Cylinder Head With Valve Deactivators

Abstract

To improve fuel efficiency, some gasoline engines are equipped with valve deactivators in some of the cylinders so that at low torque conditions only a subset of the total number of cylinders are active. In prior art engines, particularly when they have four valves per cylinder, space is tight. It is known to provide a cam carrier in the head between the cylinder head and the camshaft. The cylinder head bolts pass through the head under the cam carrier. According to the present disclosure, the cam carrier, and its associated disadvantages, is obviated by widening the bearings for the camshafts, using smaller diameter head bolts, and putting the orifices tor the head bolts directly through the bearings.

Claims

1. A cylinder head assembly of an internal combustion engine, comprising: a cylinder head comprising: a plurality of combustion chambers tops each having two intake and two exhaust valves; cam towers unitarily formed with the cylinder head; and an intake camshaft having multiple cam lobes that act upon the intake valves via intake followers disposed in the cylinder head wherein at least a portion of the followers are deactivatable.

2. The cylinder head assembly of claim 1, further comprising: an exhaust camshaft having multiple cam lobes that act upon the exhaust valves via exhaust followers disposed in the cylinder head; and a bearing surface disposed between each pair of cam towers wherein: the intake camshaft is cradled in a first plurality of the bearing surfaces; and the exhaust camshaft is cradled in a second plurality of the bearing surfaces.

3. The cylinder head assembly of claim 2 wherein: the bearing surfaces have orifices defined therein to accommodate head bolts.

4. The cylinder head assembly of claim 3 wherein the bearing surfaces have first lands on a first side of the orifice associated with the bearing surface and second lands on a second side of the orifice.

5. The cylinder head assembly of claim 1 wherein the cylinder head has four cylinders, all of the valves associated with the inner cylinders having deactivatable followers and all of the valves associated with the outer cylinders having fixed followers.

6. The cylinder head assembly of claim 1 wherein the bearing surfaces are unitary with the cylinder head.

7. An internal combustion engine, comprising: a cylinder block; a cylinder head comprising: cam towers unitarily formed with the cylinder head; semicircular bearings located between pairs of cam towers, the bearings having orifices disposed therein; cylinder head bolts inserted in the orifices that engage with the cylinder block; a camshaft cradled in a plurality of the bearings and having a plurality of cam lobes that act upon valves; and an intake camshaft having multiple cam lobes that act valves disposed in the cylinder head via intake followers wherein at least a portion of the followers are deactivatable.

8. The engine of claim 7, further comprising: cam caps placed over the camshaft; and bolts installed into orifices in the cam caps engaging with threads in the cam towers.

9. The engine of claim 7 wherein the camshaft is an intake camshaft and the valves are intake valves, the engine further comprising: an exhaust camshaft cradled in a plurality of the bearings and having a plurality of cam lobes that act upon exhaust valves.

10. The engine of claim 7 wherein: the engine has an engine bank having four cylinders; valves in a first and a second of the four cylinders are provided with deactivatable followers; and valves in a third and a fourth of the four cylinders are provided with fixed followers.

11. The engine of claim 7 wherein the bearings are unitary with the cylinder head.

12. The engine of claim 7 wherein the bearings have first and second lands on first and second sides of the orifice.

13. A method to assemble an engine, comprising: casting a cylinder head that comprises combustion chamber tops and a plurality of cam towers, the cam towers having bearing surfaces each having an orifice defined in the bearing surfaces; bolting the cylinder head to an engine block with bolts passing through the orifices in the bearing surfaces of the cam towers; and installing followers in the cylinder head, at least half of the followers being deactivatable followers.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: installing two intake poppet valves and two exhaust poppet valves into ports formed in each of the combustion chamber tops in the cylinder head.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising: installing a plurality of non-deactivatable followers in the cylinder head.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein: the cylinder head has four combustion chamber tops; each combustion chamber top has two intake valves and two exhaust valves disposed therein; half of the intake valves and half of the exhaust valves are provided with the deactivatable followers.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising: placing camshafts in the cam towers; and installing cam caps onto cam towers of the cylinder head to thereby capture the camshafts.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the cam towers are unitary with the cylinder head.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the bearing surfaces have a first land on a first side of the orifice and a second land on a second side of the orifice.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein: the cylinder head has two deactivatable cylinders and two non-deactivatable cylinders, the method further comprising: installing deactivatable followers in valves associated with the two deactivatable cylinders; and installing non-deactivatable followers in valves associated with the two non-deactivatable cylinders.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] FIG. 1 is an illustration of an internal-combustion engine;

[0034] FIG. 2 is an illustration of an underside of a cylinder head;

[0035] FIGS. 3, 5, and 6 are illustrations of a prior art cylinder head in several stages of assembly;

