Engine monitoring system

Abstract

An extent of travel detection system particularly adapted for measuring piston bottom excursion in an internal combustion engine. Two eddy-current position transducer probes are provided for each piston, the first being positioned to sense piston bottom travel position and the second being operated as a reference probe, mounted in close proximity to the first probe. The first probe of each pair is only operated to measure piston travel within the cylinder during the brief moment that the piston is near its bottom. The actual point of the bottom travel is detected, using the reference probe to compensate for environment effects such as temperature. The measured bottom point for each piston is displayed either by a separate or shared display. Changes in the displays over time indicate engine wear or impending failure. The measured bottom points are typically averaged over a selected number of engine cycles. The engine may be manually cycled, to provide continuous monitoring of the piston excursion distance as the piston proceeds through its cycle to initialize the system. The individual probes can be mounted as add-on instrumentation within existing engines. In addition, other precision dimensions of an engine structure are measured, such as the alignment of the engine housing and enclosure.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.