Method and system for selective cylinder deactivation
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorGregory Patrick McConville
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Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for adjusting a cylinder deactivation pattern to improve camshaft phasing. In response to a request for actuating a camshaft phaser of a variable cam timing device, a cylinder deactivation pattern is adjusted by reactivating cylinders that were deactivated while deactivating other cylinders that were active, while maintaining a total number of deactivated/active cylinders. Cylinders are selected for reactivation or deactivation based on their individual camshaft torsion signatures so that sufficient cam torque is generated to actuate the phaser and provide the requested phasing.
Claims20
A method for an engine, comprising:
- deactivating an individual cylinder valve mechanism according to a cylinder pattern;
- and
- reactivating the valve mechanism in response to a request for cam phasing.
A method, comprising:
- operating an engine in a first mode wherein in response to a request for cam phasing, an individual cylinder valve mechanism of a deactivated cylinder is reactivated;
- and
- operating the engine in a second mode wherein in response to a request for cam phasing, the individual cylinder valve mechanism of the deactivated cylinder is maintained deactivated.
An engine system, comprising:
- an engine having a plurality of cylinders, each cylinder including at least one cylinder valve;
- a deactivation mechanism for deactivating the at least one cylinder valve of at least one of the plurality of cylinders;
- a cam coupled to one or more cylinder valves, the cam coupled to a camshaft;
- a variable cam timing mechanism for adjusting a timing of the one or more cylinder valves, the mechanism including a cam-torque actuated phaser coupled to the camshaft;
- and
- a controller configured with computer-readable instructions stored on non-transitory memory for:
- deactivating at least one cylinder valve for a number of engine cylinders based on engine load, while maintaining remaining engine cylinders active;
- and
- in response to a request for actuating the phaser,
- deactivating at least one cylinder valve for one or more active engine cylinders while reactivating the at least one cylinder valve for one or more of the number of deactivated engine cylinders.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.