A fuel property diagnostic device configured to diagnose properties of fuel for a vehicle includes a computer configured to diagnose the properties of the fuel for each region based on the number of vehicles with clogging. The number of vehicles with clogging is the number of vehicles in which an internal combustion engine provided with an exhaust gas control device in an exhaust passage is mounted, the exhaust gas control device includes a filter for capturing particulate matter contained in an exhaust gas, and the filter is clogged.

An apparatus includes an aggregation circuit and a calibration circuit. The aggregation circuit is structured to interpret fuel data indicative of a fuel composition of a fuel provided by a fuel source from a plurality of gas quality sensors. Each gas quality sensor is associated with an individual engine system. Each engine system is positioned at a respective geographic location. The calibration circuit is structured to compare the fuel data received from each of the plurality of gas quality sensors that are located within a geographic area, determine a gas quality sensor miscalibration value for the plurality of gas quality sensors within the geographic area based on the fuel data received from each of the plurality of gas quality sensors within the geographic area, and remotely calibrate a miscalibrated gas quality sensor based on the gas quality sensor miscalibration value.

Methods and systems are provided for integrating a bi-fuel engine with a CVT transmission. Responsive to a driver demand, a controller may determine whether to maintain usage of a current fuel or transition to an alternate fuel based on the cost efficiency of the transition and further based on any engine limitations that may be incurred at the engine speed-load following the transition. To improve the net fuel economy benefit while addressing the engine limitation, a fuel transition may be combined with a CVT adjusted engine speed-load regime, while maintaining engine power output.

An objective of the present invention is to stabilize the fuel injection amount for each cylinder and to execute fuel injection control accurately in a single-pressure-feed dual-injection type alcohol fuel injection system. An engine includes two injection valves and and a single-pressure-feed dual-injection type fuel supply system. The fuel supply system is configured such that fuel is injected sequentially in two cylinders during the pressure-feed-interval period from the execution of one fuel pressure-feed operation to the execution of the next fuel pressure-feed operation. If the alcohol concentration in the fuel is higher than a predetermined determination value γ at a startup operation time, an ECU executes only a cylinder injection for the first of the two cylinders described above, and executes both an intake passage injection and a cylinder injection for the second cylinder. Thus, even if the fuel pressure decreases due to the fuel injection for the first cylinder, the required fuel injection amount can be reserved for the second cylinder.

A control system is provided for use with an engine. The control system may have a plurality of fuel valves, at least one sensor, a starter motor, and a controller in communication with the plurality of fuel valves, the at least one sensor, and the starter motor. The controller may be configured to set at least a first of the plurality of fuel valves to a first admission setting, to set at least a second of the plurality of fuel valves to a second admission setting different from the first admission setting, and to cause the starter motor to crank the engine. The controller may also be configured to determine, based on the signal, which one of the first and second admission settings results in combustion initiation during cranking, and to responsively set all of the plurality of fuel valves to the one of the first and second admission settings.

Fuel reform apparatus includes: internal combustion engine including injector and configured so that compression-ignition combustion is carried out in combustion chamber; reform unit interposed in fuel supply path from fuel tank to injector and including reformer reforming fuel stored in fuel tank by oxidation reaction; and controller including CPU and memory. Controller performs: estimating progress level of oxidation reaction in reformer; and controlling operation of reform unit based on progress level of oxidation reaction estimated.

Methods and systems are provided herein for increasing an efficiency of an evaporative emissions system of a vehicle by adjusting a purge flow in response to a predicted vapor slug. In one example, a method for an engine of a vehicle includes, upon approaching a location of a predicted vapor slug, ramping down a purge flow rate from a fuel vapor canister to an engine intake, the location of the predicted vapor slug inferred based on communication of the vehicle with one or more other vehicles and/or a network cloud.

A control device that controls an internal combustion engine includes an electronic control unit configured to, during an operation other than a start-up of the internal combustion engine, cause the fuel injection valve to execute one or a plurality of fuel injections in each cycle such that a target fuel injection amount in one injection becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined minimum injection amount, and when the internal combustion engine is started up, in a case where startability of the internal combustion engine is insufficient, execute an excess split injection control for causing the fuel injection valve to execute more fuel injections than the maximum number of fuel injections per cycle while making the target fuel injection amount in one injection smaller than the minimum injection amount per cycle and maintaining a target total fuel injection amount per cycle.

In a fuel pressure control device for an internal combustion engine of the invention, a first map (FIG. 4A) for defining a first target fuel pressure for normal time and a second map (FIG. 5A) for defining a second target fuel pressure for suppressing noise and vibration smaller than the first target fuel pressure are stored. When an acquired fuel temperature is higher than a predetermined temperature, the first target fuel pressure defined in the first map is set as a target fuel pressure (steps 1 to 3), and when the fuel temperature is equal to or lower than the predetermined temperature, the second target fuel pressure defined in the second map is set as the target fuel pressure (steps 1, 5, and 6). The fuel pressure is controlled based on the set target fuel pressure (step 7).

Exemplary embodiments include a method for analysis of fuel supplied to a combustion engine during operation of the engine. The method can include obtaining respective indications of a temperature of the fuel supplied to the engine and a density of the fuel supplied to the engine; deriving a temperature-adjusted fuel density based on the indicated density of fuel in dependence of relationship between the indicated temperature of the fuel and a predefined reference temperature; and deriving, based at least on the temperature-adjusted fuel density, a heating value that is descriptive of the amount of heat released during combustion of a predefined amount of the fuel.