Valve selector control system

In a valve system for an internal combustion engine of the kind having multiple combustion chambers, the combination comprising:

• an air-mixture intake valve openable to flow air or air-fuel mixture into each combustion chamber and a combustion products exhaust valve openable to flow combustion products out of each combustion chamber;
• a limiting means connected to at least one of said air-mixture intake valve and products exhaust valve of a given combustion chamber and actuable during engine operation for limiting opening thereof, there being a said limiting means for each of at least one of said intake and exhaust valves of each of at least three combustion chambers of said engine;
• input means responsive to changes in specified engine load conditions for providing different input signals;
• sequencing means operatively connected to control said limiting means and responsive to occurrence of one pattern of input signals for limiting opening of at least one of said intake and exhaust valves of at least one operating combustion chamber and thereafter responsive at least to continuance of said one pattern for limiting opening of at least one of said intake and exhaust valves of at least one further operating combustion chamber, there being at least one intermediate number of combustion chambers having said valve limiting means between zero and the maximum number of combustion chambers having said valve limiting means;
• whereby to permit incremental reduction in effective operating displacement of the engine under certain engine load conditions.

A system for optimizing the number of operating combustion chambers in an engine of the kind having multiple combustion chambers each including an air-mixture intake valve openable to flow air alone or an air and fuel mixture into said combustion chamber and a combustion products exhaust valve openable to flow combustion products out of said combustion chamber, said system comprising:

• a limiting means actuable during engine operation for limiting opening of at least one of said air-mixture intake valve and products exhaust valve of a corresponding combustion chamber, there being a said limiting means for each of at least three combustion chambers of said engine;
• input means responsive to changes in specified engine load conditions for providing different input signals;
• sequencing means operatively connected to the several said limiting means and responsive to occurrence of one pattern of input signals for changing the number of limited ones of said air-mix inlet valves and exhaust valves progressively from a first number to a second number to a third number, said second number being between said first and third numbers;
• to thereby permit incremental reduction in effective operating displacement of the engine under certain engine load conditions.