlet, a catalytic element supported in the housing for reorientation from a first orientation to a second orientation different from the first orientation, and structure for reorienting the element from the first orientation to the second orientation.

Abstract: An internal combustion engine comprising a crankcase, cylinder, a transfer passage communicating between the crankcase and the cylinder and including a first point which is the lowest point in the transfer passage and at which the transfer passage has a first cross-sectional area, and a second point which is spaced from the first point and at which the transfer passage has a second cross-sectional area less than the first cross-sectional area, whereby air flow through the transfer passage establishes a static pressure differential between the first and second points, a sump communicating with the transfer passage at the first point, and a conduit utilizing the static pressure differential for pumping fluid from the sump to the transfer passage.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a marine propulsion device comprising a lower unit including a rotatably mounted propeller and an internal combustion engine operable in a predetermined mode and adapted to be drivingly connected to said propeller, the engine including an engine block, a sump having an outlet and having an unobstructed inlet communicating with said engine block to provide a free gravity flow path from the engine block into the sump, a controllable valve communicating with the outlet, a fluid conduit communicating with the controllable valve and with a preselected location within the engine block, and a control mechanism responsive to operation of the engine in the predetermined mode for opening the controllable valve when the engine is operating in the predetermined mode.

Abstract: A fuel tank includes a first container adapted to contain a fuel mixture, and a second container adapted to contain oil. A metering arrangement is provided for selectively delivering a measured quantity of said oil from the second container to the first container when fuel is added to the first container. The volume of the oil delivered to the first container being proportional to the volume of fuel added to the first container. A valve assembly is also provided for alternatively providing fluid communication between a metering chamber and the first container and the metering chamber and the second container and for permitting oil flow to the first container only when the fuel tank cap is removed.

Abstract: The invention includes an outboard motor comprising a power head having an exhaust gas port, a drive shaft housing extending downwardly from the power head and including an exhaust gas discharge outlet adjacent its lower end, and a continuous folded passage housed in the drive shaft housing. The folded passage includes a first passage portion having an upper end communicating with the exhaust gas port a second portion extending upwardly from the lower end of the first portion and having an upper end, and a third portion communicating with the upper end of the second portion. The folded passage functions to return to the exhaust port as positive pressure pulses the pressure pulses emitted by the exhaust ports, the folded passage causing return of the pressure pulses in timed relation with respect to closing of the exhaust port to thereby facilitate precompression of the fuel mixture entering the cylinder.

Abstract: The marine propulsion device includes a lower unit normally submerged in water, a propeller carried by the lower unit, and an annular shroud surrounding the propeller blades and defining a passageway through which water flows. The shroud, which can be in the form of a Kort-type nozzle for augmenting propeller thrust, has a trailing edge located rearwardly of the travel path of the propeller blade tips. The trailing edge of the shroud includes an annular recess through which either engine exhaust gases or atmospheric air is delivered to ventilate the low pressure area created behind the trailing edge of the shroud during forward movement of the lower unit through water.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a lawn mower comprising a rotatable cutter blade supported on a frame, an internal combustion engine supported on the frame and including an engine block, a cylinder, and a reciprocative piston which is drivingly connected to the cutter blade, a valving arrangement for stopping the engine including an outlet port opening into the cylinder combustion chamber, a discharge port, a valve which is interposed the outlet and discharge ports and is movable between open and closed positions to respectively permit and block communication between the outlet and discharge ports, and a valve member which, in response to the combustion chamber pressure, opens to vent gases from the combustion chamber during the compression stroke of the piston and closes to prevent entry of gases through the discharge port into the combustion chamber during the expansion stroke of the piston, and a spring for biasing the valve toward the open position.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a combined brake and clutch comprising a drive member, a driven member mounted for coaxial rotation relative to the drive member, interengageable friction disks extending from each of the drive members and the driven member, a spring biasing the driven member to drivingly engage the friction disks, and a brake member engageable with the driven member for displacing the driven member against the action of the spring to permit disengagement of the friction disks and for braking rotation of the driven member.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a marine propulsion device including a lower unit comprising a laterally extending anti-cavitation plate extending from the lower unit above a propeller and including a trailing portion, together with a trim tab extending downwardly from the trailing portion of the anti-cavitation plate aft of the propeller, and a deflector located aft of the propeller and extending from the trailing portion of the anti-cavitation plate and rearwardly of the trim tab for pressurizing the water forwardly thereof and below the anti-cavitation plate and in the region of the trim tab during forward movement of the lower unit through the water.