A high pressure fuel pump includes an inlet metering valve arranged to control a quantity of fuel delivered to the pumping chamber during retracting motion of the pumping plunger. The inlet metering valve includes a metering valve member movable between a closed position and an open position, movement of the metering valve member from the closed position to the open position defining a variable flow area that increases as the metering valve member moves from the closed position toward the open position. An actuator piston in an actuator bore is exposed to pressure in the common rail. The actuator piston is biased toward a first position corresponding to low pressure in the common rail and movable toward a second position corresponding to maximum pressure in the common rail. The actuator piston includes a valve stop that determines a metering position of the metering valve member.

Disclosed is a method for determining the configuration of a combustion engine of a motor vehicle including a step of detecting the reference position of the crankshaft, a step of controlling the control valve of the injection pump, after a predetermined time interval, a step of measuring a fuel pressure value in the injection rail, and a step of determining a first configuration of the engine when the fuel pressure value measured in the injection rail is greater than or equal to a first predetermined pressure threshold or determining a second configuration of the engine when the fuel pressure value measured in the injection rail is between a second predetermined pressure threshold and a third predetermined pressure threshold.

A high-pressure pump includes a pressurizing chamber forming portion, a suction passage forming portion, a seat member, a valve member, a cylindrical member, a needle, a movable core, a biasing member, a fixed core, and a coil including a winding portion. The coil generates an attractive force between the fixed core and the movable core when the winding portion is energized. The coil includes an outer cylindrical surface and multiple inner cylindrical surfaces that have different diameters. The multiple inner cylindrical surfaces are arranged in order of increasing diameter in a direction toward a pressurizing chamber. The movable core has an end surface that faces the fixed core, and the end surface of the movable core is located between a center, in an axial direction, of a smallest diameter one of the plurality of inner cylindrical surfaces and a center, in an axial direction, of the outer cylindrical surface.

A pressure detection unit detects a fuel pressure in high-pressure fuel passages. A drive control unit controls opening and closing of pressure adjusting valves based on a drive command signal output to the fuel injection valve. An acquisition unit acquires an inflection point of the fuel pressure detected by the pressure detection unit and an inclination of the fuel pressure after the inflection point appears, after an output of the drive command signal. A delay time computation unit computes a response delay time of the pressure adjusting valve with respect to the drive command signal for each of the first on-off valve and the second on-off valve based on the inflection point and the inclination acquired by the acquisition unit.

A control system includes a controller. The controller counts the number of driving times of a high pressure fuel pump, which is the number of reciprocating motions of a plunger based on a crank counter. The controller estimates a high pressure system fuel pressure based on the calculated number of driving times, a fuel temperature detected by a fuel temperature sensor, and a low pressure system fuel pressure detected by a low pressure system fuel pressure sensor when the high pressure system fuel pressure is not able to be acquired from a high pressure system fuel pressure sensor. The controller sets an opening period of an in-cylinder fuel injection valve based on the estimated high pressure system fuel pressure and to perform an engine start by an in-cylinder fuel injection when the high pressure system fuel pressure is not able to be acquired from the high pressure system fuel pressure sensor.

A method for operating a common-rail fuel supply system of an internal combustion engine includes determining, dependent on an operating point of the engine, a set point rate of delivery of the high-pressure pumping device, and a set point pressure for the pressure storage system under high pressure, determining, dependent on a deviation between the set point pressure and an actual pressure in the pressure storage system, for a first part quantity of the throttle valves a closed-loop control portion for the position of the respective throttle valve, and activating the first part quantity of the throttle valves with the closed-loop control portion in addition to open-loop control for only the respective throttle valve of the first part quantity of the throttle valves. The, or each, throttle valve of a second part quantity of the throttle valves is exclusively activated with the open-loop control portion.

To appropriately adjust a pressure of a fuel according to a valve closing force of a fuel injection valve. To that end, a control device for an internal combustion engine includes a fuel pressure control unit that controls a pressure of a fuel supplied to a fuel injection valve that injects the fuel to an internal combustion engine. The fuel injection valve includes a plunger rod that is a valve body, a solenoid coil that is a drive unit for driving the plunger rod, and an orifice cup in which a fuel injection hole that is opened and closed according to drive of the plunger rod is formed. A cylinder pressure sensor that detects an in-cylinder pressure is attached to the internal combustion engine. The fuel pressure control unit controls the pressure of the fuel based on a pressure difference ΔP between the in-cylinder pressure detected by the cylinder pressure sensor before the plunger rod is separated from a seat portion of the orifice cup which is a valve seat and the in-cylinder pressure detected by the cylinder pressure sensor when the plunger rod is separated from the seat portion of the orifice cup.

A timing setting section sets a fuel injection timing in a second half of a compression stroke of an internal combustion engine, at a predetermined computation timing, which is set for each combustion cycle of the internal combustion engine, when an amount of a reduction target component in exhaust gas detected by an exhaust gas sensor is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, on condition that the internal combustion engine satisfies a predetermined high temperature condition. The fuel injection control device further includes an injection control unit to compute a fuel injection period based on the injection timing set by the timing set unit and to control the fuel injection valve based on the injection timing and the injection period.

A method is disclosed of controlling operation of a fuel injector in response to measuring a quantity of fuel injected by the fuel injector from a fuel accumulator to an engine cylinder during operation of a fuel pump that delivers fuel to the accumulator, comprising: determining an average pressure of the fuel accumulator during a first time period before a fuel injection event; predicting a mass of fuel delivered to the fuel accumulator during a pumping event (Q.sub.pump); determining an average pressure of the fuel accumulator during a second time period after the fuel injection event; estimating a leakage of fuel; computing the injected fuel quantity by adding the average pressure during the first time period to Q.sub.pump, and subtracting the average pressure during the second time period and the leakage; and using the computed injected, fuel quantity to control operation of the fuel injector.

A method is disclosed of controlling operation of a fuel injector in response to measuring a quantity of fuel injected by the fuel injector from a fuel accumulator to an engine cylinder during operation of a fuel pump that delivers fuel to the accumulator, comprising: determining an average pressure of the fuel accumulator during a first time period before a fuel injection event; predicting a mass of fuel delivered to the fuel accumulator during a pumping event (Q.sub.pump); determining an average pressure of the fuel accumulator during a second time period after the fuel injection event; estimating a leakage of fuel; computing the injected fuel quantity by adding the average pressure during the first time period to Q.sub.pump, and subtracting the average pressure during the second time period and the leakage; and using the computed injected fuel quantity to control operation of the fuel injector.