Ford Motor Company Limited

Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Hsien C Pao

Roger Lyle Huffmaster

Peter James Maloney

Eric L Clinton

William R Allen

Tom T Kolias

Valerian M Nita

An engine having a plurality of cylinder banks, each one of the banks having at least one cylinder. Each one of the banks is fed air through a corresponding one of a pair of manifold plenums. A main throttle body is provided having an outlet for feeding air to a pair of output ports, each one of such output ports being coupled to feed the air to a corresponding one of the pair of manifold plenums. The main throttle body has a main throttle plate disposed therein to control airflow passing to the outlet of the main throttle body. One of the pair of plenums has a plenum throttle plate for controlling air from the one of the pair of output ports of the main throttle body coupled thereto to cylinders in the bank of cylinders coupled thereto. During transitions from an engine operation mode using a first number of the cylinders to a mode using a different number of the cylinders, the plenum throttle plate is operated to provide a change in airflow to said one of the pair of plenums in a first sense thereby changing the airflow in the other one of the bank of cylinders in a second, opposite sense.

Method and system for providing smooth mode transitions in a variable displacement internal combustion engine

A VRS sensor detects the angular rotation of a variable position camshaft which rotates in a variable relationship to a crankshaft, and transmits a Variable Cam Timing/Cylinder IDentification signal, representative of the position of the angular rotation of the camshaft, to an electronic engine controller (EEC). A profile ignition pickup (PIP) sensor detects the rotation of the crankshaft and transmits a PIP signal, representative of the rotation of the crankshaft to the EEC. The EEC receives the VCT/CID signal and the PIP signal and identifies the position of a first firing cylinder in a predetermined sequence of cylinder firing and determines the angular position of the camshaft in relation to the crankshaft by detecting the varying time duration between VCT/CID signals and PIP signals.

Method and apparatus for detecting the angular position of a variable

A powertrain controller controls the burned gas recycling rate of an engine as a function of a desired burned gas recycling rate and an actual burned gas recycling rate. The powertrain controller generates a tractive effort request value which is indicative of a force desired by the driver at the wheels of the vehicle. An engine load request value is generated as a function of the tractive effort request value and vehicle speed and is used, along with an actual load value, which is indicative of actual engine load, to generate the desired burned gas recycling rate. The tractive effort request value and other vehicle powertrain control variables are generated according to an optimization process. The burned gas recycling system of the engine may take the form of a Delta Pressure Feedback (DPFE) Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system or a variable position camshaft system.

Burned gas recycling system with powertrain optimization

A detection system and method for determining the phase relationship between a crankshaft and one or more independently phase shiftable camshafts which the system integrates into camshaft and cylinder identification sensors for determining both cam location for variable cam phasing, and for generating a cylinder identification signal uniquely identifying one of the cylinders, for sequential fuel injection, thus reducing: (i) the number of sensors needed to operate the system to a single crankshaft sensor and a single sensor for each camshaft; and (ii) the number of high-speed inputs needed on the on-board engine control unit microprocessor. The number of sensing teeth on the independent cam wheels vary depending upon the number of cylinders and the number of independently phase shiftable camshafts in the engine. Each sensing tooth is associated with one of the engine's cylinders and one cam wheel contains an extra cylinder identification tooth associated with a selected cylinder.

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Plymouth, MI, United States of America

Hsien C Pao