An injection device for an internal combustion engine is proposed having at least one injection valve system for injecting fuel into an intake manifold of the internal combustion engine and at least one heating device for pre-heating fuel injected by the injection valve system, the injection valve system including a first injection valve for injecting fuel in the direction of a first inlet opening of a combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine and a separate, second injection valve for injecting fuel in the direction of a second inlet opening of the combustion chamber.

Disclosed is a method for determination of the water content of a mixed alcohol/gasoline fuel in an internal combustion engine of a vehicle, which includes the stages of: determination of a first value for alcohol content of the fuel using a measurement of combustion richness; determination of a second value for alcohol content of the fuel using a measurement recorded by a sensor for measurement of the electrical conductivity of the fuel; comparison of the first value and the second value; and, when the first value is lower than the second value, determination of the water content of the fuel by assigning a predetermined value for water content associated with the pair consisting of the first value and of the second value for alcohol content.

Disclosed herein is a method for increasing the maximum operating speed of an internal combustion engine operated in a low temperature combustion ignition mode, the method comprising operating the engine with a fuel composition comprising (a) gasoline having a Research Octane Number (RON) greater than 85 and (b) one or more cetane improvers.

Methods and systems are providing for improving zero flow lubrication (ZFL) of a high pressure fuel pump coupled to direct fuel injectors via a direct injection fuel rail. A ZFL transfer function for the fuel pump is learned while fuel is at non-nominal fuel bulk modulus conditions and corrected for variations from a nominal fuel bulk modulus estimate. When zero flow lubrication of the pump is requested, the pump is operated with a duty cycle based on the learned transfer function and an instantaneous estimate of the fuel bulk modulus to compensate for differences in fuel condition from the nominal fuel bulk modulus estimate.

A sensor system (36) determines the Stoichiometric Air to Fuel Ratio (SAFR) of fuel mixtures. The system includes a first electrode (12) and a second electrode (14), with the first electrode surrounding the second electrode so that a fuel mixture can flow between the first electrode and the second electrode. The electrodes are constructed and arranged to provide data for determining a conductivity and permittivity of the fuel mixture. A temperature sensor (18) is constructed and arranged to measure a temperature of the fuel mixture. A processor (19) is constructed and arranged to determine the SAFR of the fuel mixture based on the measured temperature and permittivity of the fuel mixture.

Methods and systems are provided for addressing pre-ignition that may be induced in response to actions taken to mitigate a cylinder misfire. An amount of engine load limiting applied may be adjusted to reduce the likelihood pre-ignition while also addressing component over-temperature issues. By limiting an engine load while shutting off fuel in a misfiring cylinder, and while combusting a lean air-fuel mixture in the remaining cylinders, pre-ignition induced by the misfire-mitigating lean combustion conditions can be reduced.

An electronic control unit includes a seat temperature calculating unit, a supply amount control unit, and a concentration acquiring unit. The seat temperature calculating unit calculates a simulated temperature of an exhaust valve seat. When the simulated temperature of the exhaust valve seat becomes equal to or higher than a threshold temperature, the supply amount control unit starts fuel increase control of increasing a lower limit value of an amount of fuel to be supplied into a cylinder to a larger value than that before the simulated temperature becomes equal to or higher than the threshold temperature. The concentration acquiring unit acquires an ethanol concentration of the fuel. In the fuel increase control, the supply amount control unit makes the amount of increase in the lower limit value larger as the ethanol concentration of the fuel acquired by the concentration acquiring unit is higher.

A control apparatus is applied to an internal combustion engine in which fuel used for operation is changed between liquid fuel containing alcohol and gas fuel. The control apparatus includes an electronic control unit configured to prohibit use of the gas fuel when a ratio of dilution of lubricating oil by the liquid fuel in a lubricating oil storage portion of the internal combustion engine is equal to or larger than a predetermined value or when an amount of the liquid fuel mixed in the lubricating oil in the lubricating oil storage portion is equal to or larger than a predetermined amount.

Method for cold starting an internal combustion engine operating with an ethanol fuel, with ignition controlled by a control unit including a basic ignition advance map determined for a given engine, includes the following steps applied to at least one combustion chamber in contact with a piston connected to a drive shaft: determining the engine temperature; rotating the drive shaft; phasing the engine; ensuring the fuel pressure exceeds a determined threshold for injection; injecting fuel for a first operational engine cycle after phasing; below a determined engine temperature, increasing, in the first operational cycle, the advance of the first ignition point before the compression top dead center for gases in the cylinder, with respect to the advance map, by a value between 21 and 50; controlling a first ignition point according to advance map based on the cycle following the first cycle.

If an engine body is under a load greater than a predetermined load, a controller selects a first fuel feeding mode in which more fuel is fed during a compression stroke than during an intake stroke if the engine body has a temperature equal to or below a predetermined temperature, and selects a second fuel feeding mode in which more fuel is fed during the intake stroke than during the compression stroke if the temperature of the engine body is higher than the predetermined temperature. Immediately after a switch from the first fuel feeding mode to the second fuel feeding mode as the temperature of the engine body rises, the controller sets a correction factor for making an augmenting correction to a fuel amount to be greater than that before the switch.