[0036] FIG. 4 is an illustration of a prior art cam carrier;

[0037] FIG. 7 is a graph of forces exerted by a camshaft on bearing surfaces associated with a bearing and cam cap;

[0038] FIG. 8 shows a head bolt with a small overall diameter;

[0039] FIGS. 9 and 10 show a cylinder head according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0040] FIG. 11 is a cylinder head according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0041] FIG. 12 shows processes by which a prior-art engine is assembled; and

[0042] FIG. 13 shows processes by which an engine is assembled according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] As those of ordinary skill in the art will understand, various features of the embodiments illustrated and described with reference to any one of the Figures may be combined with features illustrated in one or more other Figures to produce alternative embodiments that are not explicitly illustrated or described. The combinations of features illustrated provide representative embodiments for typical applications. However, various combinations and modifications of the features consistent with the teachings of the present disclosure may be desired for particular applications or implementations. Those of ordinary skill in the art may recognize similar applications or implementations whether or not explicitly described or illustrated.

[0044] Many advantages accrue to the engine manufacturer if the cam carrier is integrated into the cylinder head, i.e., the separate part obviated. Bolts that are used to couple the cam carrier to the cylinder head and the concomitant thicker part of the cam carrier to provide threads and sufficient stiffening can be eliminated. The advantages include at least: cost savings, reduced part count, weight savings, and simplified assembly.

[0045] Inaccuracy in the tolerances lead to valvetrain noise and durability concerns. By obviating the cam carrier, i.e., fewer parts, there is less variation due to stackup, i.e., improved dimensional accuracy. According to embodiments in the disclosure, accuracy is improved to avoid valvetrain noise and reduced durability.

[0046] In FIG. 7, a graph of the forces on the bearing is shown over the course of two revolutions. Because there is a valve spring associated with each of the valves that pushes upward, the forces are overwhelmingly in the positive y direction. There is rarely downward force on bearing 88 of FIG. 5, and even when downward, the force is of a trivial magnitude. Thus, the surface area on bearing 88, i.e., the width, is greater than needed in the part of the bearing 88 shown in FIG. 5. Cam caps 104 and 106 (FIG. 6) are affixed to the cam towers on either side of bearing 88. The positive y force shown in FIG. 7 is against the bearing caps. This bearing surface area in cam caps cannot be reduced. In some prior art cylinder heads, the width of the cam cap is wider in recognition that the forces against the cam cap are greater than against the bearing opposite the cam cap.

[0047] According to embodiments of the disclosure, the width of the bearing is increased and the orifices for the head bolts are machined directly through the bearing, i.e. the part of the bearing surface that has low forces. The hole for the head bolt is centered on the bearing so that there is a land on either side of the bolt hole to maintain an oil film.

[0048] Another feature that facilitates putting the head bolt through the bearing is a smaller-outer diameter head bolt. A head bolt 58 that has an internal drive 59 is shown in FIG. 8. Internal drive 59 facilitates the smaller overall diameter.

[0049] A cylinder head 200 in which head bolts are inserted through bearings is shown in FIG. 9. Head bolts 202 are internal drive bolts that are smaller in diameter than bolts 58 in FIG. 3. Head bolts 202 are centered on bearing 224. On either side of bearing 224 are cam towers 220 and 222 that have orifices 204 into which bolts are inserted to attach a cam cap. Bearings 224 and cam towers 220 and 224 are formed out of the parent material of cylinder head 200. This is in contrast to the cylinder head in FIGS. 5 and 6 in which bearings 88 and the cam towers on either side of 88, which are not separately called out, are formed in a separate component, i.e., cam carrier 80. Referring again to FIG. 9, at the front of the engine proximate pulleys 42 and 44, bearings 234 have a groove 190. A thrust bearing (not shown) engages with groove 190. The graph in FIG. 7 generally applies to bearings 220. However, bearings 234 proximate pulleys 42 and 44 have mostly upward forces. To allow head bolts to traverse through bearings 234 while continuing to provide sufficient bearing surface, the width is markedly wider than the other bearings. Furthermore, only one groove 190 is provided. Grooves 92 that are shown in prior art cam carrier of FIG. 4 are provided in the bearing cap of the disclosed cylinder head (not shown in FIG. 9).

[0050] In FIG. 10, cylinder had 200 is shown with cam caps 240 and 242 installed to secure exhaust camshaft 103 and intake camshaft 104. Cam caps 240 are secured via bolts 240 that engage with the cam towers that are integral with cylinder head 200. Cam caps 242 are secured via bolt 244 that engage with cam towers integral with cylinder head 200.

