There is provided: a NOx occlusion reduction-type catalyst that is provided in an exhaust passage of an internal combustion engine, occludes NOx in exhaust when the exhaust is in a lean state, and reduces and purifies the occluded NOx when the exhaust is in a rich state; an exhaust injector that is provided in the exhaust passage and is positioned further upstream than the NOx occlusion reduction-type catalyst; a NOx-purging control unit that performs NOx purging of reducing and purifying the NOx occluded in the NOx occlusion reduction-type catalyst by lowering the exhaust to a prescribed target lambda by fuel injection by the exhaust injector; and a NOx-purging-prohibition processing unit that inhibits performance of the NOx purging in a case where the exhaust cannot be lowered to the target lambda even if the fuel injection is performed at a maximum limit injection amount of the exhaust injector.

Methods and systems are provided to determine air-fuel imbalance of cylinders in a variable displacement engine. In one example, the method may include during a cylinder deactivation event, sequentially deactivating each cylinder of a cylinder group including two or more cylinders and estimating a lambda deviation for each cylinder following the sequential deactivation of each cylinder of the cylinder group; and learning an air error for each cylinder based on the estimated lambda deviation.

An exhaust purification system comprising an exhaust purification catalyst, a downstream side air-fuel ratio sensor, and a control device performing air-fuel ratio control for controlling an air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas and abnormality diagnosis control for diagnosing the downstream side air-fuel ratio sensor. In the air-fuel ratio control, the control device alternately and repeatedly switches the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas flowing into the exhaust purification catalyst between a rich air-fuel ratio and a lean air-fuel ratio. In the abnormality diagnosis control, the control device judges that the downstream side air-fuel ratio sensor has become abnormal when the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas is made the rich air-fuel ratio by the air-fuel control and the output air-fuel ratio of the downstream side air-fuel ratio sensor changes from an air-fuel ratio richer than a predetermined lean judged air-fuel ratio to an lean air-fuel ratio.

A diagnostic device incorporates a processor and a memory and diagnoses a failure related to a fuel injection system for an engine whose air-fuel ratio of is feedback-controlled. The diagnostic device includes a calculation unit which calculates a corrected value of a fuel injection amount according to a difference between a target value and a measured value of the air-fuel ratio. The diagnostic device includes a setting unit which sets a mask period in which a failure diagnosis is suspended, according to the corrected value upon switchover of a fuel injection mode. The diagnostic device includes a diagnostic unit which does not carry out the diagnosis in the mask period and carries out the diagnosis outside the mask period.

A watercraft propulsion system includes a propulsion unit to be driven by an engine. The engine includes a cylinder block, an air intake channel, an exhaust channel, a supercharging device, and a fuel injector. The watercraft propulsion system includes the engine, the propulsion unit to be driven by the engine, a rotation speed sensor to detect a rotation speed of the engine, an air intake pressure sensor to detect an air intake pressure of the engine, and a controller. The controller is configured or programmed to compute a command fuel injection amount so that the engine performs a combustion operation at an air/fuel ratio in a lean-burn range (lean-combustion range) according to the rotation speed detected by the rotation speed sensor and the air intake pressure detected by the air intake pressure sensor, and to drive the fuel injector based on the computed command fuel injection amount.

A method, computer program product and apparatus for the pilot control of a mixture preparation for an internal combustion engine are disclosed, which include determining a configuration of the internal combustion engine. The configuration is determined by a combination of discrete positions of a plurality of actuators which influence at least one operating parameter of the internal combustion engine. The method, computer program product and apparatus additionally determine a constant adaptation component of the mixture preparation which is fed back by an exhaust gas probe of the internal combustion engine, and store the constant adaptation component and the associated configuration in memory. The pilot control of the mixture preparation is performed with the constant adaptation component when the internal combustion engine is operated in the same configuration.

A control device of an internal combustion engine including an electronic control unit configured to execute: a base injection amount calculation process of calculating a base value; an injection valve operation process of operating the fuel injection valve; a feedback process of correcting an injection amount in the injection valve operation process; and a determination process of determining whether or not the amount of fuel flowing into the cylinders other than fuel injected from the fuel injection valve is equal to or larger than a threshold value. When it is determined as a result of the determination that the amount of fuel flowing into the cylinders other than the fuel injected from the fuel injection valve is equal to or larger than the threshold value, the electronic control unit (does not execute the process of injecting fuel from the fuel injection valve with the feedback process stopped.

An air-fuel ratio control controls an air-fuel ratio (air-fuel ratio of an engine) of a mixture supplied to the engine, based on an output value of the downstream-side air-fuel ratio sensor disposed downstream of a catalyst. That is, the air-fuel ratio control apparatus sets the air-fuel ratio of the engine at a rich air-fuel ratio when the output Voxs is smaller than a reference value VREF (when a rich request is occurring). The air-fuel ratio control apparatus sets the air-fuel ratio of the engine at a lean air-fuel ratio when the output Voxs is larger than a reference value VREF (when a lean request is occurring). The air-fuel ratio control apparatus makes the target value VREF gradually come closer to a reference value VF (stoichiometric air-fuel ratio corresponding value) from a certain value, when the output value Voxs deviates greatly from the reference value Vf (points P1-P3).

A state detection system for an internal combustion engine is provided. Rotation waveform variables include information on a difference between cylinders in the rotational speed of a crankshaft during periods in which the respective cylinders generate combustion torque. An obtainment process obtains a value of the rotation waveform variables and a value of a road surface state variable based on an output of a sensor that detects a state of the road surface. A selection process selects, from a plurality of types of mapping data stored in the storage device, the mapping data that is associated with the road surface state variable as the detection mapping. A determination process determines whether the engine is in a predetermined operating state based on an output value of the selected detection mapping that takes the rotation waveform variables as inputs.

A technique is provided for compensating an untrimmed oxygen (O.sub.2) sensor utilized in operation of an exhaust gas recalculation (EGR) system associated with an engine. The technique includes, in one implementation, receiving a measurement from the O.sub.2 sensor at a known pressure, where the O.sub.2 sensor is positioned on an intake side of an engine system. Humidity compensation and pressure compensation are then determined for the O.sub.2 sensor measurement, where the pressure compensation is based in part on the humidity compensation. The EGR system is controlled using the untrimmed O.sub.2 sensor measurement that has been compensated for pressure and humidity.