An engine is provided, which includes an engine body including a cylinder provided with intake and exhaust ports and intake and exhaust valves, intake and exhaust passages, a turbocharger including a turbine provided to the exhaust passage and a compressor provided to the intake passage, and a variable phase mechanism configured to change open/close timings of the intake valve while maintaining an open period of the intake valve at a 270° C.A or larger. A geometric compression ratio of the cylinder is 11:1 or higher. In a high-load range, the variable phase mechanism sets the intake valve close timing to be after an intake BDC and to make a ratio of a retarded amount of the intake closing to the geometric compression ratio be 4.58 or above and 6.67 or below, and sets the intake valve open timing to be before a close timing of the exhaust valve.

An internal combustion engine with an open-loop or closed-loop control device (2), wherein at least one combustion chamber (3) of the internal combustion engine (1) is designed to burn a fuel-air mixture using at least one combustion parameters that can be influenced by the open-loop or closed-loop control device (2), wherein the open-loop or closed-loop control device (2) has an emission control loop that is configured to actuate the at least one actuator that influences the at least one combustion parameter as a substitute parameter for NOx emissions by means of a functional relationship in such way that at last one combustion parameter can be set for each target or actual power rating of the internal combustion engine (1), wherein the functional relationship takes account of an influence of a change of the exhaust backpressure (p.sub.3′) affecting at least one combustion chamber (3).

An apparatus for controlling an engine includes: an engine with a cylinder; a throttle valve to adjust a flow rate of intake air supplied to the cylinder; a supercharger to supply supercharged air to the cylinder; an intake valve to supply intake air by selectively opening and closing the cylinder; a variable valve timing device to adjust opening and closing timings of the intake valve; a variable valve duration device to adjust an opening duration of the intake valve; and a controller to adjust the amount of air inside of the cylinder by fixing an intake valve opening (IVO) timing and adjusting an intake valve closing (IVC) timing through the variable valve timing device and the variable valve duration device from a time at which a demanded torque is input to a time at which the demanded torque is followed by the throttle valve or the supercharger.

The vehicle controller controls a vehicle. The vehicle includes a transmission and an internal combustion engine that has a variable valve actuation device. The vehicle controller includes an execution device. The execution device executes first and second gear ratio adjustment processes and first and second intake VVT adjustment processes. The first intake VVT adjustment process includes adjusting the intake valve timing such that the internal combustion engine is operated in an Atkinson cycle. The second intake VVT adjustment process includes setting the intake valve timing such that the closing timing of the intake valve is more advanced than in a case in which the first intake VVT adjustment process is executed.

An internal-combustion engine includes a variable compression ratio mechanism for changing a mechanical compression ratio, and a variable valve timing mechanism for changing the valve timing of an intake valve. When acceleration is demanded, a target compression ratio is set to a lower compression ratio than the target value in a normal condition, and the valve timing is set to the advance angle side. Since the allowable combustion pressure decreases in a prescribed intermediate compression ratio region, if an actual compression ratio exists in the prescribed intermediate compression ratio region in the course of a compression ratio change accompanying acceleration, the variable compression ratio mechanism restricts the intake pressure by increasing a degree of opening of a wastegate valve or reducing a degree of opening of a throttle valve, for example.

In certain embodiments, Lube Oil Controlled Ignition (LOCI) Engine Combustion overcomes the drawbacks of known combustion technologies. First, lubricating oil is already part of any combustion engine; hence, there is no need to carry a secondary fuel and to have to depend on an additional fuel system as in the case of dual-fuel technologies. Second, the ignition and the start of combustion rely on the controlled autoignition of the lubricating oil preventing the occurrence of abnormal combustion as experienced with the Spark Ignition technology. Third, LOCI combustion is characterized by the traveling of a premixed flame; hence, it has a controllable duration resulting in a wide engine load-speed window unlike the Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition technology where the engine load-speed window is narrow. Adaptive Intake Valve Closure may be used to control in-cylinder compression temperature to be high enough to realize the consistent auto ignition of the lubricating oil mist.

An apparatus of controlling a vehicle and a method thereof are provided. The operating region of an engine is operated with theoretical air-fuel ratio. The apparatus includes a supercharger that supplies compressed air to a the combustion chamber of the engine and a spark plug that ignites mixed air supplied to the combustion chamber. An intake valve selectively opens and closes the combustion chamber for inflowing the mixed air therein. A variable valve apparatus adjusts an opening timing and closing timing of the intake valve and a controller adjusts an ignition timing of the spark plug and the closing timing of the intake valve through the variable valve apparatus based on the operating region of the engine.

Closing timing of an intake port is changed without using a variable valve timing mechanism. An electric vehicle includes an engine for electricity generation in which closing timing of an intake port maximizes intake air charging efficiency in a specific revolution speed region, a sensor which outputs a signal related to a revolution speed of the engine, a controller which drives the engine at a revolution speed based on the signal of the sensor, a requested electricity generation amount being satisfied at the revolution speed, and a motor which applies a positive or negative torque to the engine. When the engine is driven in a revolution speed region other than the specific revolution speed region, the controller uses the motor to apply a positive or a negative torque to the engine in an intake stroke to change the closing timing of the intake port to increase intake air charging efficiency.

An EGR valve deterioration degree calculation system configured to calculate a degree of deterioration of an EGR valve includes an execution device. The execution device is configured to perform: a pressure acquisition process; a pressure change amount calculation process of calculating a pressure change amount associated with an operation of opening and closing the EGR valve; a differential pressure calculation process of calculating a differential pressure between an upstream side of the EGR valve and a downstream side of the EGR valve when the EGR valve is in a closed state; and a deterioration degree calculation process of calculating the degree of deterioration of the EGR valve based on the pressure change amount and the differential pressure.

A technique for fuel system protection for an internal combustion engine comprises determining direct fuel injector temperature as a function of engine operating parameters; and advancing intake valve timing when the temperature rises above a first predetermined value such that the temperature is maintained below a second predetermined value.