[0051] The cam towers are cast with cylinder head 200. Casting processes do not provide the dimensional accuracy for many purposes. The cam towers are machined to provide bearing surfaces for the camshaft, as an example. In that situation, both the dimensional accuracy and surface finish are provided via the machining. The outside surfaces of the cam towers can encroach upon the space needed for the deactivatable followers, which are wider than the standard followers that do not allow deactivation. The cylinder head is machined to ensure that there is sufficient space for the deactivatable followers. Some of the material of the cam towers proximate the deactivatable followers or the valve springs may be removed to accommodate the deactivatable followers or other elements in the cylinder head. An example of material from cam towers is shown as 238 in FIG. 10. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the normal wider tolerances between the cam towers and the components proximate the cam towers, e.g., valve springs or roller finger followers, is made narrower so that the components can be packaged. Where there are inaccuracies in the casting that yields overlap of the cam tower with one of these components, the cam tower is separately machined to provide the desired clearance between components.

[0052] Another view of a portion of a cylinder head 250 in FIG. 11 shows cam towers 252 that are integrally formed with cylinder head 250. A bearing 254 is provided between cam towers 252 and supports a journal of a camshaft (not shown). Bearing 254 has an orifice 256 into which a cylinder head bolt (not visible) is inserted to couple cylinder head 250 with a block (not shown). Bearing 254 has lands 258 on either side of orifice 256 that are sufficient to limit oil leakage to provide a proper oil film thickness so that the journal of the camshaft is properly lubricated. After head bolts secure cylinder head 250 to the block, cam caps 260 are secured to cam towers 252 via bolts 262. In practice, the camshaft is placed onto bearing 254 prior to installing cam caps 260. However, orifice 256 would be occluded by the camshaft. Thus, the camshaft is not included in FIG. 11 for illustrative purposes.

[0053] Referring to FIG. 12, processes by which a cylinder head with valve deactivators and a cam carrier is shown in brief. A cylinder head is cast and machined in block 750. A cam carrier is cast and machined in block 752. There are many machining processes for preparing the cylinder head and the cam carrier for assembly. However,

[0054] The poppet valves and their associated springs and other hardware are installed in ports of the cylinder head in block 756. In block 758, the cylinder head is bolted to the engine block. The followers are installed and the camshafts are placed in the bearing surfaces of the cam carrier, in block 760. At least some of the followers are deactivatable to thereby deactivate the valves with which they are associated upon a command from an engine control unit. In block 762, the cam carrier is bolted to the cylinder head. At least some of the followers are deactivatable to thereby deactivate the valves with which they are associated upon a command from the engine control unit. In block 764, camshafts are placed into the bearings formed in the cam carrier. In block 766, cam caps are installed onto the cam towers of the cam carrier. The cam caps retain the camshafts in the bearing surfaces of the cam carrier. The process in FIG. 12 is for the prior-art configuration that employs a cam carrier.

[0055] A process for assembling a cylinder head with deactivatable followers is shown in FIG. 13. In block 800 a cylinder head is cast that has integral cam towers. The cylinder head is machined to include: orifices through which head bolts are provided (the head bolts pass through bearing surfaces in the cam towers); the cam towers are qualified to accommodate followers with deactivators, and bearing surfaces for the camshaft. In block 806, the poppet valves and associated hardware are installed into the ports in the cylinder head. In block 808, the cylinder head is bolted to the engine block with the head bolts passing through the bearings. In block 810, the followers are installed, some of which are deactivatable. In block 812, the camshafts, intake and exhaust, are placed in the bearings between the cam towers. In block 814, the cam caps are coupled to the cam towers of the cylinder head to capture the camshafts.

[0056] The cam towers are cast with the cylinder head. Casting processes do not provide the dimensional accuracy for many purposes. The cam towers are machined to provide bearing surfaces for the camshaft, as an example. In that situation, both the dimensional accuracy and surface finish are provided via the machining. The outside surfaces of the cam towers can encroach upon the space needed for the deactivatable followers, which are wider than the standard followers that do not allow deactivation. The cylinder head is machined to ensure that there is sufficient space for the deactivatable followers. Some of the material of the cam towers proximate the deactivatable followers may be removed to accommodate the deactivatable followers or other elements in the cylinder head.

[0057] While the best mode has been described in detail with respect to particular embodiments, those familiar with the art will recognize various alternative designs and embodiments within the scope of the following claims. While various embodiments may have been described as providing advantages or being preferred over other embodiments with respect to one or more desired characteristics, as one skilled in the art is aware, one or more characteristics may be compromised to achieve desired system attributes, which depend on the specific application and implementation. These attributes include, but are not limited to: cost, strength, durability, life cycle cost, marketability, appearance, packaging, size, serviceability, weight, manufacturability, ease of assembly, etc. The embodiments described herein that are characterized as less desirable than other embodiments or prior art implementations with respect to one or more characteristics are not outside the scope of the disclosure and may be desirable for particular applications.