Methods and systems are provided for increasing a temperature of a catalyst of an engine by operating the engine in a split lambda catalyst heating mode. In one example, a method may include, while operating an engine in a split lambda catalyst heating mode, adjusting a magnitude of a lambda split between a rich set of combustion events and a lean set of combustion events based on soot formation in the rich set of combustion events. In this way, catalyst temperature may be increased while maintaining engine efficiency and preventing soot formation in the cylinders.

In one aspect, an engine ignition apparatus for a natural gas engine may include a housing including a drive piston, a floating piston, a controllable hydraulic fluid chamber located between the drive piston and the floating piston, and an ignition chamber acted on by the floating piston, the ignition chamber having an outlet formed by a plurality of orifices, the outlet being in direct communication with a combustion chamber of the engine. In another aspect, an engine ignition apparatus for a natural gas engine may include, among other features, a controllable valve connected to a hydraulic fluid chamber, and configured to open and release a hydraulic fluid from the hydraulic fluid chamber, and to close. In still another aspect, a method for controlling an engine ignition apparatus for an engine includes, among other features, controlling a volume of a hydraulic fluid chamber of an ignition apparatus.

A variable combustion cylinder ratio control method variably controls a combustion cylinder ratio of an engine during an intermittent deactivation operation, in which cylinder deactivation is intermittently performed. The method includes, when setting N to an integer greater than or equal to 1, repeatedly performing a cylinder deactivation in a pattern in which combustion is consecutively performed in N cylinders in the order of cylinders entering a combustion stroke, and then a subsequent cylinder is deactivated. The method further includes changing the combustion cylinder ratio by changing the pattern such that the value of N is changed by one at a time.

Methods and systems are provided for reducing errors in estimated fuel rail pressure incurred at the time of a scheduled injection event due to engine-driven cyclic fuel rail pressure changes. In one example, a pulse-width commanded during a scheduled injection event is determined as a function fuel rail pressure samples collected over a moving window that is customized for the corresponding fuel injector. In another example, the commanded pulse-width is determined as a function of an average fuel rail pressure sampled during a quiet zone of injector operation and predicted fuel rail pressure altering events occurring between the quiet zone and the scheduled injection event.

Methods and systems of controlling operation of a dual fuel engine are provided, comprising determining a target exhaust temperature, sensing an actual exhaust temperature, determining an exhaust temperature deviation by comparing the actual exhaust temperature to the target exhaust temperature, comparing the exhaust temperature deviation to a threshold, adjusting at least one of an intake throttle, a wastegate, a compressor bypass valve, an exhaust throttle, a VGT and engine valve timing when the exhaust temperature deviation exceeds the threshold to control charge-flow to the engine, and continuing the adjusting until the exhaust temperature deviation is less than the threshold.

A system and method of inducing an operational response change in an operating direct-injection internal combustion engine is provided such that the engine includes a cylinder into which liquid fuel injection is directly performed. The method starts by operating the direct-injection engine using a start of injection (SOI) protocol. At some point during operation, it is determined that a change is desired for a first parameter of engine operation that is at least partially a function of a charge provided to the cylinder (such as the torque output). In response an operational response in the engine is induced by altering the SOI protocol via a first SOI alteration that alters the volumetric efficiency of the cylinder and changes the first parameter.

An engine control system comprises a balancing arrangement together with a knock mitigation controller configured to implement a knock mitigation procedure wherein an offset input value (V.sub.I) is applied to the balancing algorithm. The offset input value (V.sub.I) may cause the balancing algorithm to adjust the control output (O.sub.1) for the respective one of the combustion chambers to progressively vary the fuel supply or ignition timing for the affected cylinder to mitigate the knock condition. Alternatively, the controller may generate an offset output value (V.sub.O) to more rapidly vary the fuel supply or ignition timing, with the offset input value (V.sub.I) being selected for example to compensate for the resulting change in the control input (I.sub.1) from the cylinder to the balancing algorithm, or to provide additional, more gradual adjustment to further mitigate the knock condition.

Provided is a novel internal-combustion engine control device that can accurately determine a combustion state of an air-fuel mixture in a combustion chamber even in a case where operation is switched between a steady operation state and a transient operation state. For this purpose, the internal-combustion engine control device includes a physical quantity detection unit that detects a physical quantity that fluctuates output of the internal-combustion engine, an output fluctuation value calculation unit that calculates an output fluctuation value for each cylinder based on a detection result of the physical quantity detection unit, and a state determination unit that determines a transient operation state or a steady operation state based on a difference or a ratio between a first output fluctuation value of a predetermined first cylinder and a second output fluctuation value of a predetermined second cylinder calculated by the output fluctuation value calculation unit. Since combustion failure determination is performed in a section determined as the steady state, it is possible to accurately determine a combustion failure state of an air-fuel mixture of a cylinder even in a case where operation is switched between the steady operation state and the transient operation state.

A drive system for driving a motor vehicle has an internal combustion engine and an operating mode coordination device for determining and controlling the operating mode of the internal combustion engine. The drive system has a function coordination device for coordinating secondary functions of the drive system, the function coordination device being designed for generating, based on the coordination of the secondary functions, an operating mode request for the operating mode coordination device for controlling the operating mode of the internal combustion engine, and transmitting it to the operating mode coordination device. The invention further relates to a motor vehicle having a drive system, and a method for operating a drive system of a motor vehicle.

An injector injection amount control device includes: acquiring a measured value of a crank angle that is a rotation angle of a crankshaft of an engine, determining instruction injection amounts of fuel from respective injectors, the respective injectors corresponding to a plurality of cylinders of the engine, estimating a torque arising in each of the plurality of cylinders of the engine based on a non-linear Kalman filter employing an error between the acquired measured value of the crank angle and an estimate value of the crank angle, and correcting the instruction injection amounts for the respective injectors corresponding to the plurality of cylinders such that each of the plurality of estimated torques falls within the same range.