Ford Motor Company Limited

Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Thomas T Ma

Kim Ford

Anthony Birri

Peter Graham Eastwood

Mark Stephen Brogan

Nicholas Collings

Geoff Charles Capon

A vehicle includes a gear shifter operable to shift a manual transmission. An actuator is connected to the shifter and actuatable to bias the shifter to at least a first or second neutral position. The vehicle further includes a controller configured to bias the shifter, via the actuator, to one of the neutral positions based on a speed of the vehicle.

Method of adjusting a gear lever neutral position

Methods and systems are provided for varying the volume of an engine intake system to increase the volumetric efficiency of the engine. In one example, a resonance system may be coupled to the engine intake system and a position of a movable element in the resonance system may be varied to vary the volume of the chamber in accordance with engine speed. The intake system provides improved volumetric efficiency for the engine.

Methods and systems for a variable volume engine intake system

A lean NOx trap in an exhaust system of a spark ignition internal combustion engine having a three-way catalyst upstream of the lean NOx trap, and the lean NOx trap connected in series along the exhaust system is heated by modulating the air to fuel ratio (AFR) of the engine cyclically at various frequencies such as 0.5 Hz, 1 Hz, 1.5 Hz, and 2 Hz, so that different portions of the lean NOx trap are heated at different times so as to completely remove sulfur from the lean NOx trap.

Heating of a storage trap

An intake system for an internal combustion engine includes an intake manifold having a plenum connected to ambient air by a main throttle and branches leading from the plenum to an intake port of each cylinder. A storage pipe is connected and parallel with each of the intake manifold branches. Gases from an auxiliary supply are drawn by the intake manifold vacuum into the storage pipe and thence into the engine cylinders.

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South Woodham Ferrers, United Kingdom

Thomas T Ma