A system for controlling combustion misfire in an engine comprising a plurality of cylinders, at least a portion of the plurality of cylinders receiving recirculated exhaust gas, comprises a controller structured to detect a combustion misfire in at least one of the cylinders of the plurality of cylinders. The controller is configured to retard a spark timing of at least the portion of the plurality of cylinders after a time delay.

A control system for carburation of an internal combustion engine in use conditions comprising following activities: starting the engine with a value of equals .sub.0=.sub.T; constructing a curve c.sub.i() of the ionization current as a function of the angular position a of the crank shaft; selecting, on this curve c.sub.i(), a number of points at intervals of the rotation angle a; calculating value z, equal to integral from 0 to 360 of the curve c.sub.i(), is done by summing products c.sub.i for all preselected points; interrupting supply of fuel for some cycles in order to externally modify factor .sub.0 and take it to value .sub.1; for value .sub.1 constructing curve c.sub.i() and calculating value z.sub.1; calculating difference .sub.z=z.sub.1z.sub.0, and if the difference is >.sub.zref in absolute value, intervening on carburation by increasing the quantity of fuel injected in a case of a positive difference (lean mixture) and by reducing the quantity of fuel injected in a case of a negative difference (rich mixture).

One embodiment is a system comprising an internal combustion engine having one or more non-dedicated cylinders and one or more dedicated EGR cylinders configured to provide EGR to the engine via an EGR loop, a first spark plug coupled to each of the one or more non-dedicated cylinders, and a second spark plug coupled to each of the one or more dedicated EGR cylinders, wherein the second spark plug has a physical or dimensional characteristic that is different from the first spark plug. In certain forms each of the non-dedicated cylinders has only one of a first type of spark plug and each of the dedicated EGR cylinders has only one of a second type of spark plug. One or more of the characteristics that may vary between the first and second types of spark plugs include spark gap, electrode diameter, heat range, and ion sensing capability.

Internal combustion engine with a controller and at least one combustion chamber and an at least one ignition amplifier associated with the combustion chamber, whereby the at least one combustion chamber, on the one hand via a feeding device for a fuel-air mixture, can be supplied with energy, and on the other hand can be supplied with energy by the associated ignition amplifier, whereby the controller is designed to change the excess-air ratio of the fuel-air mixture in a detection mode for the at least one combustion chamber, and at least one sensor is provided, whose signals can be supplied to the controller and whose signals are characteristic of the combustion event in at least one combustion chamber and that the controller is designed such that, depending on the signals supplied by at least one sensor, a representative detection signal is generated associated with a status of the at least one ignition amplifier associated with at least one combustion chamber.

A method and a device for operating a combustion engine which features an injection of a cooling fluid into a combustion chamber of the combustion engine, in which a knocking risk is determined during a current combustion in the combustion chamber, and an injection of the cooling fluid into the combustion chamber takes place when the knocking risk exceeds a threshold value.

An internal combustion engine, a method of operating the internal combustion engine, and a controller are disclosed. The method may be implemented in part by the controller and comprises determining a shaft angle of an engine shaft; supplying, to an ion sensor fluidly coupled to a combustion chamber of the engine a low voltage at a beginning of a combustion cycle to generate an ion sensor current and a high voltage during an ionization voltage window based at least in part on the shaft angle, wherein the low voltage is configured to prevent premature ignition of fuel in the combustion chamber and the high voltage exceeds the low voltage and is configured to increase the ion sensor current above a current threshold.

To provide a control device, of an internal combustion engine, that accurately identifies the combustion state through ion current detection in a wide operation range of the internal combustion engine, without impairing the reliability and the durability of the control device of the internal combustion engine. This internal combustion engine control device includes: an ignition plug having a center electrode and a ground electrode opposed to each other with a gap therebetween; a circulation device for short-circuiting a primary winding to cause a circulation route to enter a conduction state, thereby stopping spark discharge; and an ion-current-detection bias voltage control device for controlling bias voltage for ion current detection. The potential of the center electrode in an ion current detection period is controlled by adjusting the value of the bias voltage and the changing speed of the bias voltage.

A method and a device for controlling a combustion of an internal combustion engine are provided, including an arrangement, which generates a signal for the intensity of the combustion in a combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine from a sensor signal of the internal combustion engine. The intensity is compared to a reference level, which was formed from intensities of preceding combustions in the combustion chamber by moving average calculation. An irregular combustion is detected if the intensity exceeds the reference level in a predetermined manner, and then at least one operating parameter of the internal combustion engine is shifted in the direction of an avoidance of the irregular combustion. Following an irregular combustion, the averaging for forming the reference level is accelerated for a specified duration.

A system and method for detection, reduction of combustion resonance and engine control is provided. The system senses ion current within one or each cylinder of a multi-cylinder engine and determines combustion resonance from the ion current signal. In addition, the system may determine an engine control strategy to reduce combustion resonance based on the feedback from the ion current signal.

A method and system for reducing cycle to cycle variation of an engine is provided. The system may determine fuel injection characteristics and predict a gas burning rate or flame speed based on the fuel injection characteristics. The system may adjust an ignition timing in response to the predicted gas burning rate within the same engine cycle.