An engine control method includes a step of setting combustion mode in which a first combustion mode in which a mixed gas is combusted by propagating flame or a second combustion mode in which the mixed gas is combusted by self-ignition is selected, a step of setting air-fuel ratio mode in which a lean first air-fuel ratio mode or a second air-fuel ratio mode equal to or richer than a theoretical air-fuel ratio is selected, a step of setting torque reduction in which a torque reduction amount by which a torque generated by an engine is reduced based on a steer angle of a steering wheel, and a suppressing step in which reducing the torque generated by the engine based on the torque reduction amount set in the step of setting torque reduction is suppressed.

A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine includes circuitry configured to control a fuel injector of the internal combustion engine to stop injecting fuel to reduce torque generated by the internal combustion engine during upshift. The circuitry is to acquire a target injection amount parameter corresponding to a target injection amount of the fuel to be injected by the fuel injector to operate the internal combustion engine based on an operation state parameter corresponding to an operation state of the internal combustion engine. The circuitry is to acquire a minimum injectable amount parameter corresponding to a minimum injectable amount of the fuel injectable from the fuel injector. The circuitry is to control the fuel injector to start injecting the fuel when the minimum injectable amount parameter exceeds the target injection amount parameter while the fuel injector is controlled to stop injecting the fuel during the upshift.

An engine-driven working machine including a controller by which a time period until the rotation speed limitation mode is canceled can be shortened. After a throttle valve is moved to a fully-closed position by an operation to allow the engine to finish the fast idling state and while the engine is transited to an idling state, the controller cancels the rotation speed limitation mode by detecting an event in which a cycle period of rotation speed variations of the engine is longer than a cycle period of rotation speed variation in the fast idling state.

A method of automatically starting an internal combustion engine of a hybrid vehicle includes defining a rotational engine speed profile to represent a desired engine speed during a starting event with a hybrid system controller, and communicating the rotational engine speed profile to an engine controller. The internal combustion engine is rotated with an electric propulsion motor of the hybrid vehicle. A spark correction offset is calculated with the engine controller based on the rotational engine speed profile. The internal combustion engine is fired with the calculated spark correction offset for a pre-determined number of firing events, with the engine controller, as the rotational speed of the engine increases. The rotational speed of the internal combustion engine is controlled with the hybrid system controller after the pre-determined number of firing events.

Methods and systems are provided for operating a pre-chamber to provide ignition to a cylinder during catalyst heating. In one example, a method may include injecting fuel and air into a pre-chamber of an engine cylinder during an expansion stroke of the engine cylinder responsive to a temperature of a catalyst being less than a threshold temperature, and injecting the fuel and the air into the pre-chamber during a compression stroke of the engine cylinder responsive to the temperature of the catalyst being greater than or equal to the threshold temperature. In this way, the pre-chamber may provide robust ignition to the cylinder during a variety of operating conditions.

Engine controllers and control schemes are provided for managing engine state transitions requiring increased compressor pressure ratios in turbocharged engines operating in a cylinder output level modulation mode (e.g., skip fire, multi-level skip fire, or firing level modulation modes). In some circumstances, turbo lag can be mitigated by initially transitioning the engine to an intermediate effective firing density that is higher than both the initial and target effective firing density to increase the flow of gases through the engine and the turbocharger while maintaining a compressor ratio the same as or close to the initial compressor pressure ratio. After reaching a point where the desired torque is actually generated at the intermediate effective firing density, the operational effective firing density is gradually reduced to the target effective firing density while increasing the operational compressor pressure ratio to the target compressor ratio.

A PCM comprises a basic target torque-deciding part for deciding a basic target torque, based on a driving state of a vehicle including an accelerator pedal operation state, a torque reduction amount-deciding part for deciding a torque reduction amount, based on a driving state of the vehicle other than the accelerator pedal operation state, a final target torque-deciding part for deciding a final target torque, based on the decided basic target torque and the decided torque reduction amount, and an engine output control part for controlling an engine to cause the engine to output the decided final target torque, wherein the engine output control part is operable to prohibit switching of an operation mode of the engine from being performed simultaneously with control of the engine according to a change in the final target torque corresponding to a change in the torque reduction amount.

Provided is an engine working apparatus capable of smoothly decelerating an engine. The engine working apparatus includes: an internal combustion engine including a piston reciprocally movable in a cylinder and a combustion chamber defined by the piston; an ignition plug configured to ignite air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber; a detector configured to detect a rotation number of the internal combustion engine; and a controller configured to control an ignition timing of the ignition plug based on the detected rotation number, execute feedback control of determining the ignition timing based on a deviation between a target rotation number and the detected rotation number, and to execute the feedback control when the detected rotation number satisfies a predetermined deceleration condition.

For an engine that draws a complicated torque trajectory, it has been taken a lot of time to adapt a time constant for calculation of estimated torque. Therefore, an ECU 102 includes a target torque calculation unit 203 that calculates target torque of an engine for which torque-based engine control is performed using estimated torque, and an estimated torque calculation unit 210 that calculates the estimated torque by calculating a primary delay coefficient 304 equivalent to a time constant calculated for each control cycle based on a change in an actual intake air amount with respect to a target intake air amount of air sucked into the engine and performing primary delay processing on the target torque using the primary delay coefficient 304.

An electrode of an ignition plug at the time of cooling start is heated to suppress generation of hydrocarbons at the time of cooling start of an internal combustion engine, and to reduce a production cost of an exhaust catalyst. Therefore, an ignition control unit 83 is provided to control a discharge of an ignition plug 200 provided in a cylinder 150. In a first combustion cycle after the operation of an internal combustion engine 100 is started, the ignition control unit 83 performs a discharge of the ignition plug 200 in a state where fuel in the cylinder 150 is not injected from a fuel injection valve 134 into the cylinder 150.