Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Ford General Technologies, LLC

Robert Baskins

Chris Paul Glugla

John Eric Rollinger

James Matthew Kindree

Robert Roy Jentz

Karen Willard

Alex O'Connor Gibson

Ralph Wayne Cunningham

Joseph Lyle Thomas

Xiaoying Zhang

Ken O Jahr

Paul Charles Mingo

Michael Joseph Zaitz

Craig Alan Smith

Timothy Robert Gernant

Joseph Patrick Whitehead

Chris Weber

Sue Kay Wagers

Paul A Pietrzyk

Nelson William Morrow, Jr

Scott Richard Hughes

Mark Paul Guerrier

Rama Sanghvi

Mohannad Hakeem

Michael Damian Czekala

Rani Kiwan

Christopher Paul Glugla

Garlan J Huberts

Imtiaz Ali

Qiuping Qu

Mark Thomas Linenberg

Yichao Guo

Russell Senior

Bruce Allen Meek

Tamra Green

Christopher Weber

Timothy Earle

Gregory Joseph Pawlak

Mark Sabuda

Arney Yogesh Karnik

Rodney Schook

C Scott Langley

Jon Denis White

Methods and systems to determine a presence or absence of engine misfire or spark plug fouling are presented. In one example, rates of change in engine speed are arranged in engine data blocks and root mean square values for the rates of change in engine speed are determined. The presence or absence of engine misfire or spark plug fouling may be based at least in part on the root mean square values.

Method and system for improving fouled spark plug detection

Methods and systems are provided for operating a variable displacement engine that includes a knock control system. Engine knock background noise levels determined during all cylinders operating mode may be determined via two filters that are constructed in parallel. Output of the two filters may be the basis for determining the presence or absence of engine knock.

Method and system for determining engine knock background noise levels

Systems and methods for determining the presence or absence of cylinder misfire of an internal combustion engine are presented. In one example, a threshold for establishing or denying the presence of cylinder misfire is determined via engine acceleration amounts of active and non-active cylinders. Engine acceleration values are then compared to the threshold to determine the presence or absence of cylinder misfire.

System and method for diagnosing misfiring of a variable displacement engine

Methods and systems are provided for controlling spark plug fouling in newly manufactured vehicles. In one example, an engine is operated with a first, more aggressive spark discharge schedule when in a pre-delivery state and transitioned to a second, less aggressive spark discharge schedule when in a post-delivery state. In each spark discharge schedule, a spark plug ignition coil is repeatedly discharged when the engine is off, such as when the engine is spinning down to rest on a shutdown event or before the engine is fueled on an engine restart event.

Method and system for spark plug cleaning

Methods and systems are provided for detecting spark plug fouling and cleaning up fouled spark plug during pre-delivery phase of a vehicle. In one example, a method may include updating a spark plug fouling index saved in the non-volatile memory of the vehicle based on engine operating parameters, and indicating spark plug fouling based on the updated index. The method may further include cleaning the fouled spark plug by driving the vehicle along a planned route.

Method and system for plug fouling monitoring and cleaning

Methods and systems are provided for restarting an engine when a high pressure fuel pump is degraded. In response to an indication of high pressure fuel pump degradation, fuel may be injected during an intake stroke, rather than a compression stroke, for a selected number of combustion events since the engine restart. By shifting to an intake stroke injection, the engine may be started even when sufficient fuel rail pressures are not available.

Method and system for engine starting control

Methods and systems are provided for mitigating knock and/or pre-ignition. Each of a spark timing retard, cylinder enrichment, and engine load limiting is adjusted based on a knock sensor output generated in a single defined crank angle window, and not based on knock sensor output generated outside the defined crank angle window. A severity of the mitigating actions is adjusted in proportion to the knock sensor output intensity with the severity of the mitigating action increased as the knock sensor output intensity increases.

Method and system for pre-ignition control

Methods and systems are provided for detecting cylinder misfire in a vehicle engine via a plurality of sensors, based on dual mass flywheel (DMF) operating frequency. In response to detection of a misfire event, the misfiring cylinders may be deactivated and upon confirmation of DMF operation out of a resonant frequency range, the deactivated cylinder(s) may be sequentially reactivated.

Methods and systems for cylinder misfire detection

Methods and systems are provided for addressing pre-ignition that may be induced in response to actions taken to mitigate a cylinder misfire. An amount of engine load limiting applied may be adjusted to reduce the likelihood pre-ignition while also addressing component over-temperature issues. By limiting an engine load while shutting off fuel in a misfiring cylinder, and while combusting a lean air-fuel mixture in the remaining cylinders, pre-ignition induced by the misfire-mitigating lean combustion conditions can be reduced.

Methods and systems are provided for addressing pre-ignition occurring while operating with blow-though air delivery. A variable cam timing device used to provide positive intake to exhaust valve overlap is adjusted in response to an indication of pre-ignition to transiently reduce valve overlap. Pre-ignition mitigating load limiting and enrichment applied during a blow-through mode is adjusted differently from those applied when blow-through air is not being delivered.

Various systems and methods are described for deactivation and reactivation of a cylinder bank in a V-engine. In one example, the cylinder bank is deactivated responsive to an indication of misfire based on crankshaft acceleration and exhaust air fuel ratio. The cylinder bank is reactivated sequentially based on exhaust catalyst temperature.

Methods and systems for cylinder bank misfire detection and reactivation

Methods and systems are provided for addressing cylinder pre-ignition. Each cylinder of an engine may be operated in either a split injection mode or a single injection mode based on the pre-ignition history of the cylinder. The timing and number of injections in the split injection mode is adjusted based on the pre-ignition count of the cylinder.

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Grass Lake, MI, United States of America

Robert Baskins