Gaseous common rail fuel system and high compression ratio engine using same

A method of operating an engine that includes an engine housing that defines a plurality of cylinders;

• a plurality of pistons, each respectively positioned in one of the cylinders, and being movable between a bottom dead center position and a top dead center position that define a compression ratio greater than 14:1;
• a plurality of fuel injectors, each respectively positioned for direct injection into one of the cylinders;
• a plurality of ignition prechambers disposed in the engine housing , and each being respectively fluidly connected to one of the cylinders;
• a plurality of ignition devices, each respectively positioned in one of the ignition prechambers;
• a plurality of gaseous fuel supply passages disposed in the engine housing, and each respectively opening at one end into one of the ignition prechambers;
• a gaseous fuel common rail fluidly connected to each of the fuel injectors, the method comprising the steps of:
• moving gaseous fuel into one of the ignition prechambers from a respective one of the gaseous fuel supply passages;
• compressing air in one of the cylinders in at least a 14:1 ratio by moving one of the pistons from the bottom dead center position to the top dead center position;
• igniting a mixture of air and the gaseous fuel with one of the ignition devices in the one of the ignition prechambers;
• injecting gaseous fuel from one of the fuel injectors directly into one of the cylinders;
• moving gaseous fuel from the gaseous fuel common rail toward the one of the fuel injectors responsive to the injecting step;
• and
• igniting the injected gaseous fuel with hot gases pushed from the one of the ignition prechambers into the one of the cylinders responsive to the mixture igniting step.