Method and apparatus for determining correct installation for gear-driven fuel pump on a fuel injected IC engine

A method for detecting whether a gear-driven fuel pump has been installed correctly in a fuel injected IC engine, the pump being driven by an engine gear to feed injectors via a fuel rail, and the engine including a pump valve having a variable opening timing angle for controlling fuel delivery to the rail, the method comprising:

• (a) setting the pump valve timing at a first timing angle;
• (b) providing a pump element pumping event;
• (c) disabling overlapping fuel injectors and overlapping pumping events during a test period surrounding the pumping event;
• (d) measuring the pressure in the rail at least two different engine crank angles surrounding the pumping event during the test period with the overlapping injectors disabled and calculating a first rail pressure rise value;
• (e) setting the pump valve timing at a second timing angle;
• (f) repeating elements (b)-(d) to obtain a second pressure rise value;
• and
• (g) determining from the first and second measured rail pressure rise values whether the pumping event occurred at a desired engine crank angle,
• wherein the determining step includes determining whether the pressure rise value corresponding to an earlier of the first and second pump timing angles is equal to or less than a first predetermined value and the pressure rise value corresponding to the later of the two measured rail pressure rises is equal to or greater than a second predetermined value.

Apparatus for detecting whether a gear-driven fuel pump has been installed correctly in a fuel injected IC engine, the pump being driven by an engine gear to feed injectors via a fuel rail, the fuel delivery to the rail being controlled by a variable timing angle pump valve the apparatus comprising:

• a programmed computer operatively connectable to the engine and having
• (a) software for providing a pump element pumping event;
• (b) software for disabling overlapping injectors during a test period surrounding the pumping event;
• and
• (c) software for measuring the pressure in the rail at least two engine crank angles surrounding the pumping event during the test period with the overlapping injectors disabled, the computer also having software for controlling operation of the providing software, disabling software, and the measuring